On Jan 11, 10:58*am, Larry Blanchard wrote:
On Fri, 11 Jan 2008 02:36:37 -0500, Randy Webb wrote:
Right now, I am trying to find a good, cheap substrate to use in the
tank. I want something that the plants can actually root and grow in
that won't cost me a fortune to use. As it is now, about half of them
are simply floating in the tank because I can't make up my mind what
kind of substrate to use. Don't want to just keep trying things, them
failing, and having to start all over again.

A suggestion I've made before in this group is "tube sand" or "traction
sand". *Comes in 60 pound bags for around $5.00. *It's mostly small gravel
and/or coarse sand. *I sift out the really small stuff (yes it's a lot of
work), wash the rest, and voila! substrate. *

My plants grow great in it, but I do stick a fertilizer tablet under each
plant when planting. *By the time that's gone, the fish will have created
enough fertilizer to carry on, although I do use Flourish once a week for
trace elements.

I've been using Flourish Excel in some tanks and not in others. *After a
year or more, I can't tell any difference.

Then its safe to assume if you plant a tank and have fish in it, no
extra fertilizer is necesssary nor pay through thru nose for stuff
like Flourish Excel..............right? (Assuming the majority of
typical plants kept unless they are high intake type plants...I have
never ever spent any money on aquarium plant fertilizer and used to
use plant spikes etc.........then I quit using them as well and my
planats are all just as great now as they were before......and my
tanks are planted fairly heavy too. .A very good exporter of
phosphates and nitrates is frog bit. Frog bit is similar to water
hyacinth, but it doe snot get as large or as high, and usually only
gets perhaps 1/4" to 1/2" at most high off the water surface,. It
spreads widthwise and through fission creates smaller plants. Leaves
are about as large as a quarter in most cases and lcustered and
overlapped and shiney dark green. They do however get some very nice
suspended hair roots that are super for most all fish or in a fry tank
as those roots do collect lots of micro fauna and nutrients fry use to
grow as well as provide protection and Frog Bit is perhaps one of
the best exporters of nitrates, so algae blooms are also reduced. If
the top of the tank is open and there is room for upward growth,
Sensitve Vine is another nice plant that floats and has lots of hair
roots suspended under it. Both Frog bit and sensitive vine are easy to
propagate and control. I also use duckweed and Azola which is also a
floating plant and good at exporting nitrates etc and providing shaded
areas where it may be clustered up or contained. I find lots of
tropical fish that are herbivores's to eat it as well as omnivores.