Supplements For A Planted Tank With No Co2

[milkton]

Another question about my 2.5G planted tank. It has high light and good filtration, i am keeping right now java moss, java fern, glosso, christmas moss and maybe some other plants. I am dosing with seachem excel right now to act as a substitute for co2. What other supplements do i need? Iron? Manganese? Im also keeping shrimps, so no or tiny amounts of copper.

 

[RadaR]

High light? How much exactly?
Don't worry about the copper in planted ferts. The concetrations aren't high enough to kill your shrimp.
If the bioload of the tank isn't high then you might need to rely on a good nutrient such as Tropica Plant Nutrition+ to supply the macro nutrients (NPK) that plants need. This also contains micro nutrients (boron, iron, zinc, magnesium, copper etc).

 

[milkton]

sorry for the late reply, the lighting is 7.2wpg, 18 watts of PC 10k bulbs on a 2.5 gallon. at first from research i was planning on getting a product from kent - proplant. But now i hear good things about the seachem flourish comprehensive. I am already dosing seachem excel as a substitute for co2. what are your opinions??

 

[RadaR]

sorry for the late reply, the lighting is 7.2wpg, 18 watts of PC 10k bulbs on a 2.5 gallon. at first from research i was planning on getting a product from kent - proplant. But now i hear good things about the seachem flourish comprehensive. I am already dosing seachem excel as a substitute for co2. what are your opinions??

Well the WPG guide doesn't work on tanks that small but that's a heck of alot of light! You simply don't need that much.
I'd be very impressed if you got away with just dosing liquid carbon instead of injecting CO2. I don't think it would be possible simply because that's a lot of light.
Other than carbon, nutrients are going to be highly demanded. You'll need a product with both micro and macro nutrients, like Tropica Plant Nutrition+. Best all in one fert in my opinion. If you went with the Flourish range, you'd have to buy 4 separate bottles. The trace one, the nitrogen one, the phosphorus one and the potassium one. That's a lot of pointless money wasted .

 

[milkton]

i think the flourish comprehensive bottle comes with all the micro and macro nutrients excluding phosphate and nitrate doesnt it??? I have a colony of red cherry shrimps in the tank for extra nutrients. ill take a look at the tropica plant nutrition+ at the LFS. thanks for ur help

 

[RadaR]

i think the flourish comprehensive bottle comes with all the micro and macro nutrients excluding phosphate and nitrate doesnt it???

Nope. See here.

 

[PDSimon]

http/www.thegreenmachineonline.com/products/aquatics/special-offers/easylife-fertiliser-range-250ml-set-4

Is that a good offer?

 

[RadaR]

Sure is. To do the same thing with the Seachem Flourish range with the 250ml bottles would set up back over £30.

 

[PDSimon]

Hmm they have the 500ml bottles all 4 for less than 30...if thats just as good as TPN+ (?) I might make the investment

 

[RadaR]

Yes it is, but TPN+ has the advantage of simply dosing one liquid. Rather than 4.

 

[PDSimon]

Couldn't you just mix them all up in one big bottle

 

[JoshuaA]

Yes it is, but TPN+ has the advantage of simply dosing one liquid. Rather than 4.

Seachem claim the bonus of having individual bottles is you can individually dose them so that if you notice there is a deficiency of one you won't be over dosing the others, whereas if they're all in the same bottle... so is this a viable claim or do you usually need to dose all 3 at the same time anyway? Does one deficiency usually mean another?

I was thinking about buying all the bottles, I usually just get 500ml bottles of whatever so I don't have to buy another one for a long time. However the Macro ones seem like I might end up working through them mcuh faster than the others. Though I'm not sure, I would happily buy all 3 250ml though.

 

[mtv8dmarine]

Has anyone tried aquariumplants' TOTAL tabs yet?

 

[RadaR]

Yes it is, but TPN+ has the advantage of simply dosing one liquid. Rather than 4.

Seachem claim the bonus of having individual bottles is you can individually dose them so that if you notice there is a deficiency of one you won't be over dosing the others, whereas if they're all in the same bottle... so is this a viable claim or do you usually need to dose all 3 at the same time anyway? Does one deficiency usually mean another?

I was thinking about buying all the bottles, I usually just get 500ml bottles of whatever so I don't have to buy another one for a long time. However the Macro ones seem like I might end up working through them mcuh faster than the others. Though I'm not sure, I would happily buy all 3 250ml though.

I understand where they are coming from. No, one deficiency doesn't usually mean another. You could have low nitrogen levels but really good phosphorus levels therefore nitrogen deficiency.
Depends on how much light, but you'll get through macros the most if you have to dose them.

 

[milkton]

k thanks for the help guys, im guna try to get the tropica plant nutrition then