Fertilizer questions

[Byron]

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

I am not too up on Hygrophyla species, I had H. polysperma and H. corymbosa, and H. difformis many years ago, but none of them lasted long under my moderate lighting (and I suspect my very soft water was a factor too) so I moved on to plants that will manage. All stem plants are fast growing plants. Pennywort is one that I have had success with, if left floating. It is easy to add nutrients via fertilizers, but the lighting is the primary factor.

 

[utahfish]

Tom Barr of the Barr report says the two nutrients in aquariums that plants are lacking are potassium and Iron. When using a comprehensive liquid fert one wants to make sure the iron in it is derived of ferrous gluconate, some companies derive it from formaldehyde(no good) ferrous gluconate has bern shown to be the form plants best utilize iron. As for Potassium. Potassium is really hard to over dose and is a much needed macro so whatever you dose make sure it has a high% of potassium. Some brands will have high nitrates and phosphates but not potassium, that will just lead to algae.
Personally i use easy green because i get more bang for my buck than using flourish. Easy green has 9.21% potassium where as flourish has 0.37 so quite a difference.Byron is correct though that easy green doesnt have calcium which if one is using RO water or has really low GH is a problem but i dry dose my calcium into RO water. Ive used flourish in the past, and i personally like easy green because its just as high a quality and less expensive and higher in potassium nitrogen and phosphate. Its alot more concentrated so i use less than i would of flourish

 

[Meg0000]

I just compared the 2 fertilizer and easy green has a really higher % of nutrients compared to Flourish comprehensive. I made a bit more research and flourish comprehensive is only the base of the nutrients you would need and then you can buy other products like iron, potassium, nitrogen... dependly on the need of your aquarium and wich plants you have. On the other hand Easy Green is much more what you could call an all in one fertilizer so I also think it is better, I will probably buy that next time

 

[Byron]

I just compared the 2 fertilizer and easy green has a really higher % of nutrients compared to Flourish comprehensive. I made a bit more research and flourish comprehensive is only the base of the nutrients you would need and then you can buy other products like iron, potassium, nitrogen... depending on the need of your aquarium and wich plants you have. On the other hand Easy Green is much more what you could call an all in one fertilizer so I also think it is better, I will probably buy that next time

There is some misunderstanding here. Flourish Comprehensive is intended as a supplement, and it has all the necessary nutrients (save carbon, oxygen and hydrogen) in the relative proportion to each other to supply the proper nutrient levels for aquatic plants. Plant nutrients come from fish foods and water changes, and these can be sufficient depending upon the plant species and numbers. There is no need to be adding any additional nutrients, like iron, potassium, nitrogen because they are sufficient in the product plus the aquarium. Now, this is assuming a low-tech or natural planted tank, one where it is a fish tank that happens tohave plants. The only time you need to be adding the individual nutrients is when you are dealing with a high-tech planted tank where the plants are prime and fish are likely not even present. This is borne out by nitrogen, there is never any need to be adding more of this because it comes from the fish (ammonia/ammonium) and nitrate will not be taken up by plants except in the high-tech model, plus the nitrate is detrimental to fish.

There are 11 ingredients (nutrients) in EasyGreen. There are 15 nutrients in Flourish Comprehensive. The percentages are the percentage of each nutrient in the solution, not an indication of quantity.