oscarito

Hi,

I have a 56 gallon planted aquarium that has been set up for about a month now. the subtrate is Seachem Flourite. I have Carolina fanwort, Pigmy chain sword and a couple others. I have not yet added any fertilezer and was wondering what to buy. There are so many in the market but i wanted to know what the best one is.

John N.

Seachem Fertilzers and Tropica Aquacare are good products sold at bigalsonline.com

However, many chose to add dry fertilizers from gregwatson.com because they are as effective and more cost efficient than the Seachem and Tropica lines. See the EI sticky for what exactly to purchase from gregwatson and a way to dose them into your tank.

-John N.

hoppycalif

If you were planting a bunch of houseplants you would look for a fertilizer that provided adequate amounts of NPK (nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium). That's what the three numbers on any fertilizer package refer to - like 10 - 10 - 20. Growing aquatic plants differs only in that the plants are under water, so can't get carbon from carbon dioxide in the air. They need either a different source of carbon or injected carbon dioxide. And, the specific chemicals used to provide NPK may be different, to avoid using things like urea or ammonia, which are algae magnets in a water tank. So, it isn't really complicated, and the "EI" or estimative index method is simple enough and successful enough that anyone can use it.