Liquid Plant Food

[dayzofspeed]

i have been using pets @ home liquid plant food in my tank, on the label it just says "trace elements" nothing else is listed, is this stuff worth the money, i am thinking that if it was any good it would at least provide a list of which trace elements its providing, i was also thinking surely by carrying out my weekly water change i am already adding the naturally occuring trace elements that are in my tap water, plus there is also the solid fish waste which i assume will break down and act as fertiliser am i right in thinking this? this has been crossing my mind recently as i have seen people mention on here that they successfully grow plants in plain gravel and do not dose any ferts at all, my boss at work has also mentioned this to me and his plants are growing well. let me know what you guys think........ cheers

 

[ian]

The worst thing about P@H plant food is value for money. For a tank your size it's not going to last you very long. As for trace elements, they are a given, it may not list them as the trace elements are nearly always FE, Mg, B, Ni, etc etc. There are often trace elements in tap water. The only way to know for certain is to test your tap water or to look at an analysis provided by your municipality. As we know as well your tap water may contain nitrates, this all depends on where you live. It doesn't hurt to dose more trace elements, it's not going to harm anything.

You can run a tank without dosing anything, that has been proven many times, but these tanks are normally low light and other things are taken into account. Less light = less need for C02 = less need for N and P = less need for trace elements.

going back to trace ferts, if you want a decent value for money and don't want to dose N and P, go for either Profito, Flourish or Tropica plant nutrition.

 

[JoshuaA]

The Flourish 500ml bottles can be picked up for around £10 each off eBay and in stores. I've had my trace one for about 9 months now and the end is no where in sight I've even given 100ml for free to a friend... weirdly it smells great and makes me hungry.

What do people think of the "EasyLife" range of ferts? Curious as this looks like one heck of a deal compared to other brands.

 

[dayzofspeed]

The worst thing about P@H plant food is value for money. For a tank your size it's not going to last you very long. As for trace elements, they are a given, it may not list them as the trace elements are nearly always FE, Mg, B, Ni, etc etc. There are often trace elements in tap water. The only way to know for certain is to test your tap water or to look at an analysis provided by your municipality. As we know as well your tap water may contain nitrates, this all depends on where you live. It doesn't hurt to dose more trace elements, it's not going to harm anything.

You can run a tank without dosing anything, that has been proven many times, but these tanks are normally low light and other things are taken into account. Less light = less need for C02 = less need for N and P = less need for trace elements.

going back to trace ferts, if you want a decent value for money and don't want to dose N and P, go for either Profito, Flourish or Tropica plant nutrition.

i am running my tank on low light with no co2 added, i have just checked my water supply report online and there are hundreds of different elements/chemicals listed, which are the main ones i should be looking for? i.e the ones which would be put into a liquid feed. you are right about the value for money with the liquid food i think i'm getting 3 doses per bottle, this is why i'm looking at other options

 

[ian]

Have read of this, http/www.jsctech.co.uk/theplantedtank/traces.htm this will give you the full table and the amounts in the more widely used plant fert.

What do people think of the "EasyLife" range of ferts? Curious as this looks like one heck of a deal compared to other brands.

I like the Easylife range of stuff. The problem with that deal is that the Profito contains enough Fe, and you get a bottle of Fe. So it does work out cheaper to buy them seperate. If you don't want to mess about with powders, these are great.

 

[dayzofspeed]

ianho thanks again for the info, was a very useful link