Fertilizer

[Palinurus]

Do you use fertilizer in your tank(s) ?

[mrs shrimp]

Do you mean like plant food? I haven't done yet, I think I am afraid of harming the shrimp!!

Val

[AdeDunn]

I do in one of them yes. EasyLife Pro Fito, EasyLife EasyCarbo, EasyLife Fosfo, KNO3 powder, JBL 7 balls and TPN+ (Tropica Plant Nutrition +) capsules in the substrate. One other tank I dose a tiny quantity of ProFito and it has TPN+ capsules in the substrate. The 1st tank contains cherry shrimp, the 2nd is in the maturation stages of development.

Ade

[Palinurus]

Hi Ade

Have you ever tried to run a tank completly without these additives ? Do you think: it´s better with than without? Do you know the analysis of your tapwater?
I ask, because in the German forum there is actually an eager discussion about pro and contra of fertilizers. But all others are kindly requested to write about their experiences with this theme.

Cheers
Wolfgang

[AdeDunn]

Indeed I do Wolfgang. My 3 dedicated shrimp tanks are run completely without the addition of ferts. The first thing you notice running like this is that water changes assume even more importance as if not keep fairly regular the plants start showing signs of deficiencies.

I can also happily provide you with my water report:-

Hardness Level Hard No Standard Applies
Hardness Clark 17.37 No Standard Applies Degrees Clark
Hardness French 24.81 No Standard Applies French Degrees
Hardness German 13.90 No Standard Applies German Degrees
Aluminium 11.00 200 μgAl/l
Chloride 35.94 250 mgCl/l
Chlorine 0.08 No Standard Applies mg/l
Coliform bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Colour 0.44 20 mg/l Pt/Co
Conductivity 520.77 2500 μS/cm at 20°C
E.coli bacteria 0 0 no./100ml
Fluoride 0.06 1.5 mgF/l
Iron 7.00 200 μgFe/l
Manganese 2.59 50 μgMn/l
Nitrate 25.74 50 mgNO3/l
Odour 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Pesticides 0 0.5 μg/l
pH 7.48 6.5 - 9.5 pH Value
Sodium 19.00 200 mgNa/l
Taste 0 Acceptable to customers and no abnormal change Dilution Number
Plumbing Metals
Copper 0.11 2.0 mgCu/l
Lead 0.64 25 μgPb/l
Nickel 1.43 20 μgNi/l

As you can see, it's pretty rich in 'ferts'. Of the tanks running without ferts:-

Daughters tank

Substrate: thin layer of activated charcoal, play sand then thin layer of extra fine black quartz gravel.
Filtration: 200lph nano external
Lighting: 1 24 watt compact flourescent (PL)
Volume and depth: 60 litres 390mm deep

Snowball tank

Substrate: Caribsea Eco-complete
Filtration: 200lph nano external
Lighting: 1 24 watt compact flourescent (PL)
Volume and depth: 60 litres 390mm deep

Blue Pearl tank

Substrate: thin layer of extra fine black quartz gravel.
Filtration: 200lph nano external
Lighting: 1 11 watt compact flourescent (PL)
Volume and depth: 35 litres depth about 360mm

My daughters tank and the snowball tank I can grow pretty much anything in, from mosses to limnophila aromatica. Less depth means less lighting is needed to punch down into the tank, which means less CO2 or other carbon source is required. The blue pearl tank however only contains marimo balls, Christmas moss and a lovely big anubias barteri, none of which are planted in the substrate.

My 180 litre planted however I HAVE to use ferts even with regular water changes. This tank is 18 inches deep and has 4 39 watt T5HO tubes over it (2 BioVital Narva full spectrum colour 95s, 1 GE 865 and 1 Osram 800 Skywhite). I used to also run pressurised CO2 on this tank, but in the current position this would be unsafe as our kids can get at the cabinet. Without the use of ferts I already mentioned the tank pretty quickly turns into an algae farm, with plants pretty quickly showing deficiencies. So I can simplify the argument by stating that with more light ferts become necessary as the plants use far more nutrients than can be provided by fish waste and water changes. When you consider that one of the plants growing in my 180 litre planted is shinnersia rivularis 'weiss grun' as well. lol

In a tank with only moderate lighting however, so long as you are providing the nutrients somehow (water changes, plenty of fish, or even just occasional use of a trace fert) you can get just as good results without heavy use of ferts, it can be less forgiving though.

Ade

[sorab]

I used to use ferts and Co2 but I haven't for a long time. I got lazy, I do get some algae but nothing that ruins the look of the tanks. I have low light and slow growing plants, the growth is plenty for me.
Cheers
Peter

[Ulli Bauer]

I had to start fertilizing again after I got some stronger lights for my tanks.
For some time after that they looked like farms for green cotton wool which was due to the great number of thread algae that liked the additional light very, very much.
Now I give regular doses of EasyLife ProFito, and on the large tank I've even installed a bio CO2 canister, Paffrath underwater dispenser and all...
Since then plant growth has practically been exploding in there, and the algae are receding.

Cheers
Ulli

[Kim]

I, too, use ferts. Seachem Flourish Excel and Trace, thats it.