A 20 gallon planted tank without fish?

[Phantomlink]

I have a spare 20g tank I wanted to put some plants I will be getting soon in order to grow them and propagate quicker with better light and ferts and whatnot. Without the nitrogen cycle from the fish that wont be in the tank, will straight liquid ferts suffice? Will a powerhead be enough for the flow or must I have a filter or some sorts in the tank

[aznartist34]

Yes and yes

[creekbottom]

You will want to have water movement, otherwise you have a stagnant tank of water. It should take about a week for it to start to smell bad and develop a fairly thick film on the surface without movement.

[chew]

You don't need a filter just water flow. I have a 10g that I do this with and it only has an airstone in it to make a little water movement

[BruceF]

Just for the record I keep a 10g with no water movement. It is almost completely filled with Dwarf Sag. I also grow riccia on stones in that tank. I was keeping 6 baby Odessa barbs in there but I recently moved them to a larger tank. Many ramshorn snails now have the tank to themselves. Smells fine. I do large weekly water changes in it.
In plant only tanks I don’t treat the water at all. I sometimes use off the shelf-fertilizers. I am partial; to Age Old Grow which I also use on the house plants. On most of them I use a power head and a pre-filter. It helps to collect the gunk. I get the pre-filters at Home Depot they are 2 for 9 bucks and are sold with the pond stuff. I use Petco power heads 15 or 20 bucks.

Like chew said a simple airstone will work. You can also just skip the water!

[Phantomlink]

by growing emersed? I haven't really looked up that method but doesnt it melt most plants when they are fully immersed in the tank afterwards?