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Re:Roger's fertilizer



>> Hi everybody, just wanted to know if any of you out there use just substrate
>> fertilizer without using water column fertilizer..
>
>I stopped regular additions of chelated iron to all of my tanks several
>years ago and I never took up the practice of adding nitrate to the water
>column.  I do add potassium chloride and magnesium sulfate to all the
>water I use for water changes.  That's because my tap water is weird.

Yes it is weird tap water!

>
>I regard the fish and fish feeding as the principle source of nutrients
>and use fertilizer in the substrate as a means of supplementing the
>additional needs of heavy-feeding plants.

Is this not adding fertilizer to the the water column? This fish food? If
there's iron in your substrate then things would be fine also.

>
>This is a little messier than just adding a few drops of fertilizer to the
>tank and it requires that you actually watch your plants closely to get a
>sense of what and when things are needed.  But then I enjoy studying the
>plants, I only fertilize at long intervals -- months for individual plants
>and weeks without adding anything -- and I get the satisfaction that I'm
>actually caring for the plants rather than (as it used to feel) running an
>experiment in a glass box.
>
>Even though I don't fertilize the water column of any of my tanks, I do
>have and very occasionally use a water column fertilizer.

**Good regular feedings can have a heavy amount of PO4 and N03 added at an
even pace.
I can add food as fertilizer or KNO3 (and you add K+ as KCl and Mg as MgSO4
so you are still getting the nutrients in there just with fish food N-P-K
etc).** Comments? 

I find that other folks do a similar approach. It works too. Almost no algae
and little maintenance. A very good system IMO.
I can report the same thing as Roger on this one. My tap is somewhat
different but the fertilizer is the same. Adding food can be the only
fertilizer you add. I believe there are several test on using food as the
fertilizer for plant growth somewhere in some magazine or book. I know I've
seen a study done on it. 


Regards,
Tom Barr