New ferts line by Tropica

Andrea67

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Jan 24, 2005
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Did you know it?

A brand new line by Tropica is now out:

http://www.tropica.com/article_fullscreen.asp?type=news&id=679

check it out on their website!
It consists in 4 products:

- Plant substrate (clay + sphagnum enriched soil)
- Plant Nutrition + (capsules)
- Plant Nutrition Liquid (ex TMG)
- Plant Nutrition + Liquid (NP enriched)

Unfortunately the composition of products is not disclosed... :(

What do you think?
 

Tom Barr

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Jan 23, 2005
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Re: New ferts line by Tropica

About time they got around to this.
I saw this some time ago. I think it's a lot of what I suggested many years ago. Clay is undeniable in it's good qualitities as is peat, ADA AS is mde primarily from these.

Tropica is a hydroponic and Tissue culture company, so they already have these products for the liquids etc.


Regards,
Tom Barr
 

Greg Watson

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Re: New ferts line by Tropica

Andrea67 said:
A brand new line by Tropica is now out:

I think it will be a top notch product ...

Andrea67 said:
Unfortunately the composition of products is not disclosed... :(

What do you think?

I've seen a lot of posts kind of grumbling about this ... I don't personally have a problem with commercial products keeping their proprietary information relatively private. Their products are designed to provide solutions and to meet needs ... not to provide a recipe or ingredients that can be used to make something else ...

If you want to cook up your own brew ... buy your ingredients separately and make your own ... but a lot of people simply want solutions to their problems and TMG will always do a fantastic job of doing that ...

It is a fantastic company ...and with this new line, I am quite confident that I could simply setup an aquarium and simply follow the dosing instructions and be quite successful ... without having to know the exact composition.

... and I think I am just going to *have* to go out and buy an AquaPod so I can have a new tank to "test" out the new TMG product line ... I can't wait until it is available for me to test ...

Greg
 

Laith

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Jan 24, 2005
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Re: New ferts line by Tropica

I remember a quote somewhere a while ago from Claus at Tropica saying that Tropica strongly believes that one should know exactly what one is adding to their tank. Hence TMG is/was the only European fert product that had a detailed listing of its contents...

As to companies keeping "proprietary information relatively private" I don't quite get this. It's not like any company has found the magic formula that will guarantee the best results and therefore the formula is patented etc. (no matter what Penac claims! :rolleyes: ).

I remember my frustration with the Dennerle "system" of ferts: I had what looked very much like an iron deficiency in a tank using their products. I called them up to try to understand which item of their system I should add more of to fix this deficiency. They refused to devulge any info related to which of the products had the highest concentration of iron. After talking to several different people at Dennerle, I started to suspect that even they didn't know what was in their own products.

Needless to say, a week later I stopped using the Dennerle line of ferts...
 

Tom Barr

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Jan 23, 2005
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Re: New ferts line by Tropica

Many companies sell what the market will buy, they have to if that is their business, it does not imply they know a hikl of beans about the product and why it works, Claus/Tropica does more thasn any other company.

Tropica and I have gone similar paths over the years and have agreed a lot on many things, in the future, the EI article will be placed on their site in Danish etc.

Over the years I support the companies that help this hobby, have good service and support.

I do not support many companies, but SeaChem, Tropica, and ADA are all good examples.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

quenton

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Mar 14, 2006
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Toronto Ontario (Canada?)
Re: New ferts line by Tropica

Andrea67 said:
Did you know it?

A brand new line by Tropica is now out:

http://www.tropica.com/article_fullscreen.asp?type=news&id=679

check it out on their website!
It consists in 4 products:

- Plant substrate (clay + sphagnum enriched soil)
- Plant Nutrition + (capsules)
- Plant Nutrition Liquid (ex TMG)
- Plant Nutrition + Liquid (NP enriched)

Unfortunately the composition of products is not disclosed... :(

What do you think?

I am worried that the "Plant Nutrition Liquid" might not really be "TMG",
particularly if they don't show content. I just switched to TMG -- it would be great for some of us if they kept "TMG" as a product -- ???
 

Laith

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Jan 24, 2005
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Re: New ferts line by Tropica

Tom Barr said:
... but SeaChem, Tropica, and ADA are all good examples.

...

Yes, I couldn't agree more. Don't get me wrong; I very much like Tropica and get all my plants from them (and have started trying out the TMG): best quality plants you can find here in Europe. More expensive than others but you get value for your money.

I just hope that with the new management and new investors/majority shareholders Tropica doesn't try to go down the wrong road...

Anyway, they are a quality company with quality products: I just hope they keep it that way!
 

Tom Barr

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Re: New ferts line by Tropica

Well, folks cannot help but do this to some degree as it is if you ever uproot, some roots shall always break off and remain down there.

This can be an issue, if you leave larger root systems, you have to ask yourself are they going to keep growing without the shoot? Not in gewneral unless it's a rhizome or tuber and has enough energy to form and new shoot.

So then it is going to turn to organic matter, bacteria will attack this, this will reduce the O2 levels andf drop the redox level in the gravel near the roots.

This is bad if there is too much, like anything, you can over do this idea.

Like mulm, too much clogs the substrate, and causes it to go sour, mulm is already well oxidized as it comes from above in the very aerobic zone, the roots rot under anaerobic conditions.

A little root organic matter is fine, but not a lot over time.
In newer tanks, this is less of an issue, like mulm, adding a little organic matter from the start can help.

Active roots also slough off a large amount of organic carbon, this feeds the bacterial community as the roots grow.

If you add the mulm right away, then there is some organic carbon already along with the bacteria. You do not need a lot to get things started, and over time it'll build up, and need refreshed if you want to stay on top of things or else replace the substrate once every 2-3 years etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 

quenton

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Mar 14, 2006
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Toronto Ontario (Canada?)
Re: New ferts line by Tropica

Tom Barr said:
... replace the substrate once every 2-3 years etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr

This brings up a question I have not seen addressed much -- should one be uprooting and rebuilding a tank every few years? If so, how often? and any comments on the processes involved??
 

Tom Barr

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Jan 23, 2005
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Re: New ferts line by Tropica

I've been one of the very few that suggests this and knows why folks need to do this. If you look around on the BarrReports, I make mentions of this several times.

I just suggest folks deep vacuum maybe once a year etc, that will remove any excess.

You do not need to replace it really.
Many folks have substrates a decade old etc.

I think 2-3 years is long enough for most scapes, try something new, clean the tank out good, save the mulm, some old substrate, add new ADA AS over it etc. Soil tanks can have the same thing done once a year or two also.

Plain gravel and flourite etc should all defintitely have this done once every 1-2 years.

You do not have to replace anything, just clean it out and up.

Regards,
Tom Barr