Substrate

[blur one]

A question for the long time planted aquarist. I was told that from time to time, a planted tank needs to be "torn down" and re-planted as the fertilizers are used up. (Was told about 1 to 2 years) Is this the case ?

How can we avoid this ?? Some say push monster root...fert sticks into the substrates ??

What about using a substrate of volcanic sand ?? This is supposed to be high in nutrient content ?? Will it prolong the need for a tear down ?

Also, was told that the base fert will "explode" after time. Not literally but will cause alot of nutrients to leech into the tank and thus cause algae growth....any truth to this ??

[geoffrey]

Some have succeeded with just gravels only, no base at all. Fertilising is done through the water column. The marvelous thing about aquatic plants is they do not depend on just their roots for mineral uptake.

[anarchy]

just leave the base fert under the gravel and put into fert sticks every year. make sure after putting the sticks in, close the hole. should be alright.

[tawauboy]

you can have a successful planted tank which has a gravel only substrate.
adding fertiliser sticks to heavy root feeder is a common practice among aquarist. when using fertiliser sticks, just ensure that the sticks are inserted deep into the gravel and use them sparingly.

you can also periodically tear down your setup to completely revamp your aquascape and changing the base fertiliser.

[chua]

Is it true that the base fertilizer is used up when it diappeared. If not, how do we know that it has been used up?

[bclee]

Actually, the so called base fertiliser is a medium with the capacity (CEC or cation exhange capacity) to hold on to nutrients in an available form for plants.

Gravel is poor in that. Thats why we uses base such as laterite, moss or commercially availabe base fertilisers like JBL Aquabasis. These can be "recharged" by introducing root tabs or even with nutrients from the water column.

I am not sure whether these base will lose its capacity over time. But that could be a possibility.

I have had a planted tank with plain gravel only. I find that water column fertilising becomes more critical. I can quickly run out of certain nutrients (e.g. NO3 or PO4) if I do not keep up with the fertilisation and the impact on the plant is fast. Base fertilisers can act as a depot of alternative nutrient for the plants to use. But water column fertilising is still very important for high light/CO2 enriched tanks.

BC