Douse fertilizer for Planted Fuge??

[scpion]

Currently I have a 4ft/ holding ard 60g of water as a planted fuge. Its heavily planted with hornwort, water wisteria, water sprite, african frogbits, afew java fern, little java moss and some tall grass type I am not too sure.. 110w PL light @ 8hrs/day

My water sprite keeps turning yellow, the rest slow/normal growth and only hornwort is growing like a weed..

Do I need to douse any kind of fertilizer to keep the plants healthy?? Main intention is to lower no3 in Main DT housing birdy.. Dun think they feed on no3 alone right?..

But I am concern that adding any kind of fertilizer would affect the water quality and defeats the purpose of having it in the first place.. on the other hand, I wan the plants to grow so they can function properly...

Any suggestions?

[Pufferpunk]

http://www.yamatogreen.com Swear by this stuff!

[scpion]

http://www.yamatogreen.com Swear by this stuff!

Yes Mdm. But is the fert going to affect my water quality? The last time tested a brand of root stick which I simply put one into a bucket of tap water and tested the next day and it had a significant no3 reading.

I do understand that these ferts are generally safe for fishes with regards to the chemical or trace elements in them.. But using them would it mean I will be indirectly increasing the "nutrients ( no3.. etc )" needed for plants but then could be bad for fishes? If so, using additional plant nutrient on a planted fuge would be contradicting..

I am sorry if my post is hard to understand..

[Pufferpunk]

Nope, this stuff is great! Also, when using the fertilizer sticks (I use the Jobe's), you must plant hem deep under the roots, by the glass bottom.

[J-P]

have you thought of pressurized CO2?

[scpion]

have you thought of pressurized CO2?

Uhm.. Fish - Primary concern, Plants - Secondary.. I only wanted the plants to "work properly"..

I used to have fun with a 2 ft planted with diy CO2, watching the tiny 02 bubbles produced by the plants are super COOL!!!! But my current setup has too much water movement.. doubt its going to be effective.. and, I cant bear to tell my daughter that her favourite colourful bubble clamshell have to go (its my excuse to keep this tank.. I always tell my wife its her's...) Besides, my wife is saying I am spending too much time with Birdy.. to take up a hightech planted setup, it means I probably have to sleep beside my fishtank...

[J-P]

The only reason I thought of it was because it was in the fuge and it would (should) gas off when introduced into the main.

If you start adding ferts that is the first step into going all the way.

Or keep the ones that do well and make a salad of the ones that don't and don't change anything

[scpion]

The only reason I thought of it was because it was in the fuge and it would (should) gas off when introduced into the main.

but wouldnt that be a little waste of the gas?

If you start adding ferts that is the first step into going all the way.

Oh no. u are scaring me.. I think would still prefer to sleep with my wife.. Well, sometimes..

[J-P]

=)

I quickly found that trying to save / grow some of the more difficult to keep plants is more time consuming than keeping the more exotic fish.

At first you start CO2... then you go liquid ferts, and find out they are missing or lacking some properties, then you go dry DIY ferts and everything looks amazing... but you are spending 20+ hours a week trimming, dosing, testing and measuring.

Opps I said too much

Anyway.. do what works for you, within your comfort zone. What plants work and will not work in that zone will vary.

[scpion]

+1 to aquascaping=time

Thanks for the advice.. might just flood it with hortwort and water wisteria and scrape the water sprite..

[RTR]

I do lots of veggie filters. Their sole purpose is to make my water better for the display fish. Most have only one species of plant. That plant must be hardy and easy and hungry.

IMNSHO, true tropical hornwort is one of the very best veggie filter plants. It is remarkably catholic in it nutrient uptake. It takes up masses of nitrate and plenty of the rest of the primary nutrients. I have not tracked or analyzed the micronutrients as they are only very rarely a pollution issue where decent partials are done. If that does well for you in your water conditions, compost the water sprite, wisteria, etc., or move them to other tanks. If you want to develop stands of Java fern for use elsewhere, move these to the dimmer ends and corners of the tank. They are slow-growing and contribute little or nothing to the "filter" function, but are also undemanding on light and nutrients, so don't "cost" much to culture in the dimmer areas. In other words, select what gives you the biggest bang for the buck and use it. I also only rarely have any livestock in the filters unless I want to rear fish for trade-in (I have bred albino bristlenose plecos in these tanks for decades, with fry grow-out mostly elsewhere) or snails for puffer food. I never supplement these tanks - why bother? I select plants that do not require it. I do full 33 - 50% partials weekly, even though the water volume is often massive for the fish involved. The short-term payoff is extremely high water quality which effectively does not deteriorate between partials to any real degree of significance. The long-term payoff is fish that grow as large or larger than they do in the wild and can live very long and very healthy lifespans far greater than their cousins are able to achieve in the wild.

If you keep it simple and keep it easy, the upkeep is no big deal. If you want to handle it as a landscaped planted tank, it will require more time than you should be willing to give a utility tank.

FWIW

[scpion]

I would probably keep those that are easier.. was prepared to do a little " gardening " but not so much as to do CO2 injections.. In future maybe

[RTR]

CO2 dosing is important in moderate to high light aquascaped tanks, along with routine supplements and routine 50% partials weekly. That is standard operation procedure for such tanks. That proceedure is commonly called the Estimative Index. Standardized supplements and partials reduce the need foe multiple routine mineral tests.

But it is not necessary for a veggie filter. If you want to do an aquascaped tank, by all means do one. But if you want a veggie filter, do that. They serve two quite different purposes. The former is a display, the latter is a utility. The water conditions are not the same in each. They serve different goals. The same tank cannot do both. Select one or the other. Aquascaped tanks are nutrient rich and have carefully balanced nutrients. Veggie filters are to reduce nitrogen metabolites to the minimum possible. The plants do that, but in an aquascaped tank, that situation would result in serious algae issues.

In both tank types, water partials are still required to restore water mineral balances and to remove DOCs (dissolved organic compounds).

HTH

[scpion]

Ok. After all the advice, I think will go with using it as a veggie filter. Other then the hornwort, all the rest of the craps will have to go..

Last question.. I would probably go with a lower power lighting also. Is it recommended to on it 24/7?

[J-P]

no.. not really.

If you have plants in the display the lights should run opposite.

Plants should have periods of darkness, but to compensate for the CO2 there should be another group that take it up. Or you have water acidification for parts of the day.

Group A is on 8 hours
Group B is on 8 hours and there are 8 hours (4 hours each group) where the ambient light in the room in enough.

That is what had worked for me, but your tank and results may be different.