# Suitable Fertilizer



## username321 (Jun 26, 2007)

My planted aquarium has the following plants: amazon sword, jungle vals, java moss, ludwigia, hornwort, cabomba. These have been in my tank for about a month and a half so i'm sure they have now depleted their nutrients that they had stored. i do not have a CO2 BTW. So i was thinking of getting a fertilizer suitable and was amazed at the choices that they had. So which product do u think best suits my needs. I particularly was biased towards Flourish Excel as it seemed to provide Carbon that my plants can obtain but i decided to not buy it then and there as i would like some input from you planted folks. Thanks, UN321


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Excel is not fertilizer, its carbonic supplimentation. Plants will still need macros, micros and trace. I'm partial to Tropica's Mastergrow with excel but flourish and excel will work fine.


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## username321 (Jun 26, 2007)

thanks for the reply. I think the Tropica Mastergrow has changed its name to Tropica Plant Nutrition --http://www.tropica.dk/article.asp?type=news&id=686. IS this the one or am i mistaken. I have tried various petstores to see if they stock it and it seems that they do not. Where do you get yours, Damon. 

Another thing is that since I am not using CO2, I think I would be better of using Flourish Excel as a source of carbon for my plants. To use an actual fertilizer, I will see if I can get my hands on Tropica or else will a comprehensive fertilizer like Flourish Comprehensive work.. I looked at the ingredients for this and it seems it contains iron but lacks potassium. I know that they dont include potassium to prevent algae outbreak, so how can i obtain this. Is there a more commonly all round fert that includes all this or does fish food provide this.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Potassium does not cause algae. I dose my ferts individually (N,P,K trace, iron, micros). Not really suited for your needs. I'm almost sure potassium is in flourish (I thought it was in all commercial ferts.)
Tropica may have changed their fert name. Still the best IMO.


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2007)

Hey Damon, just curious....why is Tropica the best fert in your opinion? I'm also looking for some ferts for my new planted tank.


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2007)

is there like peices of fertelizer i can stick by the roots of my amazon sword? like i mean discs or somthing


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## Guest (Aug 25, 2007)

According to the list of nutrients in Flourish on the Seachem website (that I just glanced at.....) Flourish Comprehensive does not contain Potassium. It could possibly be because there is a separate Flourish Potassium product available. It would also be good to pick this up, along with the Excel and either Flourish Comprehensive (regular Flourish) or TMG/Tropica Plant Nutrition.

If you shop online, BigAlsOnline sells Tropica Plant Nutrition in 3 different sizes. 


Sword, you can buy root tabs/spikes to put in the gravel for heavy root feeding plants. IMO it works just as well to fertilize the water column and if you disturb the root tab too much you could release more nutrients possibly leading to algae problems. (learned this from Damon )


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## mgamer20o0 (Aug 27, 2007)

dry ferts are the best.... stop wasting time and money with the liquid ones.


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

Nice post 

I've had much better success (and many others) with tropicas mix. I feel its due to the ratio of ferts in it vs seachem but flourish is good also. Dry ferts are cheaper but there are many factors involved that can be a hassle that can easily be avoided if the tank is not high tech.


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## jmk19 (Aug 27, 2007)

I asked at a big box store (yeah I shouldn't have bothered asking, but thought maybe I would catch a good worker)... about Excel being a good source for carbon since I wasn't using CO2 either and they had no clue.

I was hoping to try and get carbon into my tank as well from something other than CO2 and a google search did bring up Flourish Excel but I wasn't able to confirm it yet. But, is carbon from a fertilizer any type of replacement at all for CO2 injection? If it was worthy of a chance, wouldn't a LOT of people just go with that instead of DIY or expensive pressure tanks?


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## Damon (Jan 18, 2005)

jmk19 said:


> I asked at a big box store (yeah I shouldn't have bothered asking, but thought maybe I would catch a good worker)... about Excel being a good source for carbon since I wasn't using CO2 either and they had no clue.


Thats one of the best responses I've heard from a big box store. Better to tell the customer you have no idea than lie and cause more problems.


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