# Miracle grow and aquatic plants?



## SiameseFightingArt (Jun 17, 2014)

I saw this one video about how to make your plants truly flourish and the guy said to use organic miracle grow (Just a pinch) and it should help the plants grow. I didn't want to risk putting it in my tanks because well it's miracle grow meaning it probably still has chemicals in it even being "organic". Out of curiosity, but has anyone tried this? Thoughts?


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## Aqua Aurora (Oct 4, 2013)

SiameseFightingArt said:


> I saw this one video about how to make your plants truly flourish and the guy said to use organic miracle grow (Just a pinch) and it should help the plants grow. I didn't want to risk putting it in my tanks because well it's miracle grow meaning it probably still has chemicals in it even being "organic". Out of curiosity, but has anyone tried this? Thoughts?


I use MGOPM- MiracleGro Organic Potting Mix in my 3g bubble bowl where Magnus the mustard delta lives (and where I had shrimp before I got him). I've not heard of just adding a pinch to a tank, but I am using it as a substrate base that is capped with sand or fine gravel to keep it down. Soil is essentially decomposing organics, and underwater we know that means ammonia. When a soil based tank is first setup, unless its VERY densely planted with fast growing plants, there will be ammonia leeching for a few weeks (great for an easy fish-less cycle of the filter). The mix I put in used poultry litter, but no chemicals or more potent manure like cow [censor].
If you have all plants that root into the substrate (such as vals, swords, crypts, and the huge variety of stem plants) than a soil based tank can be a good idea.


Look into the "Walstad Method", its based off Diana Wastads book 'ECOLOGY of the PLANTED AQUARIUM - A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist'. You can also check out some youtube videos on it. I based my bubble bowl tank loosely off watching.. *sifts through videos* [this guy], he has several videos on setting up a Walstad tank. However I sifted the hell out of the MiracleGro to get out all the wood chunks so I didn't have tannins making the water tea colored.


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## SiameseFightingArt (Jun 17, 2014)

Thank you Aqua Aurora! I'll check it out and decide whether or not to make plastic mesh pots with the soil inside.


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## myexplodingcat (Apr 9, 2014)

Organic means it's okay. There can't be any chemicals in it. If you like, you can set up mini soil-based environments in clay seed pots. Just put the organic Miracle Gro potting soil in, put sand or fine gravel or another kind of "cap" on top, and soak it thoroughly with old tank water. Then you can put aquarium plants in it, and gently put it in the tank. You could even bury the pot in your gravel if you wanted. This would work great if you wanted to avoid buying root tabs for amazon swords or smaller species of cryptocorynes.

Miracle Gro organic potting mix is what I use in my soil-based tank. It's totally safe. The only thing is that it needs to be sifted a bit to get out the big wood chips, and it tends to float until it's well waterlogged as it's mostly peat. (That's why you need sand or fine gravel to hold it down.)


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## SiameseFightingArt (Jun 17, 2014)

myexplodingcat said:


> Organic means it's okay. There can't be any chemicals in it. If you like, you can set up mini soil-based environments in clay seed pots. Just put the organic Miracle Gro potting soil in, put sand or fine gravel or another kind of "cap" on top, and soak it thoroughly with old tank water. Then you can put aquarium plants in it, and gently put it in the tank. You could even bury the pot in your gravel if you wanted. This would work great if you wanted to avoid buying root tabs for amazon swords or smaller species of cryptocorynes.
> 
> Miracle Gro organic potting mix is what I use in my soil-based tank. It's totally safe. The only thing is that it needs to be sifted a bit to get out the big wood chips, and it tends to float until it's well waterlogged as it's mostly peat. (That's why you need sand or fine gravel to hold it down.)


I didn't even think about putting the pots under the sand substrate! I will definitely make sure to take out the wood chips before I put it in my tank. My plants really need more nutrients and the iron I put in there isn't enough and I don't really want to try leaf zone or CO2 booster so that's why I chose to go with the organic miracle grow. I'm going to see if I can pick some up later (Maybe the weekend)


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