JBL FloraPol Plant Substrate Fertiliser

JBL FloraPol Plant Substrate Fertiliser is a concentrated long-term nutrient substrate laid under the gravel when a freshwater tank is set up.

Key Features

• A concentrate, so a little covers a lot: FloraPol is the concentrated form of a base nutrient layer, which is why it works out cheaper per tank than filling the same space with a bulk nutrient substrate.
• No phosphate and no nitrate added: Those two are the nutrients an aquarium already produces more than enough of from feeding and fish waste. A base feed that adds neither gives your plants iron and trace elements without handing algae the one thing holding them back.
• Iron and clay: The clay is what keeps the nutrients in the root zone over years rather than releasing them all into the water in the first few weeks.
• Goes underneath, at setup: A base layer, capped with five or six centimetres of sand or gravel. It is laid once in a dry tank and is not something you add to a running one.

How A Planted Substrate Is Built

• Bottom layer: the nutrient substrate, spread across the base glass at roughly one to two centimetres.
• On top of it: five or six centimetres of sand or gravel as a cap, which is what keeps the nutrients down in the root zone instead of letting them wash into the water column where algae can reach them.
• Six to eight centimetres in total is what strong rooted growth needs. A two centimetre bed will not hold a stem plant upright.
• Stop the nutrient layer short of the front and side glass if you want a clean line, because it will show through otherwise.
• Undergravel heating cables, if you use them, go underneath the nutrient layer.

When To Use It

• Lay it in an empty, dry tank. There is no tidy way to get a base layer underneath an established bed without stripping the tank out completely.
• Plant into the capping sand or gravel, not down into the nutrient layer, so you are not dragging it up into the water every time.
• Expect to carry on dosing a liquid fertiliser as well. A root feed does nothing for plants that take their nutrients through their leaves, which includes mosses, ferns and anything tied onto wood.
• If your tank is already running and you want to add root nutrition, push root tabs into the bed instead. That is the practical answer for an established layout.

Good To Know

• For freshwater planted tanks only.
• Spread it thinly and evenly. A concentrate put down in a thick patch gives you one over-fertilised corner rather than an evenly fed bed.
• AquaBasis Plus does the same job as a bulk layer rather than a concentrate. Send us your tank dimensions and we will tell you which one suits and what quantity.
• Pack size is worth confirming before you order, so ask us and we will check what is in stock.