Useful Plant Diagnosis Charts

Plant nutrient deficiencies are actually very uncommon, whether in tanks or in gardens. In tanks, if you have a decent number of fish and are not too obsessed with gravel cleaning, they will provide enough nutrients. The only difference between plants and animals is one trace element which plants need (I think it's Boron??) but animals don't. Fish food is itself made of animal material and will contain all of the elements necessary for plant growth, every time you feed your fish you are fertilising the plants. If you have very few fish, or are determined to keep your substrate totally pristine, then you may need to add fertilisers. But I reckon most plant failures are down to not enough light for the plant in question, a poor rooting substrate (e.g. fairly coarse gravel)  or the allelopathic behaviour of some plants where the plant produces a chemical which inhibits the growth of another plant species, a phenomenon well established experimentally. So don't assume that if your plants don't grow well that it is necessarily down to a nutrient problem. Also, algae need exactly the same nutrients as your plants and so if you add fertiliser when it is not needed you may merely encourage algal growth. If I were to use fertilisers (which I've never needed) then I'd choose root tabs rather than something added to the water as they would feed the plants but not the algae.
Also, remember one of the major plant nutrients is nitrogen, which they generally obtain from nitrates, so there is little point in changing your water all the time to reduce nitrates and then adding fertiliser to replace the nitrogen source.

Richard most of what you've said makes perfect sense for most aquarium keepers.

The best philosophy is, usually, to keep it simple.

Fill with water, add plants, add fish, feed fish.

However, some people want to try and do things in a more controlled manner.

High light, COČ injection, fertilisers etc are all part of this hobby, for those that want it, for good reason.



You wont acheive something like the above (not my tank) by purchasing a mixed bunch of plants for a fiver and hoping for the best.

I have a low-tech tank with A LOT of plants and early on realised that I wouldn't succeed with the 'hope for the best' approach.

Some of my plants developed nutrient deficiencies. They became yellow and leggy with holes in the leaves.

So, I read lots and lots, and much contradictory information is out there.

So, after weighing everything up, I decided to use EasyLife ProFito, at the recommended dose, but split into a daily dose instead of weekly.
I also add root-tabs every six months or so.
I use EasyLife Carbo daily too.

I noticed an almost immediate improvement. The leaves remained green, and plant growth was phenomenal.

I'm glad you've found success with the 'hope for the best' approach, however, depending on the number and type of plants, and the nutritional quality of our tap water, it may be useful to refer to the charts above and do something to improve things.

Quote from: Extreme_One on March 20, 2016, 04:18:51 PM

Are you volunteering to write something?

Sure  but it won't be until the Easter break, I've got a 3k word psychology assignment to write before Thursday 

Brilliant.  No hurry of course.

I'd be happy to help proof-read or source images or anything you need. Let me know.

Quote from: Extreme_One on March 20, 2016, 04:46:07 PM

I'd be happy to help proof-read or source images or anything you need. Let me know.

My psychology assignment? Brave man! 

ROFL. 

Seriously though, I'll try and figure out the best way to do it. Start with a beginners guide to easy plants first and go from there. We could do a few different threads even.

Sounds great. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

I reckon my tanks are more of a jungle than yours

Not sure if you've seen my jungle and that's why you chose that word. I certainly don't go for the aquascaped look.

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I'd be interested in seeing photos of your tanks if you've taken any lately.   


{EDIT} Just found this thread from February 2014  which shows some lovely photos of Richard's tanks.





I like them very much.

Funny how some people can have lush green tanks on fish poo alone and others need to feed their plants.

I did put a couple of photos on here a year or so ago.

I found the thread and added to my previous post.

Very nice!
Not to everyone's taste but like you I prefer the more natural look.

You can grow great veggies with cow or horse poo, so why not grow aquatic plants with fish poo ............
And don't forget I have about 5 cms of soil under the gravel. The theory is (and it seems to work) that the poo works its way down through the gravel and maintains nutrient levels in the soil.

One conclusion I have reached is that plants are much easier to grow with gravel under the soil than with sand. I'd always use gravel in any new tanks I set up and I might change some over from sand to gravel in future. I reckon sand alone would be very difficult without some other substrate under it.

Wow Richard, those tanks are beautiful