The Grass Doctor

plant fertilizer - liquid or tabs?

hi! i was thinking about buying some fertilizer for my plants, i cant really decide which to buy though.. currently in my tank (10g) are: Ambulia Anacharis (some weird ret spots on some leaves) Anubias barteri var. nana' (3-4 leaves have tiny white sprinkles on them) Crypt, Walkerii Hornwort (had lots of brown needles - i threw half of it out..) Water Sprite (some leaves have little red/brown spots) Wendtii, Red (i got them all shipped from aquariumplants.com around 2 weeks ago) well and 2 guppies, 1 oto and 1 cory which would you suggest? best would be one thats available in petco or walmart. i dont really want to pay $8 dollars shipping..

Public Comments

1. You need both liquid and tablet type fertilizer. Fine-leaf plants absorb nutrients through their leaves in the water and thus need liquid fertilizers. Ambulia, anacharis and hornwort do well with liquid fertilizers. Those with large, broad leaf plants take their nutrients from the roots and thus need tablet fertilizers buried near their roots. Anubias, crypts and water sprite do well with tablet fertilizer. Fertilizers are only part of growing water plants. You also need to have the correct lighting, and CO2 gas fertilization.
2. The only plants that will benefit from substrate fertilizers are the Crypts. Ambulia, Anacharis, Anubias, Hornwort, and Water Sprite all absorb their nutrients almost entirely from the water column (thus their very delicate, fine root-fiber-lacking roots), while Crypts obtain theirs from a good balance between the substrate and their water. Using only a couple substrate fertilizers by the Crypts and regular liquid fertilization would be a great medium. If you can get it, Flourish would be the best... after that, most of them are about the same.