Depending on your lighting situation, liquid fertilizers may be called for. Under high light conditions, plants are driven harder, and require more nutrients and CO2.

If you are looking to save money, then you should purchase dry chemicals; it is the cheapest option, and you can customize your own dosing.

 

I have an eheim aquastyle 9 - the light from what I've gathered is medium, a 7 watt LED, supposedly 1200 lumens I think? And I hear that because it's LED light it cuts through water differently/more intensely than other types. I've heard it's medium to approaching high in terms of brightness but I can't tell myself since this is my' first planted tank. I don't think I can afford a CO2 setup anytime soon either btw. I could look into a DIY scenario later on at some point maybe but don't people do rather well without that anyway?

 

I am not too familiar with that light so I cannot tell you in certain terms what kind of lighting you have. Perhaps other members here can chime in.

However, if you cannot afford pressurized CO2, then DIY CO2 is another method you can go with.

It is possible to maintain an aquarium with no CO2, but these are generally lower light aquariums; in medium light and up, CO2 is generally needed in order to keep the plants healthy so that algae does not take advantage.

 

All planted tanks, unless keeping the least demanding of species, will need some type of fertilizers.

Need for macro nutrients is driven by light and supplied by fish waste and uneaten fish food.

low light = low requirement for macros
lots of fish = high supply of macros (with the exception of K will frequently be deficient if relying only on fish waste)

So you can get away without macro nutrients assuming you have ow medium light and a decent fish load. Though I would still dose potassium.

But even with the best substrate in the world you will eventually becime micro deficient.

ALL tanks (with very few geographical exceptions) will become deficient in micro-nutrients over time. The first deficiency most see and report in my experience is iron.

whether you add the fertilizer as a liquid or a powder is immaterial. But I would suggest a buying dry unless you like paying for and paying to ship water.

Look up nilocg sale thread for dry ferts. You will be shocked how cheap they are compared to the liquid crap

 

Nilocg? So are dry fertilizers comparable to what I would get if for example I got anything from ADA? or Pfertz? And when you say dry ferts are you talking about like the kind you insert into the substrate? "root tabs?"

 

If you want to make a liquid solution from dry ferts for your 9 gallon tank you would need some dosing containers, 500ml bottles would be good for a tank your size. You would mix the following:

Bottle 1- MacroNutrients-
20.831 g KNO3
4.061 g K2HPO4
Fill to the 500ml mark with RO water, dose 10ml 3x per week

Bottle 2- MicroNutrients
13.043 g Plantex CSM+B
Fill to the 500ml mark with RO water, dose 10ml 3x per week on alternating days with the Macros.

Do a 50% water change on the 7th day.

 

Ah, with a 9 gallon aquarium, 454 grams of dry chemicals (1 pound) should last more than a year, even if you are dosing EI (I assume that is what nilocg posted).

 

What does EI mean?