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How to Choose fertilizer for planted aquariums

How to Choose fertilizer for planted aquariums
How to Choose fertilizer for planted aquariums

There exist a lot a aquarium fertilizer brands. All are good but few are fool proof.

What are the best fertilizers for Planted Aquariums in India?

Indian aquarium market is currently flooded with a lot of fertilizer brands. This includes imported planted aquarium fertilizers as well as made in India fertilizers.

Out of the entire lot, Aquavascular aquarium fertilisers comes out as the best made in India aquarium fertilizer and, from the imported ferlizer range, MASTERLINE aquarium fertiliser, APT 2hr Aquarist Fertiliser , Tropica Ferlizer and NilocG Aquarium Fertilizers are the Top ones in India.

How to Choose fertilizer for planted tanks?

Best way to choose the fertilizer for your planted aquariums is to first measure the water parameters of your aquarium, know how the soil and substrate system supports fertilisation and most importantly, have an Idead about what kind of elements are needed for the plants that you are going to have in the aquarium.

In India, source water parameters varies from state to state , city to city and even intra city. This makes things a bit difficult for hobbyists. How ever, brands like AquaVascular and MasterLine supports such vide range of water parameters and they also dissolve well in warm water conditions.

In a nutshell you may choose fertilizer as below:

If your plants are all Low Tech and if you have decent bio load (fish waste) – Then choose a fertilizer that does not contain a lot of Macro elements, ie, N P & K.

If your plants are all low tech but you have only limited bio load – Choose to go for daily dosing, add elements separately based on consumption by plants.

If your plants are all high tech / mix of high tech and low tech plants – Then you got to again answer yourselves the following:

  • What is your Bioload?
  • Do you want fast growth (farm tanks) or slow growth (display tanks)?
  • Do you want to starve your plants and enhance pigmentation?
  • How nutrient rich is your soil?
  • What is your water temperature?
  • Can you do daily dosing or are you a super busy person?

Plants can take nutrients from roots as well as leaf. If you have fair bioload and nutrient rich substrate , you may opt for a fertiliser with less nitrogen such as Masterline All in One Soil fertiliser. If not , you need fertiliser with nitrogen / nitrates.

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