[starlin]

i have a fairly heavily planted tank, with various plants. it has,
200L
50% eco-complete substrate
low bio load
approximately 35 pars of light.

i bought some seachem products, flouish, trace, iron, tabs and excel. how much, of which, should i be using minimally to keep my plants lush and healthy? i was also considering lowing my light to perhaps 40-45 pars, is this necessary...:icon_ques

thanks adam.

 

[Darkblade48]

Seachem has a dosing regimen that you could try, if you are planning to stay with their products.

http://www.seachem.com/support/PlantDoseChart.pdf

As for your lighting, if you have 35 umol/square inch of PAR, how can you "lower it" to 40-45 umol/square inch?

 

[starlin]

sorry meant to lower my fixture by so many inches to increase my par. is it necessary to use flourish Phosphorus and flourish Potassium? and even flourish nitrogen, the seachem chart seems like alot of dosing.

 

[starlin]

from my understanding, going to dose,
1/2 recomended of flourish 3 times a week
trace 2 times a week
iron 2 times a week on different days to flourish
excel 1/2 dose on bottle 3 times a week
w/c on sunday, kh and gh boosters as is low in tap water here.
+root tabs.

guess it will do more good, will adjust if i get any problems...:help:

 

[Darkblade48]

sorry meant to lower my fixture by so many inches to increase my par. is it necessary to use flourish Phosphorus and flourish Potassium? and even flourish nitrogen, the seachem chart seems like alot of dosing.

Yes, P and K are your other two macronutrients that are required for healthy plants.

And the chart probably seems like a lot of dosing because the Seachem products are mostly water.

Dry fertilizers are the way to go, if you want to save money.

 

[Fat Guy]

Yes, P and K are your other two macronutrients that are required for healthy plants.

And the chart probably seems like a lot of dosing because the Seachem products are mostly water.

Dry fertilizers are the way to go, if you want to save money.

I second darkblade. I think eventually you will want to go with dry ferts and make your own solutions. The seachem products are not bad, but getting your own dry ferts is a lot more cost effective down the line and you won't be paying for water.

 

[starlin]

thanks, should have done my research, going to order some dry fertilizers. found a good online international seller i can order from. http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/index.asp
and found potassium nitrate on [Ebay Link Removed]

 

[starlin]

if i am dosing dry fertilizers. is there any need or benefit in using root tabs. my substrate is 50% eco-complete and 50% gravel, though i built up one side with all gravel.

 

[Darkblade48]

if i am dosing dry fertilizers. is there any need or benefit in using root tabs. my substrate is 50% eco-complete and 50% gravel, though i built up one side with all gravel.

Dry fertilizers will fertilize the water column; depending on your substrate (whether it has a high CEC ability or not), will mean whether it absorbs the nutrients or not.

For some heavy root feeders such as Amazon Swords and Cryptocoryne species, you can use root tabs to further boost the amount of available nutrients to them.

 

[starlin]

thanks, i read eco-complete has a high "cec" ability, so good. may add a root tab to my amazon sword on the mountain of gravel i built.:smile: