Seachem Flourish And Flourish Excel?

[MrsEspoNYC7]

hi this is probably a dumb question (well a few dumb questions actually

1. does excel replace the need for a pressurized system? I'm very new at this plant stuff and a pressurized system seems too expensive and complicated for now
2. am I supposed to use flourish and flourish excel? is one a fert and one for carbon ?
3. would a co2 indicator be necessary if I use this liquid?

thanks in advance for your help
 

 

[levahe]

1. Yes you can use excel instead of pressurised co2. Its not the same but does the same thing essentially, pressurised is 'stronger' and gives faster growth.

2. If you use co2 liquid or gas you are classed as high tech, so you need to dose complete fertilisers. Flourish is good for low tech so I would recommend looking at Estimative Index (E.I.) or using a complete fert like tropica plant growth specialised.

3. A co2 indicator would only react to pressurised co2 because the co2 lowers the pH of the water and liquid co2 wont.

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Thanks so much for your fast help. Do you have any other advice for a totally lost planted newbie.

 

[levahe]

Thanks so much for your fast help. Do you have any other advice for a totally lost planted newbie.

Yep, I always recommend -

Not too much light,
Plenty of fertilisers,
Keep tank clean + gravel vac weekly,
Weekly water change 25% +, 50% is better

And that's it really, just be sure to do a little research for the plants you are planning on getting some are easier to look after than others.

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Thanks you make it sound just so easy....I'm pretty sure I'm going at make a huge mess out of my tanks so ill be keeping my old faithful plastic plants just in case .
I'll post some pics when I redo my tank
Thanks again for the help

 

[joe17]

Glad to see I'm not the only totally lost newbie to planted tanks!!  I am going to plant my 55g tank and I heard that if the tank is planted enough, there is no need to cycle the tank. Is this true?
 
Also, if I "heavily plant" my tank, will I also have to add co2? A pressurized co2 system is out of budget and seems way too complicated for me right now, so would liquid carbon do the job?

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Hi joe, yeah I agree it definitely is nice to know your not alone as a newbie here lol. I'm not sure of an answer for either question. If I had to take a guess I would say that it probably helps to lessen the amount of ammonia harmful to your fish when there are plants during a cycle since the plants use up the waste as fertilizer, but definitely wait fir an answer from someone who knows the real answer. As for the part about the co2 I think the liquid is essentially the same as pressurized but I was told you have to dose more different fertilizers once you use co2. Hopefully someone that knows the answers (I'm just taking a guess here) can help you more. I'm in the process of converting my main display tank and setting up two new tanks and I started a journal. If you follow that thread maybe you can get some pointers from people who are helping me.

 

[levahe]

Glad to see I'm not the only totally lost newbie to planted tanks!!  I am going to plant my 55g tank and I heard that if the tank is planted enough, there is no need to cycle the tank. Is this true?
 
Also, if I "heavily plant" my tank, will I also have to add co2? A pressurized co2 system is out of budget and seems way too complicated for me right now, so would liquid carbon do the job?

That's right you can skip cycling a tank if its heavily planted to begin with, and you start with only a couple of fish and add more fish every couple of weeks. Also you would need to do regular waterchanges.
I wouldn't recommend it though if you aren't already proficient with planted tanks as all the plants would need to be established, healthy and growing well for this to work as intended.
That said though you could spend the first month or so learning about planted tanks and tending your plants making them grow instead of adding ammonia, then add your fish as described as above.

If you are planning a heavily planted tank you will need co2, liquid co2 will do fine as long as you have the correct fertilisers.

Also something to look into would be the wasltad method of planted tank which I have never done but there are a few members on here very knowlageable on the subject and I'm sure would help and advise on the subject.

 

[MrsEspoNYC7]

Thanks for the clarification, I was very careful to make sure to say I was just guessing there, lol. I definitely am in no position to offer advice yet as I'm just starting out myself.

 

[joe17]

Thanks for the info! I am definately looking into a heavily planted tank so I will do some more research on the liquid co2! As for the substrate, would play sand alone do the trick if I heavily plant the tank? It is not deep enough so I am planning on adding more but I am not sure whether I should just add some more play sand or another type of substrate and mix the two together...
 
Thank you MrsEspo, I will definately follow and absorb as much of the info as possible!