[daworldisblack]

I'm thinking of setting up a tank with pretty much just carpeting plants. The substrate will be Fluval Plant Substrate and might have some root tabs to boot. Now is there a need to dose the water column to benefit these plants? Am I just going to feed the algae?

 

[Darkblade48]

In general, getting plants to carpet nicely (and not just grow upwards) requires higher light. Higher light means that you will driving the plants harder, necessitating fertilizers (these include water column) and CO2.

I would go with water column fertilization in addition to root fertilization (actually, I rarely use root fertilization since I find it messy; I rescape frequently, and disturbing the root fertilizers is usually not good).

 

[james1542]

If the fluval plant sub is anything like their shrimp sub, it will not work for HC. The FSS is really light, and plants easily become uprooted, keeping anything smaller than chain swords and crypts down is a chore, boyant plants such as erios will be popping out of the substrate daily. I tried the MGOPM capped with river sand in my new tank and planting in it is a piece of cake! But to answer your question, you should add some ferts, I'd go with root tabs. If I'm not mistaken fluval stratum provides no ferts.

 

[daworldisblack]

Cool thanks for the input guys. does make some sense.. The Fluval Stratum does have ferts in there but I will be putting root tabs in for sure. As for it being light, hmm.. I'm going to have to feel the situation out. Maybe even do a dry start to get the roots established first.. Or I may cap with some left over Netlea Shrimp Substrate. We'll see! Thanks though!

 

[fplata]

HC requires lots of everything to carpet well. A dry start will make since, but eventually you will need light, co2 and dosing the water column

 

[Dugsul808]

From what I remember hc Is a high nutrient consuming plant. In my opinion if you want to get a nice carpet of both, you should grow both in DSM (Dry start method) and mist ferts every other day including airing out the tank (to exchange oxygen and co2). Doing this helped my get nice carpets of both plants.

 

[daworldisblack]

Thanks for the input. I think I'll try dosing the water column too then.. Maybe also maintain a bush of HM just in case