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Advice for a beginner in planted tanks.

Louis287

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24 Jan 2022
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Rugby
Hi. I have just set up a Superfish scaper 60 which I plan on planting when the plants arrive. I also have a 230L Tank with a few plants in but nothing seems to be doing very well in there as I don’t use co2. I was hoping to start to learn more about the planted side of things with the new smaller tank before going on to re plant my big tank.


I have Scaped with tropica soil, redmoor root and dragon stone. I have ordered a mixture of crypts, Anubis’s petits and Java ferns aswell as some bucephelandra. I wasn’t looking at using co2 again but maybe liquid carbon? Can anyone give me any advice on what would be the best fertilisers and carbon to use together? And any other advice you could give me.

Thanks
Lewis
 
Hi and welcome to the forum.
Its a wise choice to start small and then once you get hang of things to go big.Its if nothing else less costly.Not injecting CO2 doesn't mean you wont have beautiful tank with healthy plants.It just mean that you will need to choose your plants more carefully and not have too bright light.
Plants don't really care what brand fertilizer you use as long as everything they need is covered. I mix my own( because Im tight ;) )but all commercial complete fertilizers(TCN complete APT complete,Tropica specialised........)will do the job .
Best is to start a journal with lots of info and pics and this way you will be able to receive guidance and advice as needed.
Regards Konstantin
 
Thank you I will take this on board. What would your daily routine be for this tank. Dose ferts every day? And would you suggest carbon too to get co2 into the tank?
 
Liquid Carbon won’t get anywhere near enough carbon into the tank so I wouldn’t both to be honest, it’ll just be an extra cost. Anubis, Java ferns and the like don’t need it anyway.

+1 on APT ferts, although for a non-CO2 tank it might be best to go for APT Zero to keep the nitrates down.
 
Hi
limiting nitrates in low tech tank is unnecessary and will probably do more harm than good to a beginner.I will stick to complete fertilizer to cover all the bases.
I have dosed my low tech tanks with 1/2 to full EI levels of ferts for years without any ill effect on fish or shrimp and plants are doing really well.
Regards Konstantin
 
If you want something easy to begin with then from your local MA you can get Microbe Lift Plants Green, it’s a pretty decent cost effective all in one fertiliser, somewhat similar to Seachem Flourish Comprehensive. For extra carbon again from MA you can use Microbe Lift BioCO2 with abandon, currently I’m dosing it at 5x the recommendation without detriment (also injecting CO2), it’s Humic and Fulvic Acid based thus naturally derived and harmless, no CO2 in the bottle just long chain carbon molecules that if the plants scavenge the carbon from then they can use it to build tissue or combine it with O2 in the plant and form CO2.

Gluteraldehyde based Liquid Carbon supplements cannot be overdosed without detrimental effect as it’s a sterilising biocide.

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:)
 
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