Aquarium Plant Supplies from Dave Gomberg
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It takes several individual items to have a fast-growing, vigorous planted tank.
Here are some major requirements:
Information
CO2
Fertilizer
Test kits
Lighting
Substrates
Driftwood
Information:
The best source of planted aquarium information is
Planted Aquaria Magazine.
See
Books
below for more great resources.
CO2:
Just as fish need fish food, plants need a source of
their primary nutrients: light and CO2. Lighting is covered below.
CO2 can be supplied by fish, by the decay of organic material, or
by direct supplementation. For my
CO2 FAQ page,
click here, otherwise
this brief summary will have to do.
If you want fast, aggressive plant growth or to grow a plant that
requires high light and fast growing conditions, you will need to
add CO2 to your tank unless you have a very, very high fish load.
Supplemental CO2 can come from one of three sources: fermentation
by yeast, compressed gas from a tank, or magic.
I call the remaining sources magic because there are no
examples I have seen that have worked reliably and cost-effectively
for a wide selection of users. They mostly fall in the category of
snake oil.
Yeast can be quite reliable and has very low startup costs. The
downside is that it is a constant source of annoying drudge work.
If you like washing dishes, you may love yeast as a CO2 source.
If you are lazy like me, you will appreciate the convenience of
compressed CO2. Once every couple of years, you get your tank
refilled. The downside is that this is not very convenient if you
don't live near a CO2 vendor and the tank and associated equipment
is expensive (US$125 or more).
Being lazy, I only stock and support
compressed gas systems. For
more info about yeast systems, see
The Krib,
one of the best resources for aquarium gardeners.
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Fertilizers
If you have few fish or lots of plants, you will likely need to add
some fertilizer to your tank. I no longer sell fertilizers, but
recomment that you buy your Tropica Master-Grow micronutrient
fertilizer from bigalsonline.com
Lighting
It is important that your plants get enough light. Direct sunlight
is OK, especially if it is not available for too long a period.
Light pipes are good too.
If you want to use artificial light, compact fluorescent (cf) bulbs are
best. The consensus seems to be 2 to 4 watts per gallon of cf.
One new source of cf lighting seems to be particularly fairly priced,
Aquarium Hobby Supply, Give their
site a look.
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Books
I am proud to offer the Tropica Catalog. It offers the most complete
list of plants and detailed cultural information at a popular price.
You can
order
your own copy of this fine work for $12, plus $3 for packing
and shipping.
And now Christel Kasselmann's master work, Aquarium Plants, is available
in English. You can buy it from me.
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Substrates
I use
Turface MVP
from Aimcor. It is intended for dressing the base paths on
baseball diamonds. I buy it from a local supplier who provides it to
smaller parks in small quantities (50 pound bags, $8 per bag). I don't
sell this product, to find your nearest dealer, contact Aimcor at
800-207-6457. Or ask at your local ballpark where they get Turface.
Another choice is Flourite (note the spelling) from Seachem. The problem
is that you need a lot of it and although it is reasonably priced per
pound, you need a lot of pounds. I don't have a good solution for this
yet.
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Driftwood
Many aquarists (me included) use driftwood as a decorating accent.
It is also reputed to provide roughage to some catfish.
You should search the web for current sources of driftwood.
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Last updated February 10, 2003.