Fertilisers

[mseguin]

I was wondering what kind of fertiliser would be best for my tank. (I.e. best bang for the buck) It's a 29 gal, with 20 W fluo (looking to upgrade light but no money right now), with Cabomba, Sword, java fern, spiral val, water sprite and I beleive some type of dwarf crypt. I've been using Florapride, but was wondering if there's anything that would be better?

[DARKPHREAK]

Ok Im going to get bashed for saying this but in IMO you dont need ferts in this low light tank. With fish poo and uneaten food the plants would get enough to survive on. Look into ferts when you start getting near 2.5 wpg, dosing right now would just be feeding algea. Im sure someone will jump in saying they add ferts and have good growth with their 1 wpg tanks.

[BigDaddy]

The only thing I would add is root tabs under your sword and vals, as they will benefit from substrate ferts.  Ferts in the water column will likely just result in algae.

[mseguin]

Thanks.
Now what about if I were to upgrade to say, dual 20 W tubes? Same thing?

[DARKPHREAK]

Your talking about T5 tubes right? Remember, once you push 2.5 wpg you'll have a whole other mess to deal with, ie: injecting c02, ferts daily.

[BigDaddy]

At 40 Watts, you'd still be considered a low light tank.  Again, I'd just go with the root tabs.  Maybe a single dose of Flourish Complete a week.

[mseguin]

Thanks for the info.