# New to planted tanks - questions about root tabs, substrates, and fertilizers



## cralz (Mar 11, 2012)

I'm gearing up to start a 30 gallon planted tank, and although I've kept fish off and on, I've never gotten into plants. I've been doing a lot of research over the past few weeks, and have a few questions about fertilizing in general. For reference my planned lighting will be 2x24w T5HO, one 6700k and one 10 000k, and my tank is about 18" tall, if I remember correctly. This will be a stocked tank as well.

- For substrate right now, I've got a few 10 lb bags of CaribSea Instant Aquarium Substrate, but I want to put a base layer of another substrate for my plants. If I put a layer of something like Seachem Flourite or a substrate containing Laterite, will I need to use/should I use root tabs for rooted plants? Do I even need special substrates to be successful?

- For my lighting level, will CO2 addition be necessary? If so, can I use the liquid carbon forms, or are there any major drawbacks to those?

- Will an all-round liquid fertilizer like Seachem Flourish or Nutrafin Plant Gro suit my needs?

- How will I be able to tell if I am using too much/too little of any fertilizers/carbon?

Am I on the right track here? Any other tips would be greatly appreciated.

If I've left out any important info, please let me know. Thanks in advance for any help you can give!


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## Cboss (Aug 23, 2010)

You've definitely got a good start. It takes a ton of reading to get started right, and even then you'll probably have mixed results until you find out what works for your setup.



cralz said:


> If I put a layer of something like Seachem Flourite or a substrate containing Laterite, will I need to use/should I use root tabs for rooted plants? Do I even need special substrates to be successful?


Yes, if you want nutrients in your substrate you'll need to add rood tabs, unless you go the mineralized top soil route. But, you don't need any special substrate to grow plants. I've used both flouite and pea gravel in my tanks with great results from both. I use root tabs sparingly in both tanks, but do fertilize heavily using EI.



> For my lighting level, will CO2 addition be necessary? If so, can I use the liquid carbon forms, or are there any major drawbacks to those?


You'll definitely need CO2 with 2xT5HO at 18". Liquid CO2 is ok, but it isn't cheap. You'll either pay lots upfront for CO2 or more overtime with liquid.



> - Will an all-round liquid fertilizer like Seachem Flourish or Nutrafin Plant Gro suit my needs?


An all purpose fertilizer will be sufficient, just monitor your plants to see if you are adding enough. Again, it's expensive compared to using dry ferts. Premade liquid ferts are a good way to get started until you feel comfortable making the switch over to dry.



> - How will I be able to tell if I am using too much/too little of any fertilizers/carbon?


Generally, if you need more fertilizer your plants will look poor and have low/unhealthy looking growth. Having too much isn't a problem if you do regular water changes.

If you go with CO2 gas then you'll know you have too much if your fish are at the top gasping for air (a CO2 drop checker is highly recommended and several people on this site sell both them and the fluid that goes inside). If you don't have enough (or it varies wildly), your plants will grow slowly and you'll have an algae farm, if you stick with your current lights.


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## Green Thumb Aquatics (Jan 1, 2012)

I would recomend a CO2 system for the level of light you are using, you might be able to get away with excell/glut but you are probably going to get alot of algae

DIY systems are not all that hard to maintain on 29 gallon tanks, if its a 30L it will be a bit harder as you will lose more to surface aggitiation

seachems flourish substrate does not actually contain much in the way of usuable nutrients, its alot more like an inert substrate, the only ones I know of in the US that are nutrient rich are ADA aquasoil and UP aquasoil, and probably the Fluval substrate they came out with, however I have not had any experience with it... there may be others...

liquid carbons in my opinion are not a replacement for CO2, really, again this is just IMO, really they help to keep algae out of the tank, making it so you can use a little higher light, which in turn will increase plant growth, they do not actually do much as far as CO2 does with increasing growth themselves its more what you can with lights and dosing when using them... so I recomend additional CO2, even to lower light tanks, but excell/carbon/glut will help... there is a company I believed called Brightwell Aquatics or something to that effect, they are from Reading PA and they have a unique carbon product IMO which may help to increase growth I am going to be picking some up and testing it to see how it works...

I do not know what is in nutrifin plant gro, however I can tell you seachem flourish is not an all around fert product, althought it does contain NPK(macro nutrients) it does not provide enough of them, and you will want to add these as well

too much carbon can kill inverts and melt plants, too little carbon will give you algae if you are not using additional CO2, too little ferts and you will see signs on deficiency, such as difformed leaves, holes in leaves, discoloration of plants and overall week growth, you cant really use too much ferts unless you are dumping huge spoonfuls of dry ferts and not doing regular water changes


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## cralz (Mar 11, 2012)

Thanks for the replies, it's good to know I'm not totally out to lunch on this.

I'll probably skip getting a special substrate, and just pad out the stuff I have with regular gravel.

On the subject of dry fertilizers - what should I look for, and where would I be able to get it? Would it be stuff I can get at a local garden centre or would it be more of a specialty thing?

Any other tips you could impart for a beginner?


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## Cboss (Aug 23, 2010)

I got my dry ferts at aquariumfertilizer.com. I got the Macro/Micro mix and a couple of the dosing bottles which make it extremely easy. 

I prefer making a liquid solution out of the dry ferts, but many others just dump a scoop of it straight into their tank. Both work fine, I just like having all of the little pieces pre-dissolved.

There's a sticky at the top of the fertilizer section of this forum which will help you figure out how much of each nutrient to dose.


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