Fertilizer questions

[Meg0000]

Hi, I have seachem flourish comprehensive but it looks like it has a bit of everything in nutriments but not a lot. I was wondering if it is better to get a all in one fertilizer kind of like the tropica one or easy green

or to get more seachem product like potassium, iron, advanced... Also what are the things that plants consume the most and that they need in big quantity?

 

[PheonixKingZ]

I hear Seachem Flourish is really good. I don’t personally use ferts, because I am able to grow plants really good without them.

@Byron and @seangee might be able to help you.

 

[Metalhead88]

I use only flourish.

From what I hear, easy green is pretty much the same thing.

 

[Meg0000]

I hear Seachem Flourish is really good. I don’t personally use ferts, because I am able to grow plants really good without them.

@Byron and @seangee might be able to help you.

Mine grows ok with seachem flourish but I still get yellow leaves and very slow growth so I think my plants still have a lack of nutrient. I hope they will be able to help me

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Mine grows ok with seachem flourish but I still get yellow leaves and very slow growth so I think my plants still have a lack of nutrient. I hope they will be able to help me

What kind of plants do you have?

 

[Metalhead88]

If you have plants that feed from their roots, you may need root tabs.

Liquid fertilizer is great, but not all plants will benefit from liquid fertilizer.

 

[Retired Viking]

I also use flourish for my plants that absorb what they need from the water, for my rooted plants I use flourish plant taps.

 

[Meg0000]

What kind of plants do you have?

I have bacopa moneri, one plant that I don't know the name of, java fern, anubias, one type of ludwigia that I don't know the name and ludwigia needle leaf. I think the plant that does the worst is the bacopa moneri, also the 2 types of ludigia are new and so far they are doing well.

 

[Meg0000]

If you have plants that feed from their roots, you may need root tabs.

Liquid fertilizer is great, but not all plants will benefit from liquid fertilizer.

I already have root tabs but I don't think the plants I have are root feeders so it should not be a problem.

 

[PheonixKingZ]

Interesting, most of those plants are low light only. Will you please upload a picture of said yellow plants?

 

[Byron]

I will deal with Flourish in a moment, first just to say that light is the primary factor in aquarium plants, and the nutrients must be balanced with the light intensity.

Flourish Comprehensive Supplement is a complete plant nutrient additive [I'll explain the exceptions in a moment]. It is, as the name suggests, a comprehensive or complete "supplement" to the nutrients already present from water changes and fish foods. It is not intended for high-tech planted tanks where mega light and diffused CO2 are part of the balance which thus requires larger influxes of nutrients. But in the natural (low-tech) normal primarily-fish aquarium that has plants, it is ideal.

For this purpose, it is "complete," but it does not contain three nutrients, namely oxygen, hydrogen and carbon because these are naturally occurring in an aquarium. The remaining 14 nutrients are also in a specific proportion to each other, as botanical studies have determined. The "hard" minerals calcium and magnesium are minimal because most water supplies have these minerals in them. For those of us with very soft source water, or using RO water alone, it can sometimes be necessary to add these two minerals to compensate, but this depends upon other factors such as the plant species, numbers, and fish species/load.

The proportional balance is more important than you might think. Studies have determined that an exzess of some nutrients--iron is one of these--can actually cause plants to shut down assimilation of other essential nutrients. The proportional balance of nutrients in Flourish Comprehensive Supplement avoids this problem. But it means that other nutrients--excepting calcium and magnesium in some circumstances--should never be added in addition to Flourish Comprehensive.

Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti is basically identical with respect to the above. I just looked up Easy Green, and it has 11 nutrients, and calcium is not one of them, so from that aspect the Flourish and FlorinMulti are better, but if you have moderately hard water calcium is or should be sufficient anyway. But from my searches, I would go with either Flourish Comprehensive or FlorinMulti. I have been using Flourish Comprehensive for more than a decade now, with excellent results, and I have very soft water (zero GH/KH). If I could get FlorinMulti locally I would probably give it a try, but I am not going to order it in when FC is working OK.

 

[Meg0000]

Interesting, most of those plants are low light only. Will you please upload a picture of said yellow plants?

I just removed most of the yellow leaves yesterday but I would like if someone could identify the plant I don't know the name of. Right now it is covered in brown algea but I think it is normal in a new tank

 

[Meg0000]

I will deal with Flourish in a moment, first just to say that light is the primary factor in aquarium plants, and the nutrients must be balanced with the light intensity.

Flourish Comprehensive Supplement is a complete plant nutrient additive [I'll explain the exceptions in a moment]. It is, as the name suggests, a comprehensive or complete "supplement" to the nutrients already present from water changes and fish foods. It is not intended for high-tech planted tanks where mega light and diffused CO2 are part of the balance which thus requires larger influxes of nutrients. But in the natural (low-tech) normal primarily-fish aquarium that has plants, it is ideal.

For this purpose, it is "complete," but it does not contain three nutrients, namely oxygen, hydrogen and carbon because these are naturally occurring in an aquarium. The remaining 14 nutrients are also in a specific proportion to each other, as botanical studies have determined. The "hard" minerals calcium and magnesium are minimal because most water supplies have these minerals in them. For those of us with very soft source water, or using RO water alone, it can sometimes be necessary to add these two minerals to compensate, but this depends upon other factors such as the plant species, numbers, and fish species/load.

The proportional balance is more important than you might think. Studies have determined that an exzess of some nutrients--iron is one of these--can actually cause plants to shut down assimilation of other essential nutrients. The proportional balance of nutrients in Flourish Comprehensive Supplement avoids this problem. But it means that other nutrients--excepting calcium and magnesium in some circumstances--should never be added in addition to Flourish Comprehensive.

Brightwell Aquatics' FlorinMulti is basically identical with respect to the above. I just looked up Easy Green, and it has 11 nutrients, and calcium is not one of them, so from that aspect the Flourish and FlorinMulti are better, but if you have moderately hard water calcium is or should be sufficient anyway. But from my searches, I would go with either Flourish Comprehensive or FlorinMulti. I have been using Flourish Comprehensive for more than a decade now, with excellent results, and I have very soft water (zero GH/KH). If I could get FlorinMulti locally I would probably give it a try, but I am not going to order it in when FC is working OK.

Ok thank you, so think that if I dose a little of iron it could just help because of the ludwigia that I have and that I will buy soon. I could just dose a little so I will be sure the plants still absorb other nutrients. Other than that I will stick to seachem comprehensive.

 

[Byron]

Ok thank you, so think that if I dose a little of iron it could just help because of the ludwigia that I have and that I will buy soon. I could just dose a little so I will be sure the plants still absorb other nutrients. Other than that I will stick to seachem comprehensive.

No on the iron. As I explained, Flourish Comprehensive (and the FlorinMulti) has iron and has it in proportion to the other nutrients. Iron cannot possibly be the issue if you are using FC.

Several years ago I added additional iron (Flourish Iron) and within a few weeks my floating Water Sprite began melting. I stopped the additional iron, pulled out the worst of the plants, and things remedied over another few weeks.

Ludwigia is a stem plant and these being fast growing require good light. The yellowing on the leaves in the photos (those seem to be a species of Hygrophyla I think) is on the older leaves while the newer are green. This suggests the plants are settling into a new environment (light, water, nutrients all factor in) so I would not worry but use the FC.

 

[Meg0000]

No on the iron. As I explained, Flourish Comprehensive (and the FlorinMulti) has iron and has it in proportion to the other nutrients. Iron cannot possibly be the issue if you are using FC.

Several years ago I added additional iron (Flourish Iron) and within a few weeks my floating Water Sprite began melting. I stopped the additional iron, pulled out the worst of the plants, and things remedied over another few weeks.

Ludwigia is a stem plant and these being fast growing require good light. The yellowing on the leaves in the photos (those seem to be a species of Hygrophyla I think) is on the older leaves while the newer are green. This suggests the plants are settling into a new environment (light, water, nutrients all factor in) so I would not worry but use the FC.

I just searched to see if Hygrophyla looked like the plant I showed but instead I found out that what I tought that was ludwigia needle leaf is actually Hygrophila polysperma. Does this plang grows fast? I will continue to use only FC and thank you for your help I will also continue to try to find what is the plant I showed, maybe it is another type of Hygrophila