AquaLabs Lean Grow 1000ml

Many red plants deepen in colour when nitrate is limited rather than abundant. Lean Grow supplies enough nitrogen for healthy growth without pushing plants into fast green growth, so the red pigments show through more strongly.

It also grows plants more slowly, which means less trimming in a hardscape led scape where you do not want plants overwhelming the layout.

Lean is relative to consumption, not an absolute number. A CO2 injected aquarium consumes nutrients several times faster than a low tech one, so the same nitrate level that is generous without CO2 is deliberately restrictive with it.

Lean Grow also carries considerably more phosphate and iron than Easy Grow. It is nitrate that is held back, not the whole formulation.

You can, but it is not the best fit. Without CO2 your plants grow more slowly and take up less nutrient, so a formulation built around the demand of an injected tank is not what you need. Easy Grow is designed for that situation.

Around 10 ppm suits most planted aquariums. For the deepest reds, 0 to 3 ppm works, but only where a rich aquasoil is supplying nitrogen through the roots. Over inert gravel that range starves the tank rather than colouring it.

Which fertiliser does my aquarium need?

In a CO2 injected tank, most symptoms that look like deficiency turn out to be CO2, flow or light. Rule those out first, then check whether the affected leaves are new growth or old, which tells you which group of nutrients to look at.

Nutrient deficiencies and how to identify them

Check your pH. Iron precipitates out of solution as pH rises, so in harder alkaline water a large share of what you dose can become unavailable before the plants reach it. More iron does not fix this.

All AquaLabs fertilisers use a combination of EDTA and DTPA chelated iron, which holds availability across a wider pH range than EDTA alone.

How pH impacts nutrient availability

Yes, at the recommended dose. All AquaLabs liquid fertilisers contain copper, because it is an essential plant micronutrient and plants cannot grow properly without it. The amount is a trace, dosed far below any level shown to affect invertebrates.

The copper is also EDTA chelated. Copper toxicity is driven by the free copper ion rather than total copper, and chelation binds that ion and reduces how much is biologically available.

Dose as directed rather than estimating, particularly with sensitive caridina.

For heavy root feeders such as swords, crypts and larger stem plants, yes. Liquid fertiliser feeds through the water column and leaves. Root tabs feed the substrate directly.

They are also worth adding in inert substrates like sand or gravel, and in aquasoil more than a year old that has exhausted its nutrients. Enrich Root Tabs can be used alongside any liquid fertiliser.

Dose one complete fertiliser at a time rather than combining two. Each is a complete formulation, so running two together doubles some nutrients and unbalances the ratios.

Enrich Root Tabs are the exception and can be used alongside any liquid fertiliser.

Introduce it over about two weeks rather than all at once, particularly if you are moving from something much leaner or much richer. Dose part of the new alongside part of the old and shift the balance gradually.

Plants adjust to what is consistently available, and a sudden change can cause a short period of instability.