[Blackheart]

I recently switched out my flourite substrate for just plain black gravel because of how dirty the flourite was. It was always constantly a huge mess with lots of debris everywhere.

Well, now that I have just plain gravel, I need some tips on how to possibly give plants nutrients. I have used Flourish tabs in the past before, but they never really did anything it seems. I always hear about the osmocote tabs. Are these worth looking into and should I check into anything else?

 

[thedood]

I use O+ tabs in gel caps and have great results. Depending on the gravel I can see some individual pieces of O+ floating in the water column if care isnt taken but I cant say for sure because I use dirt in all of my low tech tanks.

 

[Hilde]

Well, now that I have just plain gravel, I need some tips on how to possibly give plants nutrients.

It really depends on what plants you get. Stem plants I have gotten at a Pet Supermarket grow in gravel great.

I have heard of many whom grow plants in gravel. They dose more in the water than I do in my dirted tank. Ferts they have told me they use are CSM+B, Potassium sulfate, Potassium nitrate and Baking Soda. My breeding tank will be sand, which is inert as gravel, thus I shall find out what works.

 

[Blackheart]

They have packs of 3 different kinds of ferts from Seachem. One pack has Flourish, Flourish Excel and Iron. The other has Flourish Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium.

Should I get both packs?

 

[Raymond S.]

With all the tanks you have you should have gone dry ferts long ago.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/1...ert-|-plus-all-my-other-dry-liquid-ferts.html

 

[Diana]

Those are a good blend of ferts. They can get a bit expensive, though. You are paying for shipping water. Very little active ingredients. Go ahead and get one of each package, then save the bottles and buy the dry ingredients, mix your own. Good idea to keep each separate until you figure out how your tank responds, which balance of fertilizers it needs.

Nitrogen
Phosphorus
Potassium
...are the fertilizers that plants use the most of.

Traces (Flourish Comprehensive)
Iron
...are the fertilizers that plants use less of, but they need them.

Excel is a source of carbon.