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Fertilizer (was re: New Plant Tank advice)
>"shaji (s.) bhaskar" <bhaskar at bnr_ca> wrote:
>>Chuck Lawson <clawson at onramp_net> wrote:
>>Fertilization - No idea. Something reasonably low-tech and low maintenance,
>>hopefully.
>Given all the expense you are incurring, why skimp on the fertilizer?
>Dupla fertilizers work, and the fertilizer cost is a drop in the
>bucket compared with the money you plan to spend on MH and CO2.
The cost isn't my main concern, although it is a bit of it (I have money
for MH and CO2 today, don't know what I'll have next week :-)
>Also, I seem to be getting some conflicting messages. The Dupla
>regimen (CO2 injection, fast-growing plants, MH lighting, etc.) is a
>tool to get faster growth, and if you use it, you will most likely
>have a high-maintenance tank. Why then would you look for a
>"low-maintenance" fertilizer?
Generally, I figure if I'm short on time in a given week, the pruning can
wait without too much damage - on the other hand, I don't want to be tied
into a daily (or similar) fertilization plan - some days it just won't get
done, and I figure that missing fertilization will have more impact than
missing trimming plants. This is also the justification for the CO2 - pH
controller: I like DIY, and do a fair amount of it, but anything I can
put on autopilot has time advantages, and frees me up to do any of the 50
other things I should be doing at any given time :-)
>>Plants - likewise no idea. I've got a bunch of Anubias nana around from
>>another tank that I'd planned on using, and would like to have some
>>Hygrophilia and a radicans sword or two, but no preconceptions beyond that.
>>I'm particularly unsure of ideas for tall plantings to take advantage of the
>>height of the tank, other than something like "jungle val.". Any
>>suggestions on what might work well here? I'm not looking for something
>>challenging as much as "what will thrive" in this kind of environment.
>In my experience, Jungle val is far too big. Even the ordinary
>"Italian vals" reach four feet. Other plants that easily reach 30
>inches include most of the larger sword plants, Giant hygro (H.
>stricta) and rooted Watersprite.
Thanks! I want something tall but with not much spread to go around the
two sides of the tank that are against the wall (it's in a corner), so that
might rule out some of these in those locations, but they might do well in
just a little from the edge.