Fertilizers... What is best?

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.

"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

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

"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