Fertilising
Don’t let your plants starve!
A lot of aquarium owners have house plants, which they (to some extent) fertilise on a regular basis. Yet they don’t consider a fertilisation for their aquarium plants necessary. In their opinion the aquatic plants receive all the growth requiring substances they need through fish excrement and the water.
But this is only very slightly the case. Yes, the plants are supplied with water and, due to fish excrement, also with nitrogens and phosphates. But no, unfortunately this is not enough!
The main nutrient for plants is carbon dioxide (CO2), which they transform during photosynthesis with the help of light energy and water into food (sugar), releasing oxygen as a by-product.
Consequently, a CO2 fertilisation system is the most important way to supply your aquarium plants with nutrition. There is certainly CO2 dissolved in your aquarium water, but not enough for most plants to grow vigorously.
Do the plants in your aquarium grow exactly as you expect them to?
What leads to ideal plant growth? All the factors for good plant growth: light, LEDs, tubes, fertilisation, fertiliser quantity, fertilisation monitoring, influence of water conditioners, chelated iron. Watch an experiment to check the iron in fertilisers. Is the iron in fertilisers suitable for your aquarium? How to insert plants properly. How does the fertilisation of aquascaping aquariums differ from that of normal aquariums? When is an NPK fertiliser useful? We explain clearly and comprehensibly what you need for perfect plant growth in the aquarium.
Which factors lead to perfect plant growth?
Please do NOT expect that the purchase of a CO2 fertiliser system alone will lead to the expected plant growth. It may or may not work. This is due to the following reasons:
Your aquarium plants need several factors to grow. If one of the factors is missing or is present as a limiting factor in the minimum, the plant will only grow as far as this limiting factor allows. The simplest example would be light: If you supply your plants with sufficient fertiliser, CO2 and trace elements, but only switch on the light for 2 hours, the plants will hardly grow due to lack of light. This is exactly the same for ALL factors. So, for instance, a lack of potassium can limit growth.
Comparing this main food CO2 with the food humans need would mean it corresponds to our proteins, fats and carbohydrates. But for us humans these main nutrients alone are not sufficient. Without additional vitamins, minerals and trace elements we could become seriously ill and have a shorter life. In the same way plants require minerals and trace elements as well as CO2, and we can supply these with substrate and liquid fertilisers.
Plant fertilisers
The following fertiliser types are available for your plant care: