Nutritional Needs of Plants part 2
Aquarium talk 101 by Geekzeke. Next we talk about Nutritional Needs of Plants part 2 What do they need? Micro Nutrients These are available to us through our tap water and commercially sold liquid fertilizers such as Flourish, Kent , Tropica MasterGro , etc. Start off by dosing per the bottle instructions. With time and plant growth you may find the need to up your dosages slightly. Excessi...ve dosing will promote algae growth. Macro Nutrients (Nitrogen, Phospherous, Potassium) Nitrates supplied using potassium nitrate (KNO3) Target is 5 - 10 ppm Phosphates supplied using monopotassium sulfate or Fleet Enema Target is .5 - 1 ppm Potassium supplied using potassium sulfate (K2SO4) or potassium chloride (No-Salt) Target is 20 ppm Warning - Additional care must be taken when dosing macro nutrients .Over-dosing of macro's at best will only create algae, but at worst will kill your fish. Be sure to have quality test kits on hand and dose the tank in small increments. The process of determining your fertilizing regimen takes weeks to set and it can change again with time. Substrate Fertilizers Many plants (Swords, Crypts etc.) feed primarily through their root systems and need to be fed accordingly. There are fertilizers sold on the market in tablet form which get pushed into your substrate at the root base of the plant. Popular brands are Tetra Initial Sticks, Flourish Tabs, Root Tabs Use these per package instruction and always bury them deep in substrate. What about CO2? The addition of CO2 is very important to achieve lush growth of your plants, especially when your tank lighting is anywhere above 2 1/2 WPG. In low light tanks where the demand is small for your plants CO2 addition is generally not needed, but as you increase the strength of your lights, you are in turn increasing the demand for more carbon to get the most out of your plants. The target range for CO2 is usually anywhere from 20 - 30 ppm. I'm not going to go into a lot of depth about the How-To's of CO2 addition as there are numerous resources on the web already describing in detail the set-ups to do this There are basically 2 ways to add CO2 to your tank... Pressurized Bottle For 55 gallon tanks and larger this is the necessary route. It is more predictable and stable and can supply enough CO2 for your plants no matter how large the tank.
DIY CO2 On smaller tanks, you can use a yeast and sugar mix to get the desired ppm's of CO2 dissolved into the water. It is much cheaper then pressurized systems to set-up and will provide you with plenty of CO2 for your tank. The down side's of a DIY set-up is the time , the mess, and more importantly the "inconsistency" of the ppm rate. \ However with patience, it is a very successful way to add CO2 and get lush growth. These are just the basics of course to get you started on the right foot, but to sum it all up, if you provide a good substrate, some good lights and feed your plants you will find that it is not as hard as you thought to be successful.
