The Parts of Fertilizer

Fertilizer is an important part of a planted tank. Many people do it but not many people know what the various chemicals and minerals inside fertilizer actually do. So I did a little research and this is what I came up with.

Groups of Nutrients
There are three groups of nutrients. Macro, Micro and trace elements. These nutrients are used in varying amounts in different places of the plant.

Macro Nutrients
These are your standard NPK fertilizers that you would find in most fertilizers. They are Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potash, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulfur, Chlorine, Iron and Sodium. These nutrients are used in large quantities and are essential to plant growth. These nutrients are used in different amounts so they should be dosed separate from a broad range fertilizer.

Micro Nutrients
These nutrients are a wide range of slowly used nutrients that include trace elements. These include things such as Boron, Cobalt, Copper, Magnesium, Molybdenum and Zinc. They are less essential then Macro Nutrients and because of there shorter life span they are harder to overdose and will not usually cause algae blooms.

I will be posting some short post on the use and how to detect deficiency of each nutrient.

New Feeding Schedule

I recently switched from feeding once a day in the evening to feeding my fish twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. I haven't done much research into this but the fish seem to be quite a bit more lively and the neon's seem to have a bit brighter color. Just something to try if your fish are sluggish and you are feeding only once a day.

IF your fish are sluggish it could be many other things too. Low oxygen, high nitrites or nitrates, too much Co2, shock, too much or too little light, environment (moving rocks, or having no places to hide, no plants) are all things you should consider before feeding more food to your fish because the increase in waste could overpower the bacteria in a bare bottom or overstocked tank.