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:
You have two options. Firstly you can put a long-term nutrient substrate ( JBL PROFLORA AquaBasis plus ) as the lowest layer in your aquarium when initially setting it up. With that you provide your plants with all important minerals and trace elements from the start.
After a while the nutrients will be used up and you can replenish the nutrient reservoir in the soil with a liquid fertiliser ( JBL PROFLORA Ferropol ). In addition you have the opportunity to specifically inoculate the substrate during an initial setup with a mixed bacterial culture which prevents the colonisation of unwanted bacteria (Cyanobacteria = blue-green algae) and supplies the plant roots with nutrients bound to the substrate as well as with minerals. With JBL PROSCAPE PLANT START JBL has such a product in its range.
If your aquarium is already set up, you have the option of of putting fertiliser balls ( JBL PROFLORA 7 Balls ) or fertiliser tablets ( JBL PROFLORA Ferropol Root ) into the root area of your plants. The fertiliser tablets are renewed every 30 days and the fertiliser balls every six months.
Ideally you supply your aquarium plants every week with the basic fertiliser JBL PROFLORA Ferropol . If you combine the fertilisation with the partial water change, AFTER the partial water change you can JBL PROFLORA Ferropol re-dose on basis of the CHANGED water quality. Many popular aquarium plant species, such as Hemianthus, Glossostigma, Elatine and the mosses (Taxiphyllum, Vesicularia, Riccardia, Fissidens, Fontinalis) absorb their nutrients mainly through their leaves. Therefore in this case a liquid fertilisation is more effective than a root fertilisation.
With a long-term nutrient substrate ( JBL PROFLORA AquaBasis plus ) you create a perfect basis for a long lasting and healthy plant growth. Through a specific addition of fertiliser balls ( JBL PROFLORA 7 Balls ) your supply for your plants a nutrient depot for about 180 days. But there are also minerals which are consumed very fast. To fertilise them on a monthly basis JBL PROFLORA Ferropol Root has been developed. Please specifically add one fertiliser tablet into the root area of the plants which absorb their nutrients mainly through their roots. These include Echinodorus, Cryptocoryne, Vallisneria, Hygrophila, Bacopa, Alternanthera and Ludwigia etc.
Some trace elements react very quickly in the water with the containing oxygen and are then no longer available to the plants in the oxidised form. We have therefore developed a daily fertiliser ( JBL PROFLORA Ferropol 24 ) with which you can add the oxygen sensitive minerals and trace elements ADDITIONALLY to the basic fertiliser on a daily basis. JBL PROFLORA Ferropol 24 also contains the three macroelements iron, magnesium and potassium. Although these are already added with the weekly stock fertilisation with JBL PROFLORA Ferropol , they should be available in higher concentrations for demanding plant species, as their growth will otherwise be limited by a deficiency of precisely these three minerals.
Aquariums in which a lot of plants but only few fish live (e.g. aquascapes) often show a lack of nitrogens (N), phosphates (P) and potassium (K). Together with a NPK fertiliser ( JBL PROSCAPE NPK MACROELEMENTS ) you can target dose these substances In such aquariums. Over the ProScape dosage calculator you can determine the actual nutrient consumption in your aquarium and add the nutrients together (NPK fertiliser) or even individually ( JBL PROSCAPE N MACROELEMENTS / JBL PROSCAPE P MACROELEMENTS / JBL PROSCAPE K MACROELEMENTS ).
Aquascapers also like to work with a special highly concentrated basic fertiliser ( JBL PROSCAPE Fe +MICROELEMENTS ). Similar to the JBL PROFLORA Ferropol it contains the most important minerals and trace elements, but also includes the sensitive trace elements which need to be added along with JBL PROFLORA Ferropol and the daily fertiliser JBL PROFLORA Ferropol 24 . Because it is dosed on a daily basis it may contain trace elements sensitive to oxygen.