# Do ferts help?



## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

I currently have a planted 10gal, and I have some plants that are usually fast growers, but not in my tank. Would ferts or plant substrate help? My goal is to get a jungle feel without having to buy TONS of plants. 

Thanks!


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

Oh, and what brands do you recommend?


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

They help me  seachem excel but there are other ferts available that might be better


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

Thanks! is that why you have a lot of anacharis?


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## Mo (Mar 15, 2012)

Lol.. Yeah. It's like the only plant I had to start out with and now it's taken over the tank.. Only have java moss, anacharis, a little bit or hornwort, and a little bit or asst. stem plants


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

PetMania said:


> I currently have a planted 10gal, and I have some plants that are usually fast growers, but not in my tank. Would ferts or plant substrate help? My goal is to get a jungle feel without having to buy TONS of plants.
> 
> Thanks!


ferts help depending on the plant you have, 
plant lights definitely help with growth.

FYI:
Too much of it + sunlight causes black hair and hair algae.

my ferts:
Pfertz (out of business): Pure potassium, Micro Fert.
Aqueon Aquarium Plant Food, 
SeaChem Flourish Excel works great with stem plants

substrate is Eco Complete Planted Black Aquarium Substrate


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

Thank you!


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Root tabs, Seachem Flourish Comprehensive and Flourish Excel. Excel is not an fertilizer as such but a source of organic carbon.


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

At what rate of growth did you see when using it?


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

PetMania said:


> At what rate of growth did you see when using it?


my hygrohilia sprouts at least 2 nodes a week. about 1/2" taller/week.

anacharis did not work well with my Fluval because of the currents by the outflow. I remember the RCS babies love them as shelter and food.


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## Stone (Jan 6, 2013)

We dose PPS-pro ferts it is a macro and a micro, and you dose daily, plus we do excel daily, well metricide pretty much the same thing as excel and it takes less and it costs 1/2 as much next time I am getting omnocide it is even cheaper and with all the tanks we have using ferts and excel uoi need to find ways to save money. and yes it helps a ton, the excel is a carbon source but what it is really helpful with is keeping algae in check without using pressurized co2 systems.


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

Ferts can help if you have proper CO2 and lighting.

I've been reading up on LED:
http://www.americanaquariumproducts...._lighting.html

You can use a simple growth bulb attached to a desk lamp, a SHO light 6500 Km and 6500K LED to help encourage photosynthesis.

Basically, 6500K is the light spectrum that encourages photosynthesis. If you have more K than 6500K (full spectrum), you lose some color in the spectrum that plants need (red, yellow, and green), i.e. higher K does not mean better lights for FW planted tanks. Also the depth of your tank matters and you may need more 6500K lights and not 12000K LED to accomplish illumination with a tall planted tank.

K value has nothing to do with Watt which is power consumption. 

You will need to look at the PAR and PUR value of 450-600 for the light, info that manufacturers seldom give or you have to dig through their specs to find the answer.

Oh, I just realized that with the slow growth in my SPEC V, using the stock light that came with it, was not because of the light. It was due to low CO2, so my nitrates were up and the plants were not able to effectively grow due to the low CO2, at the mean time the algae were ok since they do not need high CO2. After I fixed my CO2 level, my nitrates went down 0-20, and the plants are flourishing, no algae.

One way to check CO2 is to make sure you check pH and Kh (carbon hardness). You can get a $10-$12 drop checker on Amazon for easy visual ID (yellow, green, blue for high, OK, and low CO2). You can also use a water test strip (ballpark numbers), or you can get test kits. to have decent growth, you need pH 7 and kH 5. If you are not in that range, you will need to put Excel or inject CO2 using a DIY CO2 setup (can find it on YouTube using sugar and baking soda in a bottle), or buy pressurized CO2 canister and wht whole works to get to that optimum level.

also make sure you turn on your airstone for the fish at night, and turn off the CO2 injection if you have one installed.


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

Thanks, I figured out my schedule. So far, my plants have been flourishing with some simple plant food from PetSmart.


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## copperarabian (Apr 27, 2011)

I'm to cheap for a CO2 system, so I use API liquid CO2 used daily, paired with a weekly dose of API leaf zone fertilizer, and API root tabs. My plants look amazing

Part of my 17g jungle 









and my 2g spec. In this tank the hairgrass died back, then regrew. And the crypts are very tall

start of using API










After 2 months


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## PetMania (Mar 28, 2013)

Cool! Yeah, my plants have been doing much better with Aqueon Plant Food. I don't think I can afford a complex CO2 system


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

copperarabian said:


> I'm to cheap for a CO2 system, so I use
> Part of my 17g jungle
> and my 2g spec. In this tank the hairgrass died back, then regrew. And the crypts are very tall
> 
> ...


Can you tell me what are the white dots on the hairgrass?
Are they snail eggs?

I got some on my wallichia. Thanks.


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## mart (Dec 18, 2013)

Got a question, since I already have these products. Can you mix API Leaf Zone with Seachem Flourish Excel. Just wondering because they are two different brands.


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## Otterfun (Dec 31, 2012)

i think it's fine cos Excel is just CO2, and Leaf Zone is general fert.
Excel will melt the anacharis and hornwort and minimized algae.


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## mart (Dec 18, 2013)

Otterfun said:


> i think it's fine cos Excel is just CO2, and Leaf Zone is general fert.
> Excel will melt the anacharis and hornwort and minimized algae.


Thank you Otterfun. That's good news, because I didn't want to have to buy another bottle.


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