# Do I need to ad ferts?



## astroman (26 Apr 2012)

Hi all. 
I am a complete novice and have a 190ltr tank which is about 6 weeks old. When I set it up I first added a bag of aquatic compost followed by pea gravel. Do I still need to add ferts or is this dependant on the individual plants etc? There are about 6 plants including a couple of swords, 2 small Helferi and a couple of larger plants (sorry but i dont know what they are!)

Many thanks
Tim


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## CeeJay (29 Apr 2012)

Hi Tim

Ideally you should dose the water column. 


			
				astroman said:
			
		

> When I set it up I first added a bag of aquatic compost


It will depend on what you mean by "aquatic compost". Most of the expensive gear has nutrients in it, so in the early days of the tank you may get away without dosing, but they will eventually run out. 
However, the key to any dosing strategy is the amount of light you have, and whether or not you inject CO2. A very bright tank needs lots of everything (CO2 & ferts), where a very dim tank can get away with a fraction of the dose and no CO2. Fish loading can play a part in low light tanks too.
Perhaps you could post up your tank specs with regards to lighting, filtration, do you inject CO2 or not? etc.
The more info we have the easier it is to identify what dosing strategy you can adopt.


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## astroman (29 Apr 2012)

CeeJay said:
			
		

> Hi Tim
> 
> Ideally you should dose the water column.
> 
> ...



Thanks for this.
The tank I have is a Juwel Trigon 190 ltr. I am not sure what sort of compost it was. The shop guy just said if I was to have plants then I ould need compost! I have Juwel T5 lights which are on for about 8 hours a day and a CO2 diffuser which provides 6 or 7 bubbles a minute in the bubble counter. There is an internal filter system which came new with the tank. I have quite a few small fish (Zebra Danios, Platy, couple of Congo Tetra and a couple of Western Rainbows).
The plants have grown considerably in the last 6 weeks and I am also waiting on delivery of 3 small Micromanthemum umbrosum and a couple of Pogostemon helferi which I hope to use as foreground cover. 
Hope this helps! Any suggestions?

Many thanks. Tim


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## CeeJay (29 Apr 2012)

Hi Tim 

With T5's and CO2 you will definitely need to dose.
Your cheapest option is dry salts and dosing the EI method found here EI tutorial.
Have a read (more than one is recommended    ) and digest.
For my 180l I use 
6 tsp KNO3
2 tsp KH2PO4
in one bottle with 600ml water. Dose 50ml on water change day (Day 1), Day 3 and Day 5.

1 tsp Trace in another bottle with 240ml water dose 30ml on Days 2 & 4
No dosing on Days 6 & 7
This will last you one month   

Obviously you can make the volume whatever you like, but it just makes life easier if it is easily divisible by 12 for the Macros, and divisible by 8 for the Trace.

If you are in a soft water area you may need to add MgSO4 (Epsom Salts to you   ). You would need 15tsp in with your KNO3 and KH2PO4, for your size tank.

A 10 litre difference in our tanks is hardly worth worrying about so I would start with this dose and monitor your plants, but I'm pretty confident this will be more than adequate.


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## astroman (30 Apr 2012)

Thats brilliant. Thank you so much! 
Do you know of a good supplier that posts out the necessary salts and trace?
Cheers
Tim


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## darthpaul (30 Apr 2012)

www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk who are a sponsor on UKAPS.


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