Do my plants need nutrients or special sand?

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Discuss all topics related to freshwater and planted tanks.

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Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2009 7:37 am

Do my plants need nutrients or special sand?

by ismellfishy

My tank is still a work in progress, it has some driftwood and a few plants (no fish yet) and i was wondering if they need anything to ensure their healthy survival. I've heard of a CO2 canister thing (which i plan on buying soon) and i've seen some rather expensive gravel for plants... my question is how necessary is that? I already have water in my tank and decorated it to a certain extent, so that would be kind of a hassle to add now, but i will if it really matters.

Posts: 134
Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2008 1:36 am

by cedricandcandy

Check out my tank....all the plants are planted in crushed granite...nothing extra. So as far as I'm concerned; no its not necessary.

Expensive gravel is probably great but I haven't used it...I've used liquid fertilizers in the past and they were ok and now I'm using flourish tablets planted at the base of my plants. I'm happy with the flourish tablets and I have no CO2 cannister either. Check out my plants and see for yourself...

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Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:33 pm

by Tmercier834747

Most ''plant substrates'' such as eco-complete and flourite are tailor-made to supply some key nutrients to plant roots, such as iron. Yet they're inert such as most gravels and sand normally used in aquaria.

Provided they're receiving enough light (2.5+wpg is recommended), plants which receive most of their nutrients from roots instead of the water column will need supplementation such as the root tabs c&c mentioned. These types of plants include swords, vals, bulb-based plants and others. Also consider using a powder or liquid fert such as seachem flourish for plants which take in most of their nutrients from the water column. These include plants which can grow well floating such as anarachis, water sprite, and rhizome based plants such as anubias.

Again ferts and CO2 (more CO2 than ferts) really only benefit plants receiving over 2.5 watts per gallon of light.

Do my plants need nutrients or special sand?

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