[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
Re: Flourite/fertilizing regimen
Bailin Shaw asked:
> On another note, with all of this talk about flourite, I recently made the
> plunge and decided to convert the lower 2/3 of my 55G tank to flourite.
The
> plants are doing okay, but I'm too busy to fart around with daily dosing.
> So, I've started doing the biweekly addition of Flourish and 1/4 teaspoon
of
> K2SO4. The plants are okay, but I think that the addition of flourist
would
> help the growth. I inject CO2 and have ever 3Watts per gallon. The water
> is soft, GH 3 and KH 2-3, with a pH of 6.5 of less depending on the CO2.
> I'd like to know if anyone else who uses flourite and what their
fertilizer
> regiment is in their planted tanks. I have 29G that is 40:60 flourite to
> gravel and it's doing wonderfully. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
My 75 gallon community tank is a mix of flourite and black sand (someone
convinced me, about two years ago when I set up the tank, that the sand
would help the plants root. Don't know whether it's true or not; I've set
up tanks since then with just flourite and not seen a reason for the sand.)
I inject with pop bottle CO2 (although I go through phases, often of several
weeks, without it) and the growth of my rotala and ludwigia is fast enough
that, to keep the plants within a few inches of the surface, I need to trim
every other day or so. Without CO2, it's much slower. The big difference
with the CO2 is in the growth of algae on plant leaves -- I have a large
marble queen sword and some crypts that grow faster and seem to overcome the
algae growth when the bubbles are going. It also seems to hinder the growth
of algae on the glass, but even without CO2, I don't really need to wipe
that more than once a week.
I don't add anything else to the tank but two cubes of frozen food, once a
day -- or sometimes every other day. The tank is heavily stocked, certainly
by the standard of many people on this list.
Alysoun McLaughlin
Wheaton, MD