I just say a clip on the net and it was saying that a not-so heavily planted tank doesn't need Co2 and when using fertiliser you should use one with no nitrates or phosphates.
A heavily planted tank does need n+p as well as Co2.
I have lots of plants but it's not heavily planted. I haven't been dosing ferts daily and this clip said you should dose daily.
What should I do? If possible I'd like to avoid using Co2.
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Not really.It depends on what type of tank you want to run and the needs of the plants you want to keep and how fast you want these plants to grow.
Plants need:
Lights
CO2
Nutrients
Thinks of these as a triangle. In order to have a sucessfull planted tank these three need to be in balance.
If you put lots of light,you'll need lots of co2 and nutrients. If not the result is algae and unhealthy plants.
So if you do not use high light, you wont need lots of co2 and nutrients. You can basically run a tank without any of it. But if your light is for the high side you'll have to have the other two.
Also some plants have more needs than others. Some easy and undemanding plants can be easily grown and mantained in a tank with no co2 and a minimum supply of nutrients.
These tanks are often referred Low-tech planted tanks. And you can have beatifull scapes on these tanks. The diference is growth is slow but maintenance and spending is also slower than a high-tech tank.
The purpuse here is balance and light is the key. The more light the more co2 and fertilizers,more chances for error and most of the times algae.
Also important is the water circulation around the tank, bad water circulation leads to bad co2 and nutrient distribution troughout the tank, rubish will acumulate around the plants and algae are more likely to come after.
Hope this helps.
