[bruinhd]

Hey folks,

I'm trying to make my Japanese hairgrass take off in a 5 gal Fuval Chi. It's been a month and so far I've just had runners. I ordered a Fluval CO2 injection system off of Amazon that's coming in 2 days. I experimented with flourish and other fert and all it got me was a crapton of green algae cloud which was a pain to cure.

So right now I have a powerful Marineland LED lighting upgrade, I swapped out the filter to something better and added a lid. i am trying to also limit the amount of sunlight exposure. Anyone know a good CO2 dosage? Should I try a go at this without fert?

Thanks ahead of time for the advice.

 

[HD Blazingwolf]

Fert will always be necessary... fish poop can only provide nitrates and po4

 

[JRMott]

Fert will always be necessary... fish poop can only provide nitrates and po4

Ferts are not always necessary, one needs to look no further than the low tech forum on this site to see that is true.

Your lighting is what really drives the need for ferts. The more light you have the more important ferts become.

 

[bruinhd]

Ferts are not always necessary, one needs to look no further than the low tech forum on this site to see that is true.

Your lighting is what really drives the need for ferts. The more light you have the more important ferts become.

Thank you for this input. As a follow up to what you have said, may I ask you two questions:

1. is my lighting giving off the correct wavelengths and/or power for significant photosynthesis to occur? It is LED and very bright.

2. What fertilizer would you go with? Something like Flourish or Aqueon or what? I have also found that the liquid CO2 stuff is kind of a joke so that is why I ordered a CO2 injection system.

Thank you once again.

 

[Hoppy]

Read the sticky on fertilizing schemes, just the first page is enough, and you will learn a lot about good fertilizing.

 

[HD Blazingwolf]

jrmott, that is like saying u can live healthily without a variety of food and vitamins.. sure u can survive. but how healthy are you if you don't have necessary proteins and minerals?

all plants have a need for these things however minute they may be. fish poop and tap water can provide many of these but in most cases, not all

that's where trace mixes come in for most people as tap water sometimes contains potassium therefore the majors are covered. also tap usually contains magnesium, clacium, sulphor, and iron so you are really only missing a few minors

 

[happi]

you will not see very healthy growth without NPK and Traces, no matter how low or high light the tank is, unless you are trying to keep mosses.

 

[bruinhd]

you will not see very healthy growth without NPK and Traces, no matter how low or high light the tank is, unless you are trying to keep mosses.

Thank you. This seems like useful advice.

 

[londonloco]

you will not see very healthy growth without NPK and Traces, no matter how low or high light the tank is, unless you are trying to keep mosses.

Hmmm, I'm thinking Diane Walstad would disagree with this statement. I'm remaining neutral as of now until my NPT is a year old.

 

[Hoppy]

Walstad tanks are always low light tanks, with slow growing plants, so it is possible for all of the nutrients to come from the substrate and fish poop/leftover fish food. That is one way to do a planted tank. Once you go to higher light, you need to actively supply the nutrients, either with a fertile substrate or with water dosing, or, preferably, both.

 

[happi]

Hmmm, I'm thinking Diane Walstad would disagree with this statement. I'm remaining neutral as of now until my NPT is a year old.

i never said that you cannot grow plant, Diane Walstad will off course disagree with me. i said you will not see a good and lush growth without adding those ferts.

i had a tank with no co2 and ferts, the only thing it had was root tabs and peat moss as substrate and Ludwigia inclinata var. verticillata 'Pantanal' was still growing but very slowly and this is a very stubborn plant.

the same plant grow 10 times faster under co2 and ferts along with high light.