Cheaper Options Than Flourish Excel And Trace?

[simonas]

The flourish excel and trace is going down pretty quickly in my 150g tank. Its pretty expensive also at almost £20 for the two bottles. I;d love to make my planted tank work but is their a cheaper option in supplying whats needed to the plamnts?

Simon

 

[ian]

Pressurised CO2!

You could get the full diy set up for £100 or less. I'm just on the iPhone at the min, if no one puts any links for stuff by tomorrow, I'll have a look around for you.

 

[simonas]

sounds complicated!!but at the price of the additive bottles it would not take long to save money

 

[waterdrop]

This is one of the things that really pushes people to pressurized, isn't it . I was just thinking this morning that my Flourish "N" bottle is getting low and how one or another of the 6 big bottles is always the one getting low . (not to mention that the pressurized looks so high tech, lol) WD

 

[lljdma06]

This is why only my nanos get CO2. Big tanks, no CO2.

As for the ferts, mixing your own is the cheapest option...

Fire Extinguisher CO2

Equipment needed

James' Planted Tank dosing methods

This will get you started. Until Ian gets off the darn iPhone. Us planted tank mods with our toys...

 

[ian]

^^^lol, and i'm not aloud to upgrade to a 4 yet!


Have a word at your local LFS regarding a FE, if your friends with them they'll sort you. My LFS got mine for £15, which seems to be the going rate.

as for the other stuff, i'll have a look around fleabay.

 

[GrayScale]

You still might need trace depending on your lighting even if you go pressurized.

+1 on the mixing of your own. Buy the dry ferts and they'll usually come in bags big enough to last a lot longer than a bottle of flourish trace. Just don't make the mistake of sneezing while the bag is open like I did.

 

[simonas]

I like the idea of mixing my own and will have a go at that. I noticed this morning how big the lotus leaves are they look very happy so things are going well for that just wish the swords would do the same asI;m a big fan of them

 

[JoshuaA]

You have nearly 700 litres

I imagine you're putting like half a bottle of excel in per dose at that size! It was the same reason I went for CO2 as well, the refills are only £10 from Andy's and I only need to go once every 3/4 months apparently. I use my Excel for my smaller tanks now only.

 

[pauld]

You have nearly 700 litres

I imagine you're putting like half a bottle of excel in per dose at that size! It was the same reason I went for CO2 as well, the refills are only £10 from Andy's and I only need to go once every 3/4 months apparently. I use my Excel for my smaller tanks now only.

e i dry ferts is they way to go , for cheapness , if you go down the pressurised co2 route you will still need to dose ferts and trace ,plus you will need to distribute the co2 evenly around your tank , this will meen one or more power heads for your size tank to eliviate dead spots . growth will be amazeing but it takes a lot of work , ive had a 4ft hi tech running for a year now and the results are brilliant but a lot of heartache on the way , its not just as easy as getting a fe and pumping co2 .

 

[simonas]

You have nearly 700 litres

I imagine you're putting like half a bottle of excel in per dose at that size! It was the same reason I went for CO2 as well, the refills are only £10 from Andy's and I only need to go once every 3/4 months apparently. I use my Excel for my smaller tanks now only.

708 litres I believe lol

so Andys do the refills. what is the equipment you have that Andys sell the refills for? did you buy it from them?

Simon

You have nearly 700 litres

I imagine you're putting like half a bottle of excel in per dose at that size! It was the same reason I went for CO2 as well, the refills are only £10 from Andy's and I only need to go once every 3/4 months apparently. I use my Excel for my smaller tanks now only.

e i dry ferts is they way to go , for cheapness , if you go down the pressurised co2 route you will still need to dose ferts and trace ,plus you will need to distribute the co2 evenly around your tank , this will meen one or more power heads for your size tank to eliviate dead spots . growth will be amazeing but it takes a lot of work , ive had a 4ft hi tech running for a year now and the results are brilliant but a lot of heartache on the way , its not just as easy as getting a fe and pumping co2 .

with having the discus in there aswell not sure I want all the hard work and heart ache!!

 

[JoshuaA]

I bought at Dennerle ( I think ) Set.

It was very pricey actually don't feel like I got much of a deal from him however I have had a lot of support he will talk for hours if he has the opportunity on advice on it.

Next time you go into Andys in the till bench there are like 4 massive red fire extinguishers the kind of one he uses to keep his tropica plants going. The smaller ones I have are behind the counter.

What you end up doing is buying the bottle but when you go back to get a refill he will just give you another already filled up bottle. He also replaces any out of date fittings on the bottles.

It's worth looking into, if you sweet talk him and because you've been a good customer he might be willing to give you a better offer.

I would suggest going down on sunday afternoon if you can, I'm pretty sure he is in on every sunday.

 

[simonas]

I bought at Dennerle ( I think ) Set.

It was very pricey actually don't feel like I got much of a deal from him however I have had a lot of support he will talk for hours if he has the opportunity on advice on it.

Next time you go into Andys in the till bench there are like 4 massive red fire extinguishers the kind of one he uses to keep his tropica plants going. The smaller ones I have are behind the counter.

What you end up doing is buying the bottle but when you go back to get a refill he will just give you another already filled up bottle. He also replaces any out of date fittings on the bottles.

It's worth looking into, if you sweet talk him and because you've been a good customer he might be willing to give you a better offer.

I would suggest going down on sunday afternoon if you can, I'm pretty sure he is in on every sunday.

how much was the Dennerle set and co2 bottle all together? I;m trying to be good and spend less on pets this year lol

 

[JoshuaA]

Fast response... Hmmm, I can't really remember I bought it the end of November.

Mine is only rated for like 150 litres so... I think my CO2 bottle was like £30/40 or something, the glass co2 kit was like £50 (hoses, bubble counter, return valve, diffuser, drop checker and liquid) then there was the regulator. Afaik he does two regulators for my size bottle but the size you will be needing on a 708litre tank I have no idea, the ones he does stock are "TMC" which are really good quality but yet again very expensive, the one I have comes with a solenoid valve and that was like £70 alone but the solenoid is a god send. The others are like £20 and just as safe but you can't put it on a time so I can't really imagine its very practical.

He will no doubt suggest that a CO2 bottle the size of a small/medium fire extinguisher is what you'll need but I have no idea how much that will be, perhaps around £100? I would actually check around for those prices though. I went down and got a quote off him for everything and checked online, noticed I would save around £20 if ordered online but realised I do actually want some hands on advice and can't really expect him to help out if you haven't bought from him.

Edit: Ill take a picture now of my bottle for you so you can get an idea.



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If you are eagle eyed you may notice my shelf isn't sitting on the shelf clips, it's sitting ontop of an argos magazine and the door hinges haha.
Would love to see your tank once you've stocked it with Discus, I gaze lovingly at the ones he has in stock at the moment.