How often should I dose Seachem?

[Tom B.]

I have a 20L tank that quite a few plants in it. What I am wondering is how
ofter should I dose with Seachem flourish plant fertilizer? Right now I am
only dosing the correct amount for the replacment water whenever I do a
water change, about once a week. Should I dose the recommended amount more
often or continue like I am ?

[Eric Schreiber]

Tom B. wrote:

> I have a 20L tank that quite a few plants in it. What I am wondering
> is how ofter should I dose with Seachem flourish plant fertilizer?
> Right now I am only dosing the correct amount for the replacment
> water whenever I do a water change, about once a week. Should I dose
> the recommended amount more often or continue like I am ?

The answer will be different for every tank. If you're satisfied with
how the tank is operating right now, then the best advice is probably
just keep doing what you're doing.

If you want to experiment a bit, though, try changing the dosing levels
for a few weeks and see if plant growth improves, or if algae goes
nuts, and so on.

--
www.ericschreiber.com

[CS]

I tend to dose 2 times per week. I would start with 1/2 the recommended
dosage first and slowly inch up--

Lowcoaster


"Tom B." > wrote in message
...
> I have a 20L tank that quite a few plants in it. What I am wondering is
how
> ofter should I dose with Seachem flourish plant fertilizer? Right now I am
> only dosing the correct amount for the replacment water whenever I do a
> water change, about once a week. Should I dose the recommended amount more
> often or continue like I am ?
>
>

[Graham Broadbridge]

"Tom B." > wrote in message
...
> I have a 20L tank that quite a few plants in it. What I am wondering is
how
> ofter should I dose with Seachem flourish plant fertilizer? Right now I am
> only dosing the correct amount for the replacment water whenever I do a
> water change, about once a week. Should I dose the recommended amount more
> often or continue like I am ?

If the plants look happy, and you have no algae problems, I'd keep doing
what you're doing :-)

If it's not broken ....


Graham.

[Dave Millman]

Graham Broadbridge wrote:

> "Tom B." > wrote in message
> ...
> > What I am wondering is how
> > ofter should I dose with Seachem flourish plant fertilizer? Right now I am
> > only dosing the correct amount for the replacment water whenever I do a
> > water change, about once a week. Should I dose the recommended amount more
> > often or continue like I am ?
>
> If the plants look happy, and you have no algae problems, I'd keep doing
> what you're doing :-)
>
> If it's not broken ....

Tom would be very wise to follow Graham's advice here. If the plants are
healthy, and algae is not a problem, increasing nutrients is not going to help.

[Tom B.]

I have done some research on this topic and I have realized how much of a
loaded question this was. I am going to basically figure it out for myself
by doing what I always have and then changing one thing at a time (as much
as possible). I have high (~40PPM) nitrates but other than that I think my
tank is doing great since I switched to a Fluval 204 filter. I wanted an
Ehiem but I don't have the $$.

Anybody have any idea why my nitrates are so high? Nitrates have pretty much
been rock steady where they are since I started testing the water. Nothing I
do seems to help. I tried large water changes, lots of plants, and feeding
less. I also tested my tap water and it is around 5PPM, bought a completly
different test kit and same results. I'm thinking I might remove a piece of
driftwood and plant even more.

[Graham Broadbridge]

"Tom B." > wrote in message
...
> I have done some research on this topic and I have realized how much of a
> loaded question this was. I am going to basically figure it out for myself
> by doing what I always have and then changing one thing at a time (as much
> as possible). I have high (~40PPM) nitrates but other than that I think my
> tank is doing great since I switched to a Fluval 204 filter. I wanted an
> Ehiem but I don't have the $$.
>
> Anybody have any idea why my nitrates are so high? Nitrates have pretty
much
> been rock steady where they are since I started testing the water. Nothing
I
> do seems to help. I tried large water changes, lots of plants, and feeding
> less. I also tested my tap water and it is around 5PPM, bought a completly
> different test kit and same results. I'm thinking I might remove a piece
of
> driftwood and plant even more.

If you're fertilizing and the nitrates are steady, then you've reached a
balance between the plant consumption and filter generation of nitrates. To
reduce them just use water changes until you reach 5-10 ppm nitrate. Any
lower and the plants may suffer.

If you have a balance at that level be happy :-) To increase plant growth
you would need to add more light and CO2, then again search for the balance
that you now have.

Graham.