Bruce-
It's been my experience that plants need equilibrium and good light to
thrive more than they need chemicals. I've had large and small planted
tanks over the years, and those are the two consistent factors that keep my
plants healthy. I start out slow with a few plants and a few fish, then add
some of each while maintaining a stable pH (according to what my fish like).
Keeping the amount of rotting organic matter under control is important as
well, because too much will send the pH plummeting and the plants will
stagnate and die. An undergravel filter is nice because it sucks warm water
down through the substrate, but is not necessary for plant growth. I try to
avoid chemicals as a base rule (except for dechlorinator) and look for
natural solutions, e.g.: algae eaters, catfish, etc. This leads to most of
my tanks becoming community setups instead of having any particular theme,
so you have to decide if that's alright with you.
I agree with your suggestion that plants can flourish without a chemical
cocktail. However I should point out that several chemical factors can
increase plant growth and lushness, and if used wisely can create a
"show-quality" aquarium that you can be happy with.
Good luck,
Hobo

"Bruce Abrams" wrote in message
news
I had a moderately planted 29g tank (with small Tetras, Apistos & 2
Discus)
for many years up until about 10 years ago, when we moved and I switched
the
tank to Africans. Here's the question:

I used to maintain my tank with various Echinodorus, Anubias and
Cryptocoryne species, along with some bunch plants such as Cabomba,
Milfoil,
etc. While I never had a lush growth, the plants looked healthy and were
never stringy and bad looking. In other words, the tank looked good if
not
show quality. The thing is that other than a once in a while addition of
liquid fertilizer, the plants never got a lot of light (one 20 watt 6700K
tube for the tank), never had a CO2 injected and were never planted in
anything any more exotic that small gravel. Is it possible that in
chasing
all the science available, we are failing to allow our tanks to achieve
the
equillibrium that they are capable of?

It seems to me that a better course of action would be to start off a
planted tank as naturally as possible, and then simply augment what is
needed. The current trend seems to be to start with the assumption that
plants can't survive in a tank without significant chemical intervention.
I
suggest that they can, and that the available science should simply be
used
to augment rather than to create the necessary tank conditions.

Any thoughts?

Bruce