plant food is it worth it ?

[donkey]

Hi all
i have just set up my new aquarium and i have put some real plants in there .i was just wondering is it worth putting in some plant food as well ? or is plant food just a waste of money

 

[mrV]

If you don't add fertilizers, from where do you think that those plants get all fertilizers they need? (Fe, Mn, Cu, Mo, B, Co, Zn, Ca, K, Mg, S, N, P, O, CO2, .....)

Plants do grow without adding fertilizers, because your tap-water contain some of fertilizers, fishfood etc.. But if you want to grow them well - yes, they need fertilizers. It depends on what kind of plants you have, so what is better root or liquid fertilizers or both..

 

[Bol]

donkey,

How much light do you have over your tank?

I agree with what mrV said, ... if you have a medium- or high-light tank (say, over 2 watts per gallon, fluorescent, in a 'regular' shaped tank).

Explicitly adding nutrients in a low-energy (i.e. low-light) system, though, can cause significant algae problems.

 

[donkey]

Hi there
the tank is 18 inches high and there are two tubes over it . one is a triton and the other one is a power glo i dont want to add any plant food as i am thinking it might just feed the algae

 

[Yeaulman]

How do you know how much fertilizers to add? I dont want to kill the fish

 

[nene]

I read an interesting article about "pulsing" the nutrients you use for aquarium plants to discourage algae. You take the dose you would use and put 1/2 in say on a Monday and the rest of the dose in on Thursday. It said that aquatic plants can utilize the nutrients just as efficiently this way but for some reason algae doesnt do this as well putting it at a disadvantage nutrient wise. I can't remember where I read it- Aquarium magazine??

 

[Grim Reaper]

i think it help as i noticed on my plants very happy with my java plant it grown like hell

 

[Bol]

donkey, guess I should have asked how big the tank is, too.

But, I'm going to guess you have around 1.33 to 1.5 wpg over the tank.

If you have heavily rooted plants (like crypts or swords), root tabs under them will probably help some, and not have a noticeable effect on your water makeup.

If you have stem plants, light use of a broad-spectrum fertilizer may help. Something like Seachem's Flourish, or I'd suggest doing a Google search for "PMDD" to get more info.