# When to add Tetra FloraPride?



## ThomE (Aug 26, 2004)

EEwwww, you do what with rats :icon_eek: 

Sorry, Just had to say that. Dosing is funny. You can have 20 people and 20 might have a different style of dosing. I would find out what works for you. 

lets start with what you have, so labels say 5ml to 20l ... That's 5ml to 5.283 gallons ... or 7.57 ml to 8 gallons. Every 4 weeks, so now we take the 7.57 divide that by 4 (get weekly dosing) 1.89 ml to 8 gallons weekly. But we want to dose every other day(3 times weekly) ... .63 ml for 3 times weekly. Hope I didn't lose you, cause I think I'm getting very confused myself :icon_redf 

Okay, now with that, you have your micros. Hopefully there are very tiny fish in there ... or even a couple shrimp. They will produce your macros. (hopefully). I would keep an eye on your plants. They will tell you if they need some more or not. With your current tank set up, its pretty hard to tell you what you need. 

I would get a couple test kits - PH & KH to see if your CO2 unit is working and NO3 & PO4 to see if you need more macros dosing, You could also try Tom Barr's EI method.


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## StUk_In_AfRiKa (Jan 30, 2005)

Rats are ratastic!

Phew thanks for working all that out for me! I'm going to try it and see how it goes. I have 2 gups in the tank right now (with another one joining them on Mon) This would be enough for macros right?


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## ThomE (Aug 26, 2004)

That depends on how much you feed them vs. how much the plants absorb. Nature is funny; she doesn't like to make everything the same. 

I would either test the water or watch and let the plants tell you. (Me, I like to test the water. I like to think I can control something that isn't very controllable ... Really ask my wife, She lets me think I wear the pants :icon_redf )


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## fosteder (Apr 8, 2004)

FloraPride is a very incomplete fertilizer. It has some Macros (potassium K) some micros Fe and Mg (I think) and that is it. You might have success with it, you might not. It really depends on what is in the water that you add to your tank during water changes.

ThomE is right, you need to find what works for you. I used Florapride for 5 months, with little success other than algae. (my tap water has very little in it). Other people use the Flourish line to a lot of success. I use Gregwatson.com fertilizers with the EI method. See www.barrreport.com . This method sound very complicated when you first read about it, but it is not. In fact it is very easy.

Whatever method you choose, you need to have patience. Growing plants takes some experimenting and fiddling. Try one method if it doesn't work, try another. Don't get discouraged. It took me 7 months to get a healthy growing tank (algae free). I hope you get it right very quick!


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## StUk_In_AfRiKa (Jan 30, 2005)

Wow... 7 months. Since I added the FloraPride (and more light) green algae has sprouted up everywhere so I won't be dosing again for a little while. I'm also going to start siphoning more (yes I admit it... I'm a slacker in that area) and buy some more plants. I made the mistake of thinking I should start out with just a few plants and "ease" the tank into plantedness  Yeah.. not a good idea I know that now. 

Anyways the lfs only had the FloraPride and some other brand (local I'm thinking) which was a tiny bit more expensive for more than double the size of the FloraPride so I don't think it was that great. It only listed n and k in the ingredients. 

And one last question... not sure if this is right but I think I've seen that some people dose macros and micros on different days. Is an all-in-one fert just as good?

Yet another long post sorry guys... this mind just has so many questions  *off to read that long EI article*


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## lumpyfunk (Dec 22, 2004)

Your algae is caused by an imballance in nutrients, so I understand, As I still have not mastered it. This is why people dose everything seperatly, if your all in one has phospates and your tank is allready high in phospates, then the ballance is lost and boom. . .algae


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## StUk_In_AfRiKa (Jan 30, 2005)

Thanks for all your help guys. I read the EI article and I've decided I'll try that for a while. One question though... it says to do a large water change at the end of each week. How large is large? And if it's like over 50% wouldn't it affect the CO2 levels?


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