# What is the best fertiliser?



## Morpheus (Feb 12, 2004)

I just ordered some Seachem Flourish and some Flourish tabs. Will these provide my plants with enough nutrients?
Also is once a week enough or will they dissipate during this time.
I also got some Fizz tabs from Junglelabs that have trace elements and Co2, are these any good?
Any advice appreciated


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

I personally use all seachem products but in order to tell if they are 'suited' for you,you have to describe in detail your setup in order to see your lighting system,spieces of plants...etc.


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## Kohan Bros. (Aug 24, 2004)

that is exectly what i use in my 75g pygo tank for plants with aronf 150wat lighting. for plants i have some eloda, jungle vail, and assorted sward plants everything is growing well. Hope ur fertilzer works good for u


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## Morpheus (Feb 12, 2004)

I have about 1.25wpg lighting, and my plants are Hygrophila, Echinodorus Barthi, java Fern and Anubias Barteri.
I have my lights on for 4 hrs then off for 3hrs, then on again for 6 hrs. I copied this lighting pattern from Eltwitcho's plant journal because I had a problem with brown algae all over the plant leaves. I also just added some 'Cleanwater' filter media to my filter to get help get rid of excess phosphates, thus starving the algae.

What I am not sure about is the best frequency for fertilising the plants, as I dont want to overfertilise and cause an algae bloom.
Also it is ok to put 2 different types of fertiliser in your tank?


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## Husky_Jim (May 26, 2003)

Morpheus said:


> *I have my lights on for 4 hrs then off for 3hrs, then on again for 6 hrs.*










Can you explain this a little?


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## Morpheus (Feb 12, 2004)

This is to try and stop the algae from growing as I was told by an experienced friend and also in one of ElTwitchos posts that plants can handle the break in lighting whereas Algae cant as it is more primitive than plants.


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## mashunter18 (Jan 2, 2004)

I dont know about that lighting.

I use flourish and flourish iron, works well on my low light plants, lots of anubias in my tanks :nod:


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## Morpheus (Feb 12, 2004)

What lighting pattern would you recommend? I was just under the impression that a break in lighting would help in the fight against algae growth.


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## harrykaa (Jan 10, 2005)

Morpheus said:


> What lighting pattern would you recommend? I was just under the impression that a break in lighting would help in the fight against algae growth.


Hi Morpheus,

This algae growth / prevention thing is not that simple one.
I am very sure though that 4 hours is enough for a bunch of algae.

First of all, there are many different types of algae: green algae, brown algae, diatoms and of course blue-green algae that are actually a bacteria group capable of photosynthesis. All these groups grow in different conditions.

For example brown algae grow well in a fairly new tank water and they don't need strong light.
Green algae grow well in strong light + waters rich in phosphate and nitrate.
Blue-green algae don't need nitrate but they need strong light and otherwise nutritious conditions (actually a common Pygo tank conditions).

I have seen here many topics on CO2. It is said that well balanced combination of strong light, nutrients (macro and micro) and CO2 will prevent algae from growing too much. What is true is that also algae need CO2 to be able to photosynthesize.

Regards,


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## Morpheus (Feb 12, 2004)

Thanks for your reply, I am sure that my algae problem has been caused by high phosphate levels in my tank, because I have been using a ph 6.5 buffer that I just discovered is actually a phosphate buffer. When I checked the phosphate levels in my tank they were +10ppm which is bad.
I am stopping using the ph buffer and i'm considering either not buffering the water at all and leaving it a 7.6 from my tap, or using seachem acid/alkali buffers which are non-phosphate buffers.


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