Additives for Fish and Aquatic Plants

We are going to introduce liquid supplements for an aquarium in this article as a follow-up to the previous Notes article. There are many additives intended for providing the water quality that aquatic plants and fish prefer in an aquarium. We would like to discuss which additives should be used for what occasion.

For the initial set-up period

A variety of invisible bacteria and protozoa are working actively in Nature Aquarium tanks to maintain good water conditions. While the work of microorganisms in the filter and substrate is important, the number of the microorganisms is low in an aquarium that has just been set up and therefore its water condition is unstable. If such a condition continues, cloudy water, algae, and fish diseases may result. Bacter 100 and Green Bacter are effective for improving this condition as soon as possible. Bacter 100 contains more than 100 types of dormant bacteria, as the name indicates. Although there are many additives on the market that add microbes to an aquarium to maintain the condition of the aquarium, the majority of them add a large number of one or just a few types of bacteria. With this type of additive, a good aquarium condition can be maintained as long as it is added continuously. However, if you stop adding the additive or a small change occurs in the aquarium, the aquarium environment often becomes somewhat unstable. To maintain stable water quality, it is necessary to reproduce an ecosystem that resembles nature where many types and a large number of microbes have complex relationships with one another. Therefore, it is desirable to add many types of microbes to seed an aquarium. The types of microbes that become active depend on the condition of an aquarium. Therefore, it is an advantage to have more than 100 types. The active ingredient of Green Bacter becomes food for microbes and encourages them to reproduce in an aquarium. An increased number of microbes improves and stabilizes the water condition. It is good to add this to an aquarium not only during the initial setup period, but also periodically to keep the microbes active.

Poor growth of aquatic plants

The growth of aquatic plants sometimes appears poor. For example, they may not grow as expected, grow slowly, or take a long time to develop new shoots after trimming. The biggest cause of this is often the lack of light or CO2, or poor water quality. Because of this, these issues need to be addressed first. Aquatic plants tend to be stressed in poor environmental conditions and may not be producing growth hormones well. It is important to improve the environment and at the same time to add an active substance, such as hormones and amino acids, in order to restart the growth of aquatic plants. Green Gain is used for such cases. Since it contains various plant hormones that are extracted from natural plants, it is be absorbed very quickly. It shows its effectiveness right away by allowing aquatic plants to develop new shoots and by encouraging healthy growth. It also strengthens the plants against stress due to a poor environment.

Algae and diseases

If light, CO2 and nutrients are not well balanced in an aquarium, algae develop not only on the surfaces of glass and driftwood, but also on the leaves of aquatic plants. If the leaves of aquatic plants are in a good shape, they are resistant to algae. However, if they lack vigor for some reasons, algae tend to impinge upon them. An addition of Phyton-Git helps aquatic plants and makes them resistant to algae. It also weakens blue green algae and other algae.
If aquatic plants die as if they are melting or if they suddenly appear unhealthy, the aquatic plants may be affected by a disease. The leaves of Microsorum and Bolbitis in particular tend to get affected under high water temperatures. In such cases, an addition of Phyton-Git can increase aquatic plants’ resistance to diseases.

Other additives

1. Tap water chlorine neutralizer
The chlorine contained in tap water is harmful to fish and aquatic plants and needs to be neutralized during water changes. Chlorine is neutralized very easily by adding Chlor-Off to tap water. While Brighty K is used for a planted tank since it can also supplement potassium, Chlor-Off is used for fish keeping in general.

2. Removing harmful substances
Tap water also contains a trace amount of heavy metals. Although its volume may be harmless to human being, it can affect small fish. Rio Base detoxifies such heavy metals and protects fishes’ mucous membrane and gills with protective colloids.

3. Vitamin supplements
Fish needs vitamins, too. If a vitamin is lacking, it affects fishes’ growth and health. VITAMIX supplies various vitamins and other active ingredients which help maintain fishes’ health and growth.

4. Removing cloudiness of water
The particles floating in water that are tiny enough to pass through filter media are the cause of cloudiness. The flocculating effect of CLEAR DASH eliminates the cloudiness by allowing these particles to clump together so that a filter can remove them. The effect of this additive will often be apparent in a few hours. We recommend cleaning of the filter after water becomes clear. The product may not be as effective depending on the type of cloudiness.

5. Reproducing the water of tropical fish habitat
Many tropical fish live in the rivers that contain a large amount of humic acids. As a matter of fact, the water of Rio Negro of the Amazon in particular has a clear brown color due to its dissolved components. An addition of BLACK WATER can reproduce the color and water quality of the rivers in tropical rainforests and create a comfortable environment for fish. Please note that this color can be adsorbed easily and the water becomes clear when activated carbon is used in a filter.

Iron supplement

Iron is an important nutrient for aquatic plants. While all plants need iron, iron tends to run short in a planted aquarium in which aquatic plants are growing well. The charm of aquatic plants is in the beauty of their leaves. However, if iron is lacking, the color of the leaves dulls quickly. ECA can supplement iron easily. Iron contained in ECA is absorbed easily by aquatic plants and therefore shows its effectiveness against an iron shortage very quickly, restoring the colors of aquatic plants. It makes the color of reddish aquatic plants very vivid. The effectiveness increases further when used with other liquid fertilizers.