fertilizer?

hey guys im going in planted for the first time and i was wondering if ferts are neccesary and if so which one is best
im still new to tropical aquariums
:blushing:

 

Where are you located and have you tested KH and GH ? Low tech or high tech ?

 

cape town

 

i dont have the tank yet
low tech

 

@aqua dude - all plants need some sort of Co2 - Pressurized or in liquid form like excel. That would be where your choices in going planted starts.

If you want to go High Tech you'll need pressurized Co2, bright lights and lots of ferts.

If you want to go Low Tech you'll need Seachem Excel, Medium to low lights and minimum ferts. In my low tech tanks I only dose half the recommended dosage.

I would suggest you start by identifying the type of plants you want in your tank and reading up on what their requirements are. That will give you an idea into which direction you should go from there.

One thing I have also learned is that you need to plan your scape, do your planting, and only laaaaaaaaaaater add your fish. It's very hard doing scaping in a tank full of water and fish and it's worth spending a little time beforehand planning the look and feel you want before adding the fish.

Have a look at this link with regards to plants and their requirements Plants - Tropica Aquarium Plants

Tropica makes fertilizers as well that you can look into. Seachem has two ranges that I'm aware of. Have a look at their productshttp://www.seachem.com/Products/Planted.html

I've seen tanks with great results with their more expensive range - Aquavitro, ( aquavitro . a premium line from Seachem ) and then a lot of people will not use anything but DSD - with fantastic results (you're bound to find a thread on it)

A very esteemed fishy friend is also bringing out a new line of fertilizers soon but that has not hit the market yet. We're all holding our breaths...

Hth

 

@Marius Swart - will be able to tell you of the different results he got between DSD and the Seachem range

 

Thanks dinky helped a lot

 

@Dinky :redface: , ek dink almal weet wat ek dink van Flourish :banghead: Flourish works for some and for some not, for me the only thing Flourish range did was making a few early wrinkles and made my pocket a lot lighter , With low tech you can go either with excel and comprehencive of Seachem ( flourish ) or DSD that worked , still works wonder with my high tech and also low tech . Maar @aqua dude , as dai plant gogga byt sal jy wil co2 gaan , much more expensive but so much more , but low tech can also be very nice looking . What are you planning on lights and substrate?

 

im gonna use a fluorescent tube T5
for substrate im going to use fluorite

 

IMHO Seachem or EI ferts.
They are the most widely used for a reason.:idea:

 

imo rather EI then than Seachem

 

how about dsd
i heard those are good too

 

I have never used it before.

 

People who uses DSD I have never heard anything bad about it , using it on 4 of my tanks , Flourish on the other hand :cry:

 

does anybody know where or how to get some dsd
also whats the price

 

PM me your email address , ill forward the price list