# Which Fertilizer?



## amzy81 (Feb 5, 2007)

Hi All,

I've read through some of the material on plant fertilizers, but I can't find a simple answer to my question.
I'm trying to grow simple plants like Java Fern, Anubias, and maybe some Vallisneria sp.
What is a good brand of liquid fertilizer that I can apply once a week with water changes for good growth?
Provided I have the right amount of light of course (I currently have 36W over a 250L aquarium, but I'm upgrading to 108W with double T5 lights, is this a good idea?). I just want the easiest method without too much fuss. Not interested in CO2 addition.

I am keeping Africans (mbuna) so naturally the ph and hardness are quite high. Is this going to affect the plants I've chosen? My Anubia died off completely (all the leaves fell off), and the Java fern although growing is not looking very healthy, brown coloured leaves, and tears in other ones. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,


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## Donfish (Dec 24, 2007)

> I currently have 36W over a 250L aquarium


If I'm correct that 250L is about 65 gallons then that's almost like having no light. Your plants didn't have a chance.

While the WPG rule is not foolproof because some bulbs give more bang per watt it's a good guide so the upgrade sounds good. 2WPG and more needs some form of carbon supplementation or you'll have an algae farm because the light drives the tank into carbon limitation, although with few plants this may not be the case.



> I've read through some of the material on plant fertilizers, but I can't find a simple answer to my question.
> I'm trying to grow simple plants like Java Fern, Anubias, and maybe some Vallisneria sp.
> What is a good brand of liquid fertilizer that I can apply once a week with water changes for good growth?


What I've had success with in my low light QT and SA growout tanks with plants is adding a potassium+iron fertilizer like *"Leaf Zone"* dosed to the changed water only i.e. 1mL per 2 gallons of fresh water. The fish provide the N&P you provide the K. The tanks contain Java Fern, Java Moss, Anacharis. Marimo Balls and Hornwort and grow nicely with little algae. Growth is slow, even, clean and green.

You should be able to keep Java Ferns and Anubias with Mbuna, Val is iffy because the fish could eat them or play with them which is too bad bacause Vals can use bicarbonate as a carbon source and could grow pretty well in that water although I never tried it.


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## Laurel (Jun 17, 2007)

You may want to look into using some Flourish Excel. It needs to be applied every other day, but provides a carbon source for you tanks. When I was using it in my tanks with java fern and anubias, the plants looked fantastic. When I ran out of my small bottle they began growing lot of algae and whatnot. I also use Flourish which provides trace elements twice a week. If you're using a light that's that strong(the one you're getting), you'll want to start with a very low photo period.


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## amzy81 (Feb 5, 2007)

thanks for the feedback.
Yes you are correct, 250L is around 65Gal.

so do you think 108W might be too much light for my tank if i dont intend to use CO2 injection? Because I really dont want all the fuss of CO2 - cant be bothered with it to be honest.

Alternatively I could go with a double T8 light and have 72W, which will give me somewhere in the vicinity of 1WPG. Or, I could use one high output T5 in the fixture (54W) and the other low output (28W). That should be enough to grow most plants I'm thinking of right?

Thanks


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## Donfish (Dec 24, 2007)

> so do you think 108W might be too much light for my tank if i dont intend to use CO2 injection?


That should fine as long as you don't get plantitis, that is how I started, oh lets put a few low light plants in here and before you know it I have more plants than fish, of course that brought about upgrading lights, substrate, ferts and pressurized CO2. 

Dont' burn them too long either that could induce algae as much as wattage. I'd start with 7 or 8 hours and see what happens, if your Java Fern is nice and green with lots of babies you hit the sweet spot. Anubias while a low light plant, I don't like in slow growing tanks, there it grows very slow and the older leaves get ratty. I like to push them a bit but it's always worth a try.


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