What are your favorite ferts?

[neonvertigo]

I've used a number of different fertilizers over the years but I'm kinda partial to Seachem products, just wondering what everyone else uses or if there is anything better out there.

[Tiapan]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

i have heard too many good things about flourish(i believe sea chem makes that) i am partcial to no ferts ut thats me, im in the minority but some people use a little of everything. i wouldnt do a whole lot of ferts without fast growing plants because without super fast plants then alge can grow wayyyyy outa control realy easily.

[Mzungu]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

The only fert I use is Flourish Excel. I have always heard good things about it, and I have no complaints. But, to tell the truth, I really don't know too much about ferts. There are those that add specific trace elements and minerals and such, mix them themselves, test for concentration, journal the dosings, and adjust accordingly to the plants' reactions....but that's just too much for me right now. If a plant doesn't seem to work in my tank, then that's that. Also, like Tiapan said, I don't want algae to get out of control, and with almost no knowledge of the preferred concentrations of ferts, I'd probably be risking it if I added more.

What have you used in the past, and what are you using now?

[wesleydnunder]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

I use seachem fluorish for trace elements. My fish/filters provide plenty of nitrate. My local water has 2ppm phosphate, so the only macro I dose is 1tsp KCl for potassium per week. 2 tbsp epsom salt for magnesium per week. Our water has a kh 15 and gh 19 so I don't dose calcium either. I use press. co2 so I don't need an alternative carbon source like fluorish excel.

Mark

[armthehomeless]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

I use fish poop for fertilizer. It seems to work okay...

[wesleydnunder]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

I take care of a 30gal low tech that uses the same stuff, armthehomeless. lol

Mark

[Smokin_Cache]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

I am now using Flourish Iron, Flourish Potassium, and excel. The excel is just to rid my tank of the hair algae and after one week of overdosing slightly with it my hair algea is gone!! I am going to start dosing nitrates though. My fish can't make enough. I even left my prefilter in for over a month now and they are still below 10ppm.

[neonvertigo]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

Flourish and Flourish excel is what I've been using, but in a small 5.5 my plants seem to be dying off slowly, even the wisteria. I have x2 6,700k 9w bulbs over it with laterite and fermentation Co2 and do 10% water changes weekly and its still happening.
Thats why I was asking bout ferts... but I guess I'm good there.

[wesleydnunder]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

Other than the wisteria what other plants do you have in it. With that much light you may have to dose macros. Do you have any idea what co2 concentration is? With that much light I'd try for at least 25-30 ppm co2. Also, Excel is a carbon source so if your co2 is high enough, you really shouldn't need it. Certain plants don't thrive with Excel.

Mark

[eklikewhoa]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

in my tank i recently started up i had a problem with the plants dieing off. lots of low light plants i got from armthehomeless with a few others all under about 3wpg. only thing i have in it is seachem flourish tabs in the sand substrate and diy co2 but it still didnt work so i went out and bought a bottle of flourish which im going to try to see what happes.

[wesleydnunder]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

Seachem fluorish provides trace elements. It's a good product. I use it. Root tabs feed root plants like swords and crypts but don't provide column fertilization for stem plants. How big is the tank and what plants do you have? Maint. regimen?

Mark

[daisymac]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

I had bought some Plantabbs before I this post showed up. Is anyone familiar with this stuff? It's made by the same people that make QuICK Cure, Plant plugs, Had-A-Snail.

I'm concerned because my anacharis is getting leggy, one one side of the tank. I also added some red ludwigia, which is growing but keeps losing leaves.  That's a pain because they clog up the intake tube on the filter!  :evil:

Another thing that concerns me - and maybe I should start a separate post - is that the vals and some of the anacharis have what looks like dust on them. I looked it up and I think it's fuzz algae. Would a fertilizer help with that or make it worse?  :?

[eklikewhoa]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

Seachem fluorish provides trace elements. It's a good product. I use it. Root tabs feed root plants like swords and crypts but don't provide column fertilization for stem plants. How big is the tank and what plants do you have? Maint. regimen?

Mark

well the tank is full of seachem flourish tabs close to where all the rooted plants are, started dosing with flourish, diy co2 through powerhead, tank is 20gal (thought it was a 29 but i was wrong), ~20% every week and use novaqua, recently upgraded the lighting on it so now im at 4.8wpg and for livestock i have one albino bn pleco ~1.25", one tiger stripe pleco ~1.25, 6 threadfin rainbows, 3 guppies and one hifin banded shark.

[wesleydnunder]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

I've used fluorish tabs with mixed results. If left undisturbed, in a deep enough substrate, they work well for plants with heavy root mass, ie swords and crypts. If they get unearthed they can release a lot of phosphate into the water and cause algae problems.
That's a lot of light. Like a lot lot lot of light. You're definitely going to need enough co2 to drop the ph a full log. Test the ph of tapwater that has been allowed to sit out for 24 hours. This is your baseline. Test the water in the tank just before lights out. Your ph should be a full log down. For instance, if your ph out of the tap is 7.8, then you want the tank ph, lowered by your co2, to be 6.8 . This will give you 25-35 ppm, depending on your KH. With that much light and co2:
keep dosing the fluorish
You want N:P:K ratio to be 10:1:10
Test your nitrates - shooting for 10-20 ppm - if the fish/filter don't provide enough, dose with KNO3, potassium nitrate, aka saltpeter to 20 ppm - available at some pharmacies
Test for phosphates - shooting for 1-2 ppm - my water has 2 ppm phosphate out of the tap - if needed, dose with Fleet Enema, available at the pharmacy, contains monopotassium phosphate, just a few drops goes a long way
Short of a lab, no tests for K - dose 1/2 teaspoon of No-salt per week, available at the grocery store - contains KCl, potassium chloride
Can't stress the co2 enough. That much light and weak co2 will grow lots of algae.
Kh should be 3 or higher

Mark

[wesleydnunder]

Re: What are your favorite ferts?

One more thing. When dosing macros, especially EI, a 50% partial is recommended weekly to reset the tank so fert concentration doesn't get too high.

Mark