# fertilizer questions



## m8r8j (Jun 13, 2010)

hello my names mike, i have a 14g biocube planted.

i have swapped the atinic light for a second 10,000k.. so its ~3.5 wpg of 10,000k compact flourescent lighting...

i have 10 serpae tetras, 2 oto cats, a few ghost shrimp and mystery snails...

i feed omega 1 tropical flake

for plants: 2 anubas, 1 argintine sword, 2 banana plants, 1 water primrose, 1 wisteria, some baby tears on a lava rock, and some dwarf sagitaria...

my substrate is planted substrate from petco, similar to flourite (came in a bag with water inside it).....

my light timers are set for 10 hours a day, 12pm-10pm

id say about 3% of my leaves have a few holes in them, and another 3% are slightly yellowing, so i read up extensively on ferts today, and came up with a chart after i ordered some stuff from bigalsonline.com:

seachem flourish
seachem flourish excel
seachem flourish iron
seachem flourish nitrogen
seachem flourish phosphate
seachem flourish potasium

also ive read extensively about flourish excel... i dont have the patience for diy co2, or the wallet for a pressurized system... will excel work out for me in the long run for the primary carbon intake for the plants???

also, apparently my flourish plant supplement has all of the essentials for my plants in terms trace elements correct?? so i dont have to buy seachem trace?

just trying to make my plants good enough for the long term....

i will be using seachems line of products, and turned this list:









into this: (just needed some opinions on everything)

MONDAY
1.5ml flourish
1.5ml excel
1.5ml iron
1.0ml phosphorus
1.0ml nitrogen

TUESDAY
1.5ml excel
1.5ml iron

WEDNESDAY
1.5ml excel
1.5ml iron
2.5ml potassium

THURSDAY
1.5ml excel
1.5ml iron
1.0ml phosphorus
1.0ml nitrogen

FRIDAY
1.5ml excel
1.5ml iron
2.5ml potassium

SATURDAY
1.5ml flourish
1.5ml excel
1.5ml iron

SUNDAY
30% water change
1.5ml excel
1.5ml iron


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*Hi Mike,
Those SeaChem bottles are not cheap.. each regular size bottle is about $10-$15 bucks and it goes by quick. I think that fertilizing schedule is too much dosing. I only use Flourish Trace and Flourish and dose it only 2 times per week. I have Excel too but I already run pressurized so the Excel is just for spot treatment algae and spot treatment SNAILS . The waste of the fish and mulm also contribute to the fertilizing of the plants. 

Also my plants are growing fine, no yellowing, no holes. Except for the dumb cladophora algae in my dwarf hair grass. *


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## beaslbob (May 29, 2009)

for iron I would use ferris gluconate which costs $5/100 capsules at drug stores. Dissolve one capsule in a 12 oz (or so 20oz would be fine also for instance) then add a capfull each week.

For nitrates I would use stump remover (potassium nitrate) or calcium nitrate and dose enough to keep nitrates in the 5ppm range.

Actually I do neither but that would be the only dosing I would do if I did.


my .02


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## m8r8j (Jun 13, 2010)

awesome ideas so far guys thanks

nurseplaty- look into bigalsonline, the seachem stuff is like 5.69 a bottle


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

There are a couple of places that sell dry ferts, which are the cheapest way to go. For about 35$ shipped I fert my big tank daily for a year. Excel will work ok for a substitute for co2. Just be careful as with some plants don't tolerate it. Like vals and some mosses. If you have either of these just half dose the excel.

If you dose daily you should also do 50% water changes each week to reset the parameters of the tank.


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## m8r8j (Jun 13, 2010)

susankat said:


> There are a couple of places that sell dry ferts, which are the cheapest way to go. For about 35$ shipped I fert my big tank daily for a year. Excel will work ok for a substitute for co2. Just be careful as with some plants don't tolerate it. Like vals and some mosses. If you have either of these just half dose the excel.
> 
> If you dose daily you should also do 50% water changes each week to reset the parameters of the tank.


so my fert schedule looks good?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Yes it does.


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## m8r8j (Jun 13, 2010)

how is API tap water conditioner?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

I only use prime so don't know.


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## James0816 (Jun 19, 2009)

Sry m8 ... can't help on that either. I only use dry ferts and Prime.


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## NursePlaty (Feb 5, 2010)

*I use Prime too. But I have used the API water conditioner before and it works good also. However I believe Prime is better. *


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