[FernKing]

This is a question about low tech ”natural planted tanks” in search of a low tech, natural solution. There is concern for low tech dirted tanks becoming deficient with certain micronutrients for plants over time, specifically iron and potassium. What about feeding your animals food rich in those nutrients? Could/would that work? I recently added a chunk of cooked butternut squash to my “shrimp jars”. I was curious how my bladder snails would react to it since I usually feed them only fresh cucumber. They usually take 3 or so days to eat a slice of cucumber. But wow! I was shocked to see my snails shred the entire cube of butternut squash in less than 24 hours. It was reduced to a scattered pile of orange mulm on the bottom of the jar. 1 gram of butternut squash contains 3.5 mg of potassium! I know of people who feed their fish finely chopped meat like chicken, which can provide iron.
Since the point of the Walstad method is to provide macronutrients to plants through fish food, could one also “dose” micronutrients by feeding specific kinds of food to the aquarium’s animals?

 

[mistergreen]

Spinach & seaweed has lots of iron, zinc, iodine, and other micros. They make fancy ferts out of seaweed.

 

[FernKing]

Spinach & seaweed has lots of iron, zinc, iodine, and other micros. They make fancy ferts out of seaweed.

Exactly. I think there might be something to this. Instead of the fertilizers why not feed food with the nutrients? I know the fertilizers are more concentrated and this isn’t a short-term solution, but what if this is a daily maintenance thing with feeding fish, shrimp and snails? Between the animals and the bacteria they could be breaking down foods into plant absorbing nutrients.
The only question is, is this practical and is there a better or worse way of going about this?

 

[PlentyCoup]

I am going to see what info i can dig up about this. I am not sure if the amount needed to add these micronutrients via food would not cause its own issues because of the amount needed.
I had a fertilizer that i used for house plants that was almost straight seaweed, but it was a condensed powder form. I am not sure if buying natural dried seaweed would have the same effect. Giving my continued deficiencies this defiantly something i am interested in.

 

[mistergreen]

It should work. Whatever the animals don't consume, the plants will.
I used to make my own fish food with spinach, seaweed, and fish meal. I feed this to my goldfish pond. The pond has a planted bog filter. The plants seem like they grew better with homemade food vs commercial food.

 

[FernKing]

I am going to see what info i can dig up about this. I am not sure if the amount needed to add these micronutrients via food would not cause its own issues because of the amount needed.
I had a fertilizer that i used for house plants that was almost straight seaweed, but it was a condensed powder form. I am not sure if buying natural dried seaweed would have the same effect. Giving my continued deficiencies this defiantly something i am interested in.

I’m thinking the amount should be right. The speed at which my snails ate and processed squash should add plenty of potassium. What I really need is shrimp to further break down the mulm and Malaysian trumpet snails to dig and mix the mulm into the substrate. Again, I don’t think this is a short term solution. It should look like “I never have problems with “____” deficiency because I feed my fish and snails food rich in that”. I think success in this will look like ‘no problems to report’. It’ll be hard to test.

 

[PlentyCoup]

I’m thinking the amount should be right. The speed at which my snails ate and processed squash should add plenty of potassium. What I really need is shrimp to further break down the mulm and Malaysian trumpet snails to dig and mix the mulm into the substrate. Again, I don’t think this is a short term solution. It should look like “I never have problems with “____” deficiency because I feed my fish and snails food rich in that”. I think success in this will look like ‘no problems to report’. It’ll be hard to test.

So been looking up seaweed and trying to determine what is the best to buy. So i am attempting to compare aquarium seaweed vs organic human grade all of which i am comparing to the dried micronutrients ferts that i was adding to my tank for iron deficiencies but also totally screwed up my water hardness by adding to much magnesium. So here is the breakdown for the ferts i wad using.

Now am only including this as a comparison because seaweed contains magnesium and each brand/maker/batch/location seems to contain different quantities of iron, magnesium iodine etc.
So now i am trying to figure out which is more cost effective seaweed labeled for aquariums or organic seaweed for humans. So far the human grade seaweed has the nutrient breakdown, not all of the aquarium labeled seaweed does. I am also not sure if any of this really matters, but seaweed is also really high in iodine which i am not sure if this is something we need to consider.
Heres some of the human grade seaweed.

And another

It seems that seaweed might have different micronutrients makeup based on its location?
Or maybe i am just putting way, way too much thought into all this.......

 

[FernKing]

It seems that seaweed might have different micronutrients makeup based on its location?
Or maybe i am just putting way, way too much thought into all this.......

That sounds correct actually. I think the issue is refinement. “Fertilizer” is refined and is no longer in its kinder/gentler food source state. It’s pretty hard to ”overdose” on food when it comes to micro nutrients. Seaweed in particular will vary from source and I bet they aren’t using the same species from different sources.

 

[mistergreen]

The seaweed fert is composted. The volume of matter is reduced to like 25%, so the nutrients are concentrated.
You can find cheap seaweed by visiting the local Asian grocery store. You'll find all sorts of dried seaweeds. Don't buy seasoned (salt, pepper, oil, etc..) seaweed.

 

[Steven F]

It seems that seaweed might have different micronutrients makeup based on its location?
Or maybe i am just putting way, way too much thought into all this.......

All of the nutrients in seaweed come from the water. And the concentration of each is fairly constant throughout the open oceean. In a sheltered bay orlegoon may be higher or lower due to fresh water flowing the area or evaporation. The biggest cause of variation you might be seeing could be due to the species of Seaweed. Different plants can have different nutrient requirements than other plants.