Fertiliser Tabs

[Tim999]

Hi
my tank has been running now for 2 months.
It is well planted with a small number of fish.
The plants are mainly fast growing with three Amazon Swords.
The algae problem that I had has mostly disappeared.
The swords have had a black hair algae on a few leaves which I have cut off. That was about 4 days ago.
The substrate is an aquatic soil.
I am adding a liquid fert every other day.
Would a fert Tab placed into the soil be of any benefit.
Thanks

 

[Pauld738]

What type of aquatic soil?

Amazon swords aren't necessarily known as fast growing, do you have other plants in the tank that are?

Depending on your substrate you might not need anything for your swords for awhile. But generally Amazon swords do benefit from the use of plant tabs. Although they do derive some benefit from the liquid Ferts.



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[Neeraj]

I have a 55g planted tank in which I dose the following products regularly:
Seachem excel, potassium, phosphorus, iron, flourish and trace.
I do not use readymix ferts as the proportions of each that I need is substantially different due to my tap water parameters etc.
When I am away and someone else is dosing on my behalf it becomes very cumbersome for that person to handle so many bottles of ferts with a different dosing quantity for each.
I therefore wanted to know which of these liquids mentioned above can I mix in the required proportions and make my own mix so that dosing becomes easier. The only worry is whether they will react with each other and become unusable for plants.
e.g. can I mix as follows:
Excel, potassium, phosphorus in one
and
Excel, iron, flourish and trace in another
Thanks

 

[Pauld738]

I have a 55g planted tank in which I dose the following products regularly:
Seachem excel, potassium, phosphorus, iron, flourish and trace.
I do not use readymix ferts as the proportions of each that I need is substantially different due to my tap water parameters etc.
When I am away and someone else is dosing on my behalf it becomes very cumbersome for that person to handle so many bottles of ferts with a different dosing quantity for each.
I therefore wanted to know which of these liquids mentioned above can I mix in the required proportions and make my own mix so that dosing becomes easier. The only worry is whether they will react with each other and become unusable for plants.
e.g. can I mix as follows:
Excel, potassium, phosphorus in one
and
Excel, iron, flourish and trace in another
Thanks

The one problem with Seachem is their naming convention. They use Flourish for both the entire line of fertilizer products as well as for their trace mix.

That said, why are you using both Flourish, which is their standard trace mix, and Flourish Trace, which is a redundant, cut down mix of trace elements? Did you mean something else when you say Flourish?

Either way, I would not mix Excel with any of the other products but Minus Excel what your have looks good to me.

Fyi, Flourish contains the same iron, ferrous gluconate, as Flourish Iron. Just about a third of the amount per dose.

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[Neeraj]

Flourish comprehensive contains very low amounts of Zn and Cu which I make up by dosing them alternately,
Further, in continuation of what I said earlier, I have read at a few places and even Seachem says that premixing is not advised as reactions may take place between some of them. However, my question is that if that is correct, how do many suppliers make 'All in one' ferts? Anyways, the reason I ask is that when I am out of town and someone else doses the aquarium in my absence, it just becomes too cumbersome for him to dose different amounts out of half a dozen bottles. I can't use all in one ferts because their proportions do not suit my requirement.

 

[Pauld738]

Flourish comprehensive contains very low amounts of Zn and Cu which I make up by dosing them alternately,
Further, in continuation of what I said earlier, I have read at a few places and even Seachem says that premixing is not advised as reactions may take place between some of them. However, my question is that if that is correct, how do many suppliers make 'All in one' ferts? Anyways, the reason I ask is that when I am out of town and someone else doses the aquarium in my absence, it just becomes too cumbersome for him to dose different amounts out of half a dozen bottles. I can't use all in one ferts because their proportions do not suit my requirement.

Well you didn't say Comprehensive! You said Flourish. Those are different products. That's what I was trying to get at with the whole naming convention thing. Seachem is horrible at that!

And that changes my answer. So no I would not be mixing the way you suggested.

The all-in-ones get around the problem you described by adding stabilizers and dropping the pH. Rather significantly in the case of the Thrive line which I use on some tanks.

With what you described, you really need to be dosing dry Ferts. Way cheaper and more control over individual components. You can still put it in a bottle and dose liquid form. It would just be 2 components then. Macros and micros.

Not sure where in the world you are located but since I mentioned Thrive you could go to Nilocg.com and take a look at their packages. They have the bottles needed to mix up solutions and everything. Well, minus the gram scale needed but that's not much either.

Green leaf aquarium is another one.



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