FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I just picked up a few ferts for my 45G bolivian tank, i got flourish trace and flourish excel, also i had a xtra bottle of plant gro by nutrafin it is iron enriched, first off i was wondering if there is any other ferts i should be adding or should get? the tank has some anubias, some hygro, wenditi green, 'creeping charlie"?, and some vals as well planning on more plants in 2 weeks time. the lighting is a 196w coralife fixture and im just using 1 light so it is around 2wpg. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Flourish trace & plant gro are micro ferts, and Flourish Excel is the carbon supplement (CO2 substitute).

Depending on your fish stocking and amount/frequency of feeding, you'll probably want to add some macro fertilizers (N,P,K) if only once a week or so. Do you know what your normal nitrate or phosphate levels are? For good plant growth, you'd want to maintain at least 10ppm nitrate (NO3), 1ppm phosphate (PO4), and 10-20ppm potassium (K). Seachem sells these macros in their Flourish line (Flourish Nitrogen, Phosphorus & Potassium), but you're better off getting cheap, dry versions of these chemicals (KNO3, KH2PO4, K2SO4) from gretwatson.com.

EDIT: Actually, I just saw that Plant Gro comes in both Iron-enriched (micros) and NPK (macros) formulas, so which one do you have? If you have the latter, you probably can use it for your macros instead (depending on how much N,P,K it contains).

-P

The N,P,K is a pretty good source of N and P. I also have an extra bottle of K on hand though, I don't always want to add nitrogen or phosphorus to the tank when adding potassium. I also use the Flourish iron for that same reason, the trace is apparantly a very small amount and plants can use it up very quickly, especially when CO2 is being injected into the tank.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Did you get actual Flourish trace, or just regular Flourish? If it does not say trace on the bottle, then it's regular Flourish. I personally think that trace is useless. Your tap water should ocntian enough trace minerals that Trace becomes unnecessary. If you're using an RO unit, then that will remove all the trace minerals and redosing with Trace is necessary.

You will definitely want some macro ferts in there, as when I was using just regular Flourish and Flourish Excel, I had algae problems. I dose those two 3 times per week in a moderately planted 30 gal., and then 2 times a week I put together a cocktail of Flourish Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, and Iron.
I know it seems like a lot of bottles and it may seem expensive at first, but you use so little of each that those bottles should last you a year or so.

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

Thanx for the replies, there are just wayy too many bottles lol like u said, the plant gro is iron enriched with trace elements, there will be 6 bolivians in the tank, will be moderatly planted at first. And at this time threre will be no Co2 being used. So i need to get basically the whole line of seachem products or something similar in order to get the desired effect right?


As well with what i got should i still dose it? And if so anyone have a good dosing regime?

Yep!

By the time you've got everything it will certainly seem that way, or you could get the whole Kents line! It looks pretty good to me as well, they have some good products, may save you a bottle or two.

http://www.kentmarine.com/freshwater/fte.html

In a tank with a fair bit of light you need more ferts, if you measure often you may find you need less, esp. if both lights aren't on all the time.
It also depends on if you have heavy feeder plants or ones that grow slower, anubias doesn't need feeding as much as amazon swords, for example, but you want to feed the heavy feeders, the others will get what they need.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

So should i just dose what i have now and in the next month or so i will get the rest, or should i just wait?

Which iron enriched Plant Gro do you have now?

I have both the trace formula which is iron enriched and the macro formula which is Nitrogen,Phoshphorus,and Kpotassium, it has no micros in it. You need macros and micros to keep healthy plants.

Before running out and buying anything, test your nitrate level, iron if you have a test for that, phosphourus if you have that one as well, if the fish are providing the macros then you will not need to get them, fish provide the N and the P, the K you need to add. It is good to have macros on hand if you were to notice those levels were going down by a lot between water changes and doses. If those levels are good then you won't need to rush out and get anything just yet.

Excel is a carbon dioxide substitute, it dissipates in 24 hrs, so you will need to keep getting it and adding it to the water. It has the added benefit of preventing algae ( it works for that, I didn't get it bad until I stopped adding it to the tank,others swear by it for treating it, I haven't seen this in my own tank recently though).

As far as I know there isn't a test for each of the micros, we just add them when we figure they've gone below the desired amounts. Water changes will bring micros up as long the water is not RO or distilled water with no trace added, still it's a good idea to have them on hand if the plants begin to show certain deficiency signs. You have the micros already, so don't worry about that.

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Which iron enriched Plant Gro do you have now?
the trace formula which is iron enriched is what i have, just picked up a couple more plants, bacopa carolinina?(SP)Alternanthera reineckii and some more java moss.Anyone have any experiences with these plants?

Yeah, the bacopa will love the iron and will need a good balance of nutrients to grow well. The Alternanthera can be tricky because you can actually over-fertilize it, winding up with stunted, curled leaves and very little upward growth. It also strangely does not require tons of light, so putting it on a side or corner may not be bad for it. Little_Fish has some of this that he's trying very hard to make grow. I don't know what kind of luck he's having, though.

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