Ferts

[joecoral]

I have a 40G community tank w/ 90W of t5 lighting, giving slightly more than 2WPG. As you can imagine, with no CO2 this has lead to a pretty sizeable aglae problem. I have a reasonable number of fast growing plants, but these do no contain the algae, so I will soon be adding either 2 Nutrafin CO2 kits or a DIY pressurised FE CO2 system to see if this helps
My question is, if i'm adding CO2, do i need to add ferts, or can i get away with just CO2?

Thanks
JC

 

[nicklfire]

Yes you need to add ferts, simply reading pinned articles can help out alot

If one has over 2 WPG of good lighting with a stable CO2 level of 20-35ppm then plant growth will be fairly rapid ? especially if the plants are a fast growing species. The rapid growth results in the plants using up various nutrients (nutrient uptake). These nutrients need to be replenished (preferably BEFORE they run out) otherwise the plants stop growing leading to algae. As discussed algae loves a tank with good light and little or no plant growth. So fertilisers need to added regularly ? I introduce my good friend zig?s EI article.
http/www.fishforums.net/content/Plants-a...owtopic-104737/

 

[joecoral]

ta

 

[john starkey]

I have a 40G community tank w/ 90W of t5 lighting, giving slightly more than 2WPG. As you can imagine, with no CO2 this has lead to a pretty sizeable aglae problem. I have a reasonable number of fast growing plants, but these do no contain the algae, so I will soon be adding either 2 Nutrafin CO2 kits or a DIY pressurised FE CO2 system to see if this helps
My question is, if i'm adding CO2, do i need to add ferts, or can i get away with just CO2?

Thanks
JC

Hi JC, when you add the co2 unit the noticable differents to your plants will be the increased growth which will compete with the algae but to stand a chance to actually beat the algae you must add nutrients, my advice to you is to read the pinned articles on EI, regards john (good luck)

 

[joecoral]

i've read the article on EI, sounds a bit a complicated at the moment, although i will be trying it in mid 2008 when i move house and get a new tank, gonna be planted, pressurised CO2. for now i was thinking of maybe using tropica plant nutrition+, i've heard good things about that