This The Right Sort Of Plants Food

[pippoodle]

and is it a good price ?

http/cgi.ebay.co.uk/TFF-Plant-Nutrition-...3%3A1|294%3A200

also eSHa Pro Phyll Plant Food. it that any good ?

 

[aaronnorth]

It is sold in dry powders. Why not just buy your own?

Also it is the recipe taken from here: http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/allinone.htm

never heard of the esha, and i cant find any information on it as most ferts dont contain Nitrate or phosphate

 

[three-fingers]

That fertiliser is the same as this concept but more expensive: <a href="http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/allinone.htm" target="_blank">http/www.theplantedtank.co.uk/allinone.htm</a>

Somebody is basically selling this on eBay. May be a certain member here who recently had a thread removed due to inappropriate racist comments . The thread was originally about selling this type of plant food. Though I'd not like to go any further on that subject, just saying that I would be suspicious if buying it.

Either way, general idea is that it's a good plant food. However if you are going to use plant food that contains nitrogen and phosphate at all, I would recommend having a basic understanding of the nutrients plants need:
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?s=&amp...t&p=2351877
http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?showtopic=104737

That will help you understand weather or not you actually need this type of fertiliser.

Personally, I would just make my own from powders, or buy a reputable brand like Tropica Plant Nutrition + (which s the same thing, but there would be more comfort in it's actual make up and how safe it is).

edit: aron you ninja

 

[aaronnorth]

lol, it isnt the member on here The person selling it is the admin of the site he links to.

 

[three-fingers]

So somebody beat him to it on eBay .

But put even less effort into it...you have to mix the powder yourself?

 

[pippoodle]

at the moment i add a calcium phoshate , magnesium and potassium mix to the tank every week - powdered mix
i got it off a bloke on another site ages ago to use as an alternative to another mineral powder that was really expensive

MS brains are not good at remembering stuff

what else would i have to add to this then
my plants are happy at the moment with the mineral mix and tetrapond plantamin
just everyone goes on anout all this other stuff so i was just wondering if that on ebay was similar

 

[three-fingers]

Is there a specific reason you are adding those powders in particular?
What size of tank is it, and what water changes does it get? Need to know so we can advise on the amount of ferts to use .

Most plant foods are mainly just traces, the reason the one in that auction and Tropica Plant Nutrition + are said to be so good is because they also provide NPK nutrients. But it's much cheaper and more flexible to use dry powders for this.

Tetrapond Plantamin will be enough for the plants trace elements (though it's more expensive than just buying powdered trace elements).

Can you remember exactly what chemical the potassium mix is? Depending on what the "potassium mix" is, it will probably do for the "K" (potassium) part of NPK fertilisation.

Calcium phosphate is something I've never seen being used before, are you sure it's not calcium sulphate? If that's what it is, it's unlikely the plants need it .

The "magnesium mix" is probably magnesium sulphate (epsom salts), you can buy there for a couple of £ from a pharmacy, and may not be needed but you may as well use them if you have them.

So that leaves the "N" (nitrogen) and "P" (phosphate) parts of NPK fertilisation to be covered. If the tank has low-medium light and lots of fish/shrimp, then their waste will likely provide enough of this.

If you don't think the plants are getting enough N and P (look for signs of deficencies here:http/www.aquaessentials.co.uk/index.php?main_page=page&id=8&chapter=0) you can buy a couple of powders for less than £10 that will you years depending on the tank.

 

[pippoodle]

the powders were a mix of powders that suit my shrimp in the tanks and to help the plants thats why its

calcium phosphate for the shrimps
potassium phosphate
and magnesium sulphate - checked the little bit of paper the bloke gave me with the bottle

hope makes sense now

i cant see any problems with my plants , there is the occasional dead leaf but i leave it in the tank for the shrimpies and they eat it up - it's very rare so i dont know if there's anything that can help with that or if thats normal

 

[three-fingers]

In that case, keep dosing what you are already, there's no need for any other plant food.

Once the Tetrapond Plantamin is gone you can buy powdered trace much cheaper and use that instead, it will last longer too.

http/www.fluidsensoronline.com/epages/BT...s/PN-100-TR-100

The only thing your not dosing your tanks with it nitrogen, but I'm assuming since there's no sings of deficencies that there is enough of it from the livestock . Do a nitrate test, and if it comes out 0ppm, you could try adding nitrate in the form of potassium nitrate powder to see if you can help the plants grow faster (since 0ppm would indicate that nitrogen may be limiting). But other than that, you already have enough plant nutrients, so shouldent need to add anything else .

Calcium phosphate is interesting, shrimp probably don't need it unless you have very soft water and aren't giving them shrimp food (which would contain calcium in it), but you may as well add it if you have it, as it wont be doing any harm and the phosphates could be being useful for the plants .

 

[aaronnorth]

So somebody beat him to it on eBay .

But put even less effort into it...you have to mix the powder yourself?

yep, cheeky bugger