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"I contacted Seachem gave them all my tank peramiters \details and they worked it out for me. That is what I call service and another reason I buy their products."

That sounds like a good idea. Do you have the contact details that you could pass on - as I'd like to do the same. If you have to go searching too hard - don't worry -maybe I could find them on-line. Thanks, Robyn

Cheers
TW

I use Flourish products, and as much of a pain it is to have to order 5 different bottles of stuff, I think I'd have a lot more problems if I tried using an all-in-one fertilizer. I use these products in 4 different tanks (5,10,30, and 65 gal), and I use ver very different porportions in each tank, in a lot of cases diregarding the recomendations on the bottles altogether. The 30 gets a lot of everything because it's hevily planted, whereas the 5 and 10 get only a few drops of regular flourish and nitrogen along with a dose of excel because they have light plant loads and a larger fish-load, relatively speaking. The 65 gal. has the largest fish load, but is planted primarily with anubias, so it get's very small fert doses.

If I had to use just one or two products to suit all of my tanks' needs, I'd have a real mess on my hands. The Flourish line makes it easy to customize my fert needs, even though it takes some trial and error and a bit of research to get it right. They also require relatively low-doses, so I don't find it that expensive to buy a few bottles every few months.

Hoping that there must be a word for everything I mean...

Yes Flourish can be expensive especially when your LFS has a 300% mark up. I also will be buying all my Flourish on line from now on.

Yes it is convenient and very easy to use once you have worked out the quanities.

I contacted Seachem gave them all my tank peramiters \details and they worked it out for me. That is what I call service and another reason I buy their products.

Have a look in [link=My Profile]http://
www.fishprofiles.com/interactive/forums/profile.asp?userid=6741" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link] for my tank info

[link=Betta 11Gal Desktop & Placidity 5ft Community Tank Photos]http://photobucket.com/albums/b209/keithgh/Betta%20desktop%20tank/" style="COLOR: #00FF00[/link]

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

The Flourish N, P and K products are just diluted versions of the hyroponic chems we use. Exactly the same.

They are handy for some who don't have ready access to the dry chems or worry about dosing dry powders.

The others have already covered the main problems with having an all in one.

There's also the problems of reactions. Phosphate will react with FE for example. The FE would be rendered useless.

Having the full range available gives the optimum flexibility. Probably also gives Seachem the optimal profitability

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Some days you're the pigeon and some days you're the statue.

Remember that age and treachery will always triumph over youth and ability.

But you guys down there have all the plants

You must be mistaking us to where Bensaf is. Aquatic plant selection here (both locally and online) is severely lacking due to all the live import restrictions (and perhaps general lack of demand). I didn't fully realize this until I went on vacation to other parts of Asia and see what they have there (story & photos coming soon).

-P

You made a great point about location and the availability of goods. You open a new book here !

A bag of flourite here is $34 (Canadian dollars)(including tax) at the Big Als. They have all the liquid ferts, the plants are usually from Tropica.. Prices on all kinda high. I get occasional hard goods only at BA. I go to a private owned store for healthier fish and plants are 1/3 of the price.

Where I'm very fortunate is...
I deal with a number of local aquarists, and lots of trade/buy sell happening among us. There are hydroponic supply stores within an hour drive, but I'd prob order from Greg Watson so I won't have to drive, I do enough of that.

UNFORTUNATE
On aquabid and on other sites etc, alot of people don't want to ship items to Canada. Sometimes you need a permit to import plants and fish to here.. I hope to sell/buy/trade a few things here and there and don't want to be limited by location. That is my rant for the month.

Ok, I'm blabbing on... I will shut up LOL.
And thanks for your input everyone



Last edited by DaMossMan at 24-Jan-2006 19:43

The Amazon Nut...

Sharkbait,

Those are your macros, all you basically need is plain old Flourish (micros) and your good to go.

My Scapes

Just a quick one on this topic.

I have just bought these three items online.
Flourish Potassium
Flourish Phosphorus
Flourish Nitrogen

Is this all l items l need to use? I already am well stock with fish and running C02. Also my gravel have fert tabs in it.

Cheers
Wayne

upikabu,

About the cost of products, yeah we might be spoiled.

But you guys down there have all the plants

Ingo

Last edited by LITTLE_FISH at 24-Jan-2006 18:14

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

PPs pretty much covered it. The only thing I'd like to add is yes, it's cheaper to use dry ferts for macros, but not everyone has easy access to hydroponic stores that carry those stuff. For example here in Australia it's very difficult to find hydroponic stores that have the dry ferts you want, and the ones that do normally don't sell to the general public or only sell in bulk qty. By the time you factor in the postage cost if you order from gregwatson, you'd be better off buying the Flourish products from local or online Oz LFS.

BTW, you guys in North America don't know how good you have it when it comes to price and selection of aquarium products! Here all the Seachem products (as well as other planted tank stuff like specialized substrate, CO2 equipments, etc.) cost at least twice as much. Example: 7kg bag of Flourite (US$12 from bigals) costs at least A$75 here; 500mL Excel (US$6.50 from bigals) costs at least A$25.

Last edited by upikabu at 24-Jan-2006 15:40

-P

Hi,

To sum up here,

The Flourish products and hydro ferts achieve the same result, with both you can control individual nutrients... The difference is one is brand name, the other is price.

An 'all in one' fert will result in an imbalance of something, either too much or not enough of a nutrient depending on what tank it's in etc....

Exactly what I wanted, thanks







The Amazon Nut...

Nowhere pretty much said it. Once you get further into the hobby you find things that work just as good as Flourish. Your paying somewhat for the name. It's a household name in the aqua world and it got that way by all the advertising, so they have to charge more, you know like Starbucks in the coffe world. What do they charge for milk mixed with coffee --- $5 Bucks.

The dry ferts from gregwatson.com will last you years for pennys a day. I only use regular Flourish for my micros and I'm on the hunt for a cheaper solution, I'm just to lazy to find it right now.

My Scapes

I mean if we wanted to individually dose or customize nutrients it'd be alot cheaper to use hydroponic dry ferts then walking out of a fish store with 5 or 6 expensive jugs of brand name liquid fert no? Have you compared your Flourish products to dry ferts ? Better, worse, no difference ?

Yes, it is a lot cheaper to do it that way, and for the most part i do. I use dry KNO3 and dry K2SO4, I use Flourish for P. Works fine for me, and i can't see the dry ferts being any different than the Flourish products. The important thing is that they are separate for added control, for all the reasons mentioned in the previous two posts.

What it comes down to is, they're a business and they want to sell these products - Seachem is an established name, so for the general public, we see the nice packaging and spend the money on the expensive brand name liquid, as you call it Once you get more into the hobby you find out one way or another that dry versions are cheaper and just as effective, so maybe you switch.

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Back in the saddle!

Plain flourish is a mix of everything except I don't think it contains nitrates and very little or no phosphorous. It's made mostly for the average light to moderately planted fish tanks with a regular bioload that uses tapwater. However even then things can be in or not be in your tapwater. When using well water I found it had almost no potassium and I used leaf zone along with the plain flourish. Now I use ro water and have to add phosphorous, nitrates, and iron at water change because even after mixing in the buffers and gh minerals my tank water contains none of these and my fish load is fairly light. I also add trace minerals half way through the week because while a small amount is found in the gh powder that's added to the ro water it's not nearly the amount recommended on the Flourish trace bottle.

All water is not the same and all tank setups are not the same. There are actually quite a few premixed fertilizers such as plain flourish which contain the things usually lacking in a tank but often times you can end up with an algae bloom using these or poorer plant growth than what you would get dosing individual ferts. Mixes are based on the average of what is found in most people's tanks not on your tank.

Hi DaMossMan,

Well – think about it:

Nitrogen: how much of it is in your tank without any product? Always the same? No, it depends on the fish load etc.
Phosphorus: Do you have a natural source of it that you cannot (or don’t want to) influence, like tab water.
Iron: Don’t different plants require different Iron levels? Or would you be willing to OD just in case?
Traces: compared to the previous, can you be sure that they should be proportionally always the same?
Potassium: Same

There are just too many factors for a one-stop mix to do the trick. Without a doubt you would either overuse one component or have too little of another.

Hope this helps,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

Hi there !

I've just started using Flourish Excel in a couple nano-type applications.

I know many of you use and endorse Flourish products.
My question is this... Why does there have to be so many various Flourish Products (Flourish Iron, Potassium, Trace, Phosphate, Nitrate, Excel etc etc..) Why not one multi purpose Flourish that contains all your nutrients, then the Excel, so maybe 2 products ?

I mean if we wanted to individually dose or customize nutrients it'd be alot cheaper to use hydroponic dry ferts then walking out of a fish store with 5 or 6 expensive jugs of brand name liquid fert no ? Just wondoring what your thoughts are... Have you compared your Flourish products to dry ferts ? Better, worse, no difference ?
Thanks

The Amazon Nut...

Keith's idea is great, but it has one problem:

They can only give you information about your fert dosages for the parameters you have at that point.

Tanks change over time, for example you get more fish or your fish grow - these in turn will provide more Nitrate (ammonia) for the tank and you should react and dose less. Plants grow and fill the tank more - you need to adjust by doing more. And so forth...

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club