F E R T S

what are you favorite ferts to use and why, and how often do you use them ???

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Permalink Reply by Peter on August 5, 2012 at 1:28pm

I like flourish product ferts like excel, iron, potassium because they work. And the dose I use I jus follow directions on bottle to no overdose on something that might cause harm be it my fish dying, a algae bloom or other.

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Permalink Reply by Breezer on August 5, 2012 at 10:13pm

I roll with flourish and excel from seachem. I dont use iron or potassium or other stuff as i beleive my plants get enough from the dirted substrate

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Permalink Reply by Robert Jango on August 6, 2012 at 2:08am

If you need chemicals, buy them from this site:

http://www.aquariumfertilizer.com/index.asp?Option1=cats&Edit=2...

Its about 25 times cheaper than buying liquid ferts which are mostly just water.

I also mix earthworm castings into my soil. They're the small round black balls that cover the ground just underneath the leaf litter in wooded areas. This is nature's best fertilizer - better than cow manure or guano. Also enough fish droppings can keep a substrate fertilized forever.

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Permalink Reply by Nick (RhinoTanks) on August 6, 2012 at 6:08pm

Yup, go dry. Much better product as well. I did SeaChem for a while and its just way to expensive, and not as effective. All you will need Nitrate, Phosphate, and Trace (Plantex CSM-B)...you will get plenty of potash if you dose these 3 correctly. I use aquariumfertilizers.com, but you can go to gla.com. Look up Tom Barr's EI method and dose per your tank size, then do a 50% water change once a week to reset. Hope this helps... -Nick

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Permalink Reply by Jeremy robinson on August 6, 2012 at 9:41pm

If you use a dirt substrate you don't need ferts until the plants use up all the nutrients from the dirt. Which takes a long time. If your not using a dirt substrate then ferts and carbon distributors or liquid carbon are very beneficial. too much nutrients in your water can be harmfull to the plants.

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Permalink Reply by seth roach on August 7, 2012 at 2:00pm

everyones gunna hate on me for it but i've been set on a schedule of monday dose flourish comp. and excel wait a day put the airstone on the next night then thursday i put a few drops of this cactus liquid plant food http://www.amazon.com/Schultz-2-7-7-Cactus-Liquid-Plant/dp/B001B0E0CC its a 2-7-7 fert but is pretty cheap and it keeps me from having to buy flourish comp. all the time.....it is a little more phosphates than id like but it was the best i could find and is close enough because i always do a water change on sunday....my plants seem to love it. i get some algea but less than i was getting before i started this schedule so im not complaining....