Is there a good all-around fertilizer?

[TetraFan]

I have a low-tech 50 gal tank and I was wondering if there was a good brand of fert that combined the main nutrients needed? Before this I have only used Flourish (micro) and Excel, but I feel like my plants are growing slower than they should. I don't really want to have to go and buy every single nutrient bottle separately and try to figure out a complicated dosing scheme (aka, I'm lazy :P), and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a way to dose casually.

PS. If this is a dumb idea, please just tell me.

[micheljq]

Hi, I believe Seachem Flourish is quite complete.

http://www.seachem.com/Products/prod.../Flourish.html

You can complete with Excel for carbon.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Michel.

[Wasserpest]

Originally Posted by TetraFan

I have a low-tech 50 gal tank and I was wondering if there was a good brand of fert that combined the main nutrients needed? Before this I have only used Flourish (micro) and Excel, but I feel like my plants are growing slower than they should. I don't really want to have to go and buy every single nutrient bottle separately and try to figure out a complicated dosing scheme (aka, I'm lazy :P), and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for a way to dose casually.

PS. If this is a dumb idea, please just tell me.

Not a dumb idea at all, unfortunately the answer is "no" for various reasons.

One reason is that planted tanks are really all very different. Some are high light, some low tech, some have lots of plants, others lots of fish, some are injected with CO2, some have lots of water changes.

Some tap waters contain a lot of nitrates, others a lot of phosphates. Some are very hard, others resemble rainwater.

All of this makes the "all in one" solution questionable.

Furthermore, some nutrients, notably iron and phosphates, don't work well when dosed or kept together, since they react with each other.

Low tech tanks with a good fish load might not need much in terms of added ferts at all. One the other hand, a lush jungle of demanding plant species requires good light and along with it, all of the necessary nutrients, in the correct ratios. With dosing schemes like "estimative index" even what seems like a lot to learn can become relatively simple to understand.

Like us, plants are living beings, and like us, they don't do well on just a single kind of canned food.

[stevenjohn21]

I disagree, I've been using this for the last year on my low-medium tanks and it works great !

http://selectaquatics.com/Plant%20Fertilizer.htm