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What is the best plant food for live aquarium plants?

I hear that the live plants live off the fish waste in the substrate (with I siphon weekly) and use the Carbon Dioxide (that comes through via the air pump). As well as this, the plants get the not so strong light from the window, and in the evening I have a Arcadia Arc Light.

Do my plants need extra nutrition? If so, what?
Any info would be grateful.
Thanks!

Plants need three things to grow – light, CO2 and nutrients. Light is provided by your lighting system, obviously. CO2 and nutrients can be provided a variety of ways – fish naturally provide them as they respire and create waste. If more is needed, CO2 can also be added via a CO2 system and nutrients can be added via a fertilizer. An air pump does not add CO2 – in fact, it drives CO2 out of the aquarium.

What’s best depends really on your tank. A simple, low-light tank that contains easy plants generally doesn’t need any additional supplements, though it can benefit from fertilizer that includes potassium (K) and iron (Fe) to round out the nutrients they need. A tank that contains plants that demand a lot of light and CO2 would need a CO2 system and fertilizers that provide them all the necessary nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate, boron, zinc, magnesium, etc etc). Contrary to what catx said, no one fertilizer can provide all the nutrients plants need, due to the way some nutrients react to one another when kept together.

I live in the midwest and would like to know what I can do now for preparing next springs gardening. Would it be wise to dig up areas now for planting in spring? Also, what perennials are good for Wisconsin?

I now live in St. Louis, but lived in Minnesota for 5 years, and whatever you are going to do you should have a plan executed by the endof October! I would stake out the area(s) you can use pegs and string, remove all grass(It’s just a thing I have about it coming back) and til the areas, dig at least 6-8 inches down, and loosen the dirt really well. Don’t worry about lumps and all, you can let the area sit over the winter, the gorund will be ready to plant in Spring.
my zone for planting in StL is 5, and I know you can plant alot of things under zone 5. You will want to watch your areas for amount of sun and shade as most perennials are pretty particular to those specifics. Full sun means at least 6 hours….part sun is anything less than that. You can spend the winter planning your flowers so you don’t "impulse" buy! You can plan your colors, heights, textures, and blooming times. It would be fun to draw it out on paper. There are alot of gardening sites and plant shopping sites that have great info. Some of your plants can be ordered on line and you can save money and time. This may be alot more than what you were wanting to do, and you can modify it. The most important thing for success is knowing your plants and that comes from research.
I have had to do alot of plants trial and error. Although the plant is zoned for your area sometimes they just don’t do well, so be patient, gardening is just that "trial and error" Good luck and have fun

This year I’m planning on creating a moon/night sky themed garden. What would be some appropriate types of flowers to plant? I’m looking for mainly blue, white, and yellow flowers.

I am assuming that since you refer to a moon-themed garden, you will be visiting it in the night. White flowers are always a good bet. Asiatic Lilies, Annual Alyssum, Lavender, and Daturas all come in white hybrids which are fragrant at night. White varieties of Dianthus Plumarius, the cottage pink, can be selected for scent in both single and double-flowered forms for edging borders.

I would definitely put in quantities of Nicotiana Alata, the flowering Tobacco. The true species grows to five feet tall and is powerfully fragrant at night and glows ghostlike in the dark.

Petunias are a gaudy and rather sour lot during the day, but white varieties are usually dependably and pleasantly perfumed in the night hours.

Matthiola Bicornis, the Evening Stock, is very easily sown in situ for luxuriant scent all night long. The ordinary sorts of stocks are spicily clove-scented.

In late spring and early summer, large groupings of Hesperis Matronalis, the Sweet or Dame’s Rocket will be intensely fragrant after midnight.

Some types of Honeysuckle (Lonicera) reserve their far-reaching perfumes for nighttime only. And don’t forget Magnolia Grandiflora, the evergreen Magnolia, which blooms off and on throughout the summer with huge scented waxen white goblets. It’s always worth a shot to put in a Gardenia, too.

Hylocereus, the night-blooming Cereus, is a houseplant that may be hung or its pot perched on a pedestal throughout the summer months. Huge white fragrant flowers opening in the wee hours are cause for a middle-of-the-night get together for friends to watch and marvel.

Papers from a conference held in Greece in September 1991. All five regions of the world with a Mediterrean climate are represented: the Mediterrean basin, sensu lato , California, Chile, South Africa and Australia.

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Garden Weasel Edger 38in Height With Comfort Grip Handle is especially useful early in the gardening season to turn the first soil of the year.

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