How can I test to tell if I need additional fertilizers?

[TankedUp]

Just to start out hi I'm new here. I just got into live plants and at the moment I five large Anubias and two Nana. I also started with two bunches of jungle val... they have propagated into about a dozen small plants. My question is my anubias was do great the first month but now I'm seeing yellowing and some spots on a few leaves. Is i likely they ate all the nutrients in the water column and need more?

I'll spare my tank setup but its understocked, way more bio filtration than I really need, and has never tested high on anything other than PH. But that's just what we get here 8.2-8.5.

Any help thanks!

[AdamTill]

Do you use any fertilizer?

[test.tin]

Hello there! If you're getting yellowing and spots on leaves then its a sign you already needed fertilizers. Anubias are slow growers, so if they are showing signs now, it means its been needing additional nutrients for a while. Most likely your jungle val is using all the nutrients since it is a fast grower, not leaving much behind for the anubias

Since your tank is understock, I would recommend you get a all in one fertilizer, like easy green. The good thing about easy green is that it provides your plant with all the nutrients, macro and micro nutrients. Once using easy green, you want your nitrate to sit around 20-50ppm. The reason is because in easy green, nitrate is used as an indicator since its easier to test than the other nutrients. So if you're sitting around 20-50ppm of nitrates, it means the other nutrients are gonna be in good range for your plants.

[TankedUp]

5 minutes ago, AdamTill said:

Do you use any fertilizer?

I just started using Flurish tabs for my Jungle vals other than that no.

[TankedUp]

8 minutes ago, test.tin said:

Hello there! If you're getting yellowing and spots on leaves then its a sign you already needed fertilizers. Anubias are slow growers, so if they are showing signs now, it means its been needing additional nutrients for a while. Most likely your jungle val is using all the nutrients since it is a fast grower, not leaving much behind for the anubias

Since your tank is understock, I would recommend you get a all in one fertilizer, like easy green. The good thing about easy green is that it provides your plant with all the nutrients, macro and micro nutrients. Once using easy green, you want your nitrate to sit around 20-50ppm. The reason is because in easy green, nitrate is used as an indicator since its easier to test than the other nutrients. So if you're sitting around 20-50ppm of nitrates, it means the other nutrients are gonna be in good range for your plants.

Ok I'll get some. This won't effect my fish at all right? I got some juvenile German Blues and I want to see them get pretty! My goal is to 100% fake plant free someday but need to learn as I go.

[Daniel]

 

@Irene had a good blog post on this

Nutrient Deficiencies: Why Your Aquarium Plants Are Dying

WWW.AQUARIUMCOOP.COM

---

Do you have the perfect planted aquarium setup, but your plants are still dying one by one? Even if you’re regularly dosing fertilizers, your plants...