Fertilizers... What is best?

[Justin]

Hi all...

I've just learnt how to use newsgroups and found this one, so hopefully I
don't bombard you all with questions...

I have been runing my planted tank for about 6 mths now and have gone
through the green water period, the unstable period and now that i am
getting established, I want to start tweaking. My fertilizer is where I
want to start...
I have only used Dupla 24 in conjuntion with Dupla Plant 24 in my aquarium
and I have average results but after resently looking at some of the planted
aquariums at http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/ I know there must be
something I am doing wrong... Most of these aquariums use Seachem Flourish
as there daily fertilizer... Has anyone had experience with this?
If anyone can help, I was wondering should I maybe use half dupla and half
flourish as my daily routine or maybe just go straight over to flourish? I
have pressurized CO2 on 10hours a day with MH lighting in a 200 litre
aquarium. I really want to see the bubbling oxygen effect I have seen in a
planted aquarium video...

Thanks all for any advise/help you can give.

[Rick]

"Justin" > wrote in message
...
> Hi all...
>
> I've just learnt how to use newsgroups and found this one, so hopefully I
> don't bombard you all with questions...
>
> I have been runing my planted tank for about 6 mths now and have gone
> through the green water period, the unstable period and now that i am
> getting established, I want to start tweaking. My fertilizer is where I
> want to start...
> I have only used Dupla 24 in conjuntion with Dupla Plant 24 in my aquarium
> and I have average results but after resently looking at some of the
planted
> aquariums at http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/ I know there must be
> something I am doing wrong... Most of these aquariums use Seachem
Flourish
> as there daily fertilizer... Has anyone had experience with this?
> If anyone can help, I was wondering should I maybe use half dupla and half
> flourish as my daily routine or maybe just go straight over to flourish?
I
> have pressurized CO2 on 10hours a day with MH lighting in a 200 litre
> aquarium. I really want to see the bubbling oxygen effect I have seen in
a
> planted aquarium video...
>
> Thanks all for any advise/help you can give.
>
>
>

I just started using Flourish in my heavily planted tank about 2 weeks ago
along with supplementation Nitrate and Flourish iron. I am noticing a nice
improvement in the appearance of my plants although my plants bubbled nicely
before as well.

Rick

[Justin]

Thanks for your response Rick. One more question, if I could... Dupla 24
is a daily fertilizer, that is one drop per 50 litres, whereas I have just
been to the Seachem website where it advises that doesage is 10mls per 250
litres twice weekly... I was advised that the benefit of Dupla is that it's
a daily fertilizer which means that there is no surge in nutrients that can
lead to algae when excess nutrients are not utilzed by plants... Do you
think that I could administer the Flourish as a daily fertilizer? Do you do
this?

Thanks

"Rick" > wrote in message
...
>
> "Justin" > wrote in message
> ...
>> Hi all...
>>
>> I've just learnt how to use newsgroups and found this one, so hopefully I
>> don't bombard you all with questions...
>>
>> I have been runing my planted tank for about 6 mths now and have gone
>> through the green water period, the unstable period and now that i am
>> getting established, I want to start tweaking. My fertilizer is where I
>> want to start...
>> I have only used Dupla 24 in conjuntion with Dupla Plant 24 in my
>> aquarium
>> and I have average results but after resently looking at some of the
> planted
>> aquariums at http://www.aquatic-gardeners.org/ I know there must be
>> something I am doing wrong... Most of these aquariums use Seachem
> Flourish
>> as there daily fertilizer... Has anyone had experience with this?
>> If anyone can help, I was wondering should I maybe use half dupla and
>> half
>> flourish as my daily routine or maybe just go straight over to flourish?
> I
>> have pressurized CO2 on 10hours a day with MH lighting in a 200 litre
>> aquarium. I really want to see the bubbling oxygen effect I have seen in
> a
>> planted aquarium video...
>>
>> Thanks all for any advise/help you can give.
>>
>>
>>
>
> I just started using Flourish in my heavily planted tank about 2 weeks ago
> along with supplementation Nitrate and Flourish iron. I am noticing a nice
> improvement in the appearance of my plants although my plants bubbled
> nicely
> before as well.
>
> Rick
>
>

[Rick]

"Justin" > wrote in message
...
> Thanks for your response Rick. One more question, if I could... Dupla 24
> is a daily fertilizer, that is one drop per 50 litres, whereas I have just
> been to the Seachem website where it advises that doesage is 10mls per 250
> litres twice weekly... I was advised that the benefit of Dupla is that
it's
> a daily fertilizer which means that there is no surge in nutrients that
can
> lead to algae when excess nutrients are not utilzed by plants... Do you
> think that I could administer the Flourish as a daily fertilizer? Do you
do
> this?
>
> Thanks
>


in my 77 I dose 15ml of Flourish 3 x a week along with a 1/2 tsp of KN03 3
x week ( the kn03 is adjusted according to the needs of the plants but I try
to maintain at least 5ppm and closer to 10ppm). I also add 1/2 - 3/4 tsp of
Potassium sulfate only after water changes and about 1/8th tsp of potassium
phosphate 1 x or 2x a week. I use Seachems test kits to measure levels and
adjust accordingly. I normally do water changes 1 x weekly with about a
40-50% change and this does not allow any nutrient build up however the last
month or so my water changes have been more on the order of every 10-14 days
and there has been no problem. I do have some green algae on the glass which
is easily removed however I obviously have to tweak my dosing a bit to try
and eliminate this. I did the daily dosing of PMDD or dupla and found it to
be a pain. I simply figured out how many drops I need daily x that by 2 or
by 3 and dosed 2x week or 3 x a week. My plants were suffering some
yellowing and I thought changing my substrate to flourish would eliminate
this problem but I have been adding Flourish iron and this has really made a
difference.

Rick