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Re: fertilizer



Floyd Grant wrote:
> My main question is: (I crushed the Del Aq tablets and placed it in the 
> water, not the substrate), DO I need to be placing fertilizer, in 
> addition to the laterite, in the substrate?

Oh-oh!! The only thing in the way of fertilizer that should be added to
water is micro-nutrients i.e. chellated iron, magnesium, manganese,
potassium. Plant fertilizer sticks, pond fertilizer tablets etc. contain
large amounts of nitrates and phosphates which should be confined to
the substrate. When you put a solid fertilizer stick under the substrate
it doesn't dissolve into the water because the solutes diffuse very
very slowly through water within the substrate. Water only moves through
the substrate as it is induced into the root systems of the plants
which draws anything in solution into the plants rather than into the
tank water where it might become food for a green algae explosion!!

If you have no fish in there yet or can move them, it might be advisable
to replace all the water. Does the package describe the constituents of
the Del Aq tablets?

Steve