Ferti..Fertel...Damnit!!.. Plant food question

[Jason]

I have come to the conclusion that my frogs, dead crickets and any other bio waste will not be enough to sustain a great deal of plants in my tank. My question is regarding the use of plant food in my misting system and its inevitable leaching into the water table. will this food hurt my frogs via drinking and if so how does one supplement or add Fertilizers??

[froggsong]

My plants grow like weeds and I have to keep cutting them back and cutting them back... what are you using for soil? I have always used peat moss, with no problems, and I've never had to fertilize or replace plants. I'm even growing grass in my vive right now and it is doing great! I've actually had the same 2 sets of plants in various different vivariums for... 4 years? yeah, at least 4 years. You might also want to try adding some worms to your current substrate, they can really do wonders for breaking down waste faster, and making your substrate much more fertile. I have read that springtails can be a good addition too, I think that is to remove fungus and such. The worms should definitely help though. You could also make a compost pile and occasionally add a little bit under the top layer of substrate, as it is very fertile. A compost pile would be a good way to catch some worms too, as they love to eat fresh compost, and help turn it into soil. If you make some compost, don't add onions to it, I've had trouble with worms and onions. I absentmindedly threw some into my worm keeper and they ate it, and I couldn't get any of my worm eating herps to eat any more of them after that! They'd go to eat it and spit it out like it tasted horrible. You probably shouldn't be leaving dead crickets in there though, not very healthy for your herps. I definitely recommend trying the peat moss and the worms at the same time. When I start a new vive, I use peat moss and add some worms to it right from the start. Buying peat from Walmart or a garden store is fine as long as you bake it for a bit first to make sure there aren't any fungus or pests inside. You can also reuse the peat moss if you redo your vive if you bake it for a little bit. Don't overbake though! I did that once... It smells awful when it catches fire... yuck... Anyway, good luck!

[Green Ghost]

I haven't found that using fertilizer is necessary either. I have only live plants and I'm constantly cutting them back also.

I think the major contributing factor to good plant growth would be the lighting not fertilizer. Most of my plants are attached epiphytically and are not even in soil.


***EDIT: I got this for ya... How to Grow Beautiful Aquarium Plants (cheap)! ***

[jpstod]

I never fertilize a Tank.
I do use compost as my Substrate. I leave the trimmed plants in the Tank to compost more.
I have Roliie Pollies (Pill Bugs) and Earthworms in the Tanks to compost the clippings.

[Jason]

Ill grab some worms from the bait shop. and some pill bugs from around here in the park. as for soil i used what ever Big Als had in big bags that said it was good for growing plants in and coverd the top in peat moss. or " Beak moss" as it was labeled but the guy told me it was the same. Thats a cool link as well, think it would work in a Viv?

[Athen]

on the pillbugs and earth worms would it be ok to put into a tank with a waterdragon? also the fact that i have a subsurface watertable would that get in the way of using earthworms? and waht about springtails for the fungus what exactly are they and would they be harmful to the WD?

[froggsong]

Originally Posted by Athen

on the pillbugs and earth worms would it be ok to put into a tank with a waterdragon? also the fact that i have a subsurface watertable would that get in the way of using earthworms? and waht about springtails for the fungus what exactly are they and would they be harmful to the WD?

Worms are fine for the dragon, he may even eat them if they wiggle enough at the surface (very good protein and not chitinous at all which = very easy to digest). They are great to keep the substrate healthy. I haven't tried the springtails yet myself, but I've read they are good for the substrate and such... I've read somewhere that pillbugs are harmful if eaten. I don't remember where... There's always the chance that they were wrong, but I haven't put anymore in for my frogs since I read that. I'll have to try to find out again, because if they are ok, they are really good for the substrate. I'll try to find out more about the springtails, too, but any info I give you is going to come off the internet, so you may be able to satisfy yourself that way. As for them getting into the water table, do you have screen between the gravel and the substrate? I think you may have said at some point, but I have been reading alot of posts in the last few days! Even if you don't it should be fine, the worms will generally stay where they can eat. I just took a look at the pic you have up of the WD tank, and you should add a couple of branches on the land side for him to climb on if you haven't already (even though you don't have much up and down room!). That's a nice large water area you have there. I know you didn't ask for advice on the branches, sorry...

[jpstod]

Earthworms will stay above a watertable, so that will depend on the depth of the watertable and depth of the soil also. I don't drown my tanks although they do get wet.. Earthworms will keep the soil loose and areated stimulating root growth. They will break down plant material and help compost it. Earthworm can drown so they will seek out the right amount of moisture

Springtails are great for a Biosphere also. They are so small that unless your critters are itty bitty they don't figure into a Food Chain.

Well If Pillbugs are poisonous...Nature Already has instilled that into my critter already, because they never eat them. They tend to over run my tanks. I have them in every tank I have had without any problems

[froggsong]

that's awesome, I'd love to put some in my tanks again. I wonder if I can find them around here... I live in WA now, and I don't think I've seen any in the yard...

[jpstod]

Start a Compost Pile. If they out there, they will show up in the pile.

If people are interested enough I could be tempted to put some on Ebay and then charge a fortune for shipping hahaha