Aquarium plants without Fertilisers of any kind?

Dawes

Is it possible to grow plants in an Aquarium without any kind of liquid fertiliser, nutritious substrate or Co2 input? (If not, I will buy myself some Seacheam Flourish). And also, are there any plants you would recommend that are easy to maintain? and are excellent plants for beginner planters?

I'm currently using a combination of 2 bulbs, a Life-Glo 20W T8 24inch Bulb and a Power-Glo 20W T8 24inch bulb.

I am also keeping fish in the tank (All of which are Live-barers apart from my Pleco).


Other information:

I'm using a sand substrate with an internal filter, and the only plants I currently have in there is some Moss and Moss balls, the Moss is attached to some driftwood, and my Moss balls are currently sitting in a breeder box near the top of my tank just so they can grab abit of extra light (as I've only just bought them and they are rather quite small).

Dawes

I really quite like the look of "Hemianthus callitrichoides"

But without the addition of Co2 and Special plant substrate I'm uncertain of how well it will grow, if at all. (I'd most definitely use Liquid fertiliser with this).

Boredomb

Its best to always have fertilizers with live plants. Some easy plants would be Java Fern, Java Moss, Anubias, Amazon Swords (though they need root tablets as well as liquid fertilizer) and some crypts like Crypt wendtii (which will do better with root tablets as well) Sand substrate will work fine with most plants There is no real need in specialized substrates unless you are growing more difficult plants but then you need brighter lights and C02.

Dawes

Is it possible to plant Java Fern into subsrate? As I've heard the roots can rot.

Boredomb

The roots being in the substrate is fine just don't bury the rhizome. It is possible or have always heard it will rot if it gets buried. If you don't already know the roots come out the bottomed of the rhizome and the leaves come out the top.
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fishkid

Fertilizers, special substrates, and CO2 are not needed. However, without them, you'd have to keep the light levels low, and keep low light plants such as vals and moss. It can be done, but the rate of growth will be very slow.

redchigh

I think.your amount of light should do I use 20w over 10 gallons with good results. The javas do better imo if tied to decor. If the tank is tall, vallisneria is a good choice. I also like aponogetons.
Get the flourish, esp if you keep the tank clean.

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thekoimaiden

A lot of the lower light plants like Java Fern and Anubias can go without ferts. Mine went like that for years, but ever since I started adding Flourish, they've really taken off. Trust me. It's worth it to buy Flourish for what it does with your tanks.