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Aquarium Nutrients Anonymous
Dear /an/, while lurking I noticed a few of you are aquarium suavy so I thought I'd try my luck here.
I have a ten gallon tank divided into sections to house my bettas. I bought several live aquatic plants and a few snails to help with algae growth and to liven up the tank.
Problem is, my plants aren't as healthy as they could be.
Only one petstore carries the bulbs for plants, but none carry aquarium plant fertilizer. And that's going an hour out of my way looking.
Is there any alternative fertilizer-wise?
My snails were bought from Walmart, so naturally they'll have issues. $3 for a mystery snail to everyone's $7..I went for it. Mine have soft, brittle shells. Is there any way to remedy that? One of them died a few days ago and his shell has literally fallen apart. I've had snails a couple of times over the years and their empty shells kept for years in the tanks.

Pic somewhat related, not my fish.
>> FatOldBenzGuy
Your tank is very small, might wanna think about upgrading, since it is healthier for your animals and plants as well as easier to maintain.

About your snails: They need calcium.
Plants need calcium too, so they might in competition of the few calcium in the water.
Again: bigger tank.
Otherwise try a calcium test or an additive for your water.

Fertilizer: I never needed one and my plants are groing like weed.
The fish provide nutrition too with their excrement.

What you should consider: At night plants will consume O2 instead of producing it.
Your fish might not like this, watch out if they start catching breath at night.
>> Anonymous
I only have bettas in my tank, so being labyrinth fish they don't have the problem of low O2 levels. I also have a filter to filter out free floating algae which oxygenates the water anyways.
I only have two bettas (divided) and the two snails..so I'm not sure that there's a proper animalwaste/fertilizer to plant ratio, hence the question of fertilizer.
The ten gallon is the most efficient for me because of room, water limitation, light intensity to depth, and budget. I'm having better luck with plants with the ten gallon than the twenty we used to have...those plants didn't last long in the twenty at all.
As for the calcium, the closest thing I found to supplemental calcium was the powder shit you put on crickets for reptiles. Yeah, petstores around here have been no help.
I heard that putting shells in a tank can increase calcium, any word on that?
>> Anonymous
10g for two bettas and two snails isn't bad at all. For your snails, you could try some fresher foods like.. vegetables (zucchini maybe, just a bit with the soft insides exposed, taken out after a few hours.. cucumber, lettuce also works, though stay away from iceberg.. go with a darker kind like kale or romaine, hey?) perhaps some frozen food, which your bettas would like anyway (bloodworms/brineshrimp, whatever).

As far as your plants.. well, it kind of depends on what you've got. Some plants will only thrive with certain lights, but that's pretty obvious hey? If you're willing to switch things up a bit, you could opt for a less demanding plant like java fern. These guys are pretty chill and tend to do well with bettas/in betta tanks.

PetSmart/PetCo tend to have stores everywhere and I've worked/shopped at them both so I can pretty confidently say you could find a good fertilizer/food/substrate, whatever. Maybe even a few knowledgeable employees who'd be willing to help.

Yeah yeah grats me resurrecting an old thread, insomnia, etc.
>> Anonymous
Try Java moss. Bettas love em, and they pretty much take care of themselves.