Fertilizers

[dAwNdAwN]

Hi,

I got sort of confused about base fertilizers. I bought a tube of sera floradepot earlier but tear down my tank and rescape it when it's seriously infected with algae. While I was washing the gravels, I found that there are alot of fine sand mixed with it and had a hard time separating the sand from gravels. Today, I went to C328 and bought myself a tube of Hexa root growth but found that the whole tube looks like sand! I don't dare to use it at all.

Here's my question. Are all base fertilizers mixed with sand? I don't like the mixture at all.

Just found out from all Gen-X and C328 that JBL aquabasis ran out of stock. Where can I get some decent fertilizer (any brand) which doesn't cause a cloud when we are doing planting and doesn't contain any sand? I would like to try on dennerle deponit-mix or JBL aquabasis. Heard that the aqua-plant sand from Japan also not bad. Any comments? I seriously need to get some base fertilizers soon. Price not too ex should be ok for me. Thanks!

[PeterGwee]

Nature comes to mind...JBL. C328 has dennerle deponit. Sera floradepot and hexa root growth are quite similar (Don't wash them...you are washing away the minerals..or so say fert. Treat them like any other fert and lay it first or after a thin layer of gravel followed by another layer of gravel to prevent leeching of fert into water.) No you cannot get crystal clear water immediately no matter what base fert you use...you need to change the water a couple of times and wait for the sendiments to settle down or get stuck in your filter media. []

[dAwNdAwN]

peter ---> the minerals are existed as a form of sand particles? I think sera floradepot and hexa root growth are quite different. Sera got some soil, peat and salt contents mixture but Hexa got only sand-like stuff. How about other brands? Any reccomendation on any brands which does not have the sandy mixture but soil-like mixture? Does dennerle have this sandy-mixture as well? I don't wanna risk buying something which end up looking like a pot of sand-like fertilizer and paying double the price.

Anyone got any idea where I can find this aqua plant sand from japan? Isit expensive and does any LFS carry it? I prefer to hunt ard east side or west side of SG. Thanks!

[hwchoy]

DawnDawn, Nature got stock of JBL base fert yesterday. Cheong ah!

[vinz]

Dennerle Deponit (NOT Deponit-Mix) is like soil.

JBL AquaBasis is quite fine. Suppose to be fine clay particles.

[Allen_1971]

Dawn dawn,

It might look like sand, but if its sold as a fert, I'm pretty sure its got more nutrient content than plain old sand.

[dAwNdAwN]

I still don't really trust those sand-like fertilizer. Looks suspicious to me on how they are going to let the plants absorb the nutrients since alot of the sand particles are not dissolved by water. Anyway, I'm going to use Hexa root growth as the substrate for my 1.5ft ft tank and see how. Looks like the whole thing can be used as substrate cos non-dissolvable. I hope I can find JBL today or have to fork out money to buy dennerla.

BTW, how do u all look at the terms, base fertilizer, substrate fertilizer, substrate supplement or fertilizer? Does substrate fertilizer mean fertilizer mixed with substrate(sand or gravels). This is the part I've been confused about.

[Allen_1971]

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On 12/10/2002 11:43:45 AM

Looks suspicious to me on how they are going to let the plants absorb the nutrients since alot of the sand particles are not dissolved by water
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Errrr... most substrate ferts do NOT dissolve in water? thats the whole point of the substrate. If it dissolved in water, it would all leech into your water column and cause lots of problems.

[sherchoo]

I don't think the Sera version differs much from the JBL version of base fert. They are basically the same. Even if you're using JBL Aquabasis, if you're not gonna be able to remove all of it if you decide to wash away the base fert mixed in gravel.

[budak]

You just have to accept it: Base fert is indissolvable fert that comes in sand or soil-like forms for placing beneath or mixed with the normal gravel. They contain the nutrients plants need in a solid form which will erode slowly over some years. Iron, for instance, is better as a solid base fert, rather than as a liquid additive which oxidises quickly (making it useless) and allows algae to absorb it. It may look like sand, but I think if it were just plain sand, aquarists would have complained about the lack of plant growth from it long ago. When you use solid fert and pull out the plants after a while, you can see the roots literally clinging to the bits of fert, absorbing the nutrients over time.

Base fert and substrate fert are the same thing. They are usually sold separate from the normal gravel, with the exception of Seachem's laterite/flourite, which doubles as a gravel.
I would regard substrate supplement as additional things like those Root Monster that you add as tablets to the substrate. Best if you apply enough base fert in the beginning so that you don't have to use the supplements.

[dAwNdAwN]

ok. Now I get it. So the form the base fertilizer appears as doesn't affect the absorption for plants.

But I still prefer to get the soil-type of base fertilizer rather than the sand-like type cos if really got anything wrong(touch wood!), I'll have a super hard time washing out the sand.

[bclee]

Basically, all those base ferts or even those substrate that do not require base ferts, like Nisso or Flourite, do is to be a media for ionic exchange. So it doesn't really matter when it comes to appearance.

If appearance do matter, Flourite must be the worst among all. We know that this isn't true.

BC

[sherchoo]

dawn2,

If you want you can use Aquatic compost for ponds which would be more to what you are looking for. But mind you, that when you uproot plants, the fert is and will get into the water column and foul up your water up nice and good.

[loupgarou]

JB? Aquabasis plus still got stock at KEONG SEONG

also, c328 has denerle deponit mix and genx has U.P Aquasomething

[tawauboy]

it seems that base fertilizers are sand-like. me 'suaku' as i don't use base fertilizer. so if there is a need to separate gravel and sand, maybe a wire mesh with grid size about 1-1.5mm can be used to sieve and recover 'pure' gravel.
just and idea, don't know if this works.