# When to use Seachem Flourish?



## jmowbray (Dec 20, 2009)

You can start dosing as per the bottles instructions.

If you can put up pictures of the plants I'm 100% postive that people can help you out and tell you what they are.


----------



## tug (Mar 22, 2009)

*Never!* Just kidding, the dose depends on your tank size. The larger the tank the more expensive Seachem becomes and dry fertilizer (KNO3, KH2PO4, CSM+B) becomes a more attractive option. Start adding fertilizer right away, but Seachem Flourish is primarily a nutrient source for trace. Depending on what else you have going on (light, CO2, GH, etc.) you are going to need macronutrients as well. Fish and fish food can provide some nutrients, but you might want to add a GH booster like Equilibrium with your water change. Personaly, I find the directions with some Seachem products diffucult to understand. This link will take you to a nutrient calculator. http://www.fishfriend.com/fertfriend.html
Now, decide what your goals are, high tech/high light, low tech/low light, etc. Good luck.


----------



## Quesenek (Sep 26, 2008)

I dose twice a week, once on Saturday after the 50% w-c and once on Wednesday. Only problem being it's the only thing I dose as of right this second so my plants are only getting half of what they need fert wise.


----------



## redryder (Dec 28, 2009)

tug said:


> *Never!* Just kidding, the dose depends on your tank size. The larger the tank the more expensive Seachem becomes and dry fertilizer (KNO3, KH2PO4, CSM+B) becomes a more attractive option. Start adding fertilizer right away, but Seachem Flourish is primarily a nutrient source for trace. Depending on what else you have going on (light, CO2, GH, etc.) you are going to need macronutrients as well. Fish and fish food can provide some nutrients, but you might want to add a GH booster like Equilibrium with your water change. Personaly, I find the directions with some Seachem products diffucult to understand. This link will take you to a nutrient calculator. http://www.fishfriend.com/fertfriend.html
> Now, decide what your goals are, high tech/high light, low tech/low light, etc. Good luck.


Do I really need macronutrients? I googled online, and there's a post from seachem (http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/Fertilizer/flourish.html) that says if we have fish then the small amounts of NPK in flourish should be enough. My tank is a 28Gallon, by the way. 

Quoted from that post - 

"Seachem supplies an NPK source in its Flourish, however the levels 
we set in the product are meant to complement the other natural 
sources (here I'm referring to P & N) of these elements. If you have 
even a few fish in your planted tank they should provide sufficient 
levels of nitrogen and phosphorous. One advantage with Flourish is 
that the nitrogen source is in the form of amino acids which are 
utilized as preferentially as ammonia is and even if the amino acids 
are broken down by bacteria, it is broken down in to ammonia first 
which can be utilized by the plants as well. The amount of these 
constituents that we put in Flourish is enough to be of a benefit but 
not so much that if you have a number of fish you are not going to be 
adding an excess of N & P if you are using Flourish. If you have no 
fish at all and no other non plant species, then the amount of N & P 
in Flourish is probably not going to be sufficient (of course 
depending on the number and size of your plants)... in this case a 
good economical approach would be to either get a couple of 
inexpensive fish or add a bit of an ammonia solution (IMHO).

Gregory Morin, Ph.D. ~~~~~~~Research Director~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc. www.seachem.com 888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

The key question is- how much light are you running over your tank?

Light is what drives plant growth, and growth rate is what determines nutrient needs.

I don't ever dose anything on my own tanks- but that's because I run low light tanks and rely on my bioload to supply the plant needs. Only thing my plants ever get is whatever they can obtain from the substrate and the occasional root tab.

If you're running more light, then you probably won't be able to get away with that.


----------



## redryder (Dec 28, 2009)

My lights are about 2 watts per gallon.


----------



## Darkblade48 (Jan 4, 2008)

What kind of lighting do you have? 2 WPG is quite meaningless without knowing the type of light.　For example, 2 WPG　of T12 lighting is quite different from 2 WPG of T5HO lighting.


----------



## redryder (Dec 28, 2009)

Its T5 lighting


----------



## tug (Mar 22, 2009)

The simple answer to your question is yes and don't wait two or three weeks. Whether or not you should add nutrients is not the question. How much you need to dose is. Nothing is written in stone, the dosage you should be adding to supplement the nutrients coming out of your tap water and from the fish load will vary.


Have you looked at your local water quality report?
What soil are you using for a substrate?
What size tank did you say you have?
How many fish do you have?
What type of plants do you keep?
What wattage is listed on the bulb you have?
_Sorry, I need to ask. I once worked with someone who thought they had 2wpg when they had around 6wpg._
Is the light T5HO or T5NO?
Are you going to be adding CO2?
You have very good lighting (if it's 2wpg of T5HO), more then you need without a CO2 setup.

For example, at weeks end my nitrate levels are around 20ppm and my phosphate levels are around 4ppm. I have an average number of fish. I like fish, but don't like to crowd them out. I feed fairly heavily and perform weekly water changes. My tap water has 2ppm of phosphate and I dose an additional 1ppm daily for five days. I also dose about 4.4ppm of nitrate on the same days. It's going somewhere. It must be. Of course I do inject CO2 so that helps. I would look at the Fishfriend calculator and see if you are adding anything close to 1/2 what I dose. Answer some of the questions people have asked as completely as you can and you can get through this.



redryder said:


> Do I really need macronutrients?


----------



## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

redryder said:


> Its T5 lighting


T5NO or T5HO? What brand fixture?

Are you dosing CO2 on the tank? 

If so, DIY or pressurized? 

Do you have a drop checker to measure your CO2 levels?


----------

