Has Anyone Tried Biomax?

[B2k2]

Hi,

Just wondered if anyone has used this BIOMAX AQUARIUM PLANT FEED and is it any good?

I'm currently using Seachem Flourish and not getting much growth and alot of algae, so do you think biomax would be better?

 

[zig]

Never heard of it TBH, but it sounds a bit to good to be true if you know what i mean, its basically a trace mix of some sort, and all the emphasis on iron in the product would just fuel my suspicions about the product, iron is just one component of any decent trace mix, one thats frequently emphasised far to much IMO, anyway i would take the claims with a pinch of salt, flourish is an excellent trace mix.

Whats your setup, and what type of algae are you getting, and do you dose anything else besides flourish?

May as well try and sort out the algae while we are at it

 

[B2k2]

Never heard of it TBH, but it sounds a bit to good to be true if you know what i mean, its basically a trace mix of some sort, and all the emphasis on iron in the product would just fuel my suspicions about the product, iron is just one component of any decent trace mix, one thats frequently emphasised far to much IMO, anyway i would take the claims with a pinch of salt, flourish is an excellent trace mix.

Whats your setup, and what type of algae are you getting, and do you dose anything else besides flourish?

May as well try and sort out the algae while we are at it

Thanks for that zig, you have confirmed my suspisions. I'm guessing that the people who have left feedback that their plants have started growing are people that haven't used a fert at all before, obviously it's going to make a difference to them.

My set up is 29 US gallons with 2 WPG with 1x 30w Interpet Triplus and 1x 30w Hagen Sunglow. I have 2 nutrifin CO2 reactors with DIY mix, changed every 5 days with 2 day interval. I'm adding Flourish twice a week but haven't tried EI as yet, not sure if its worth it as flourish has the chemicals in EI anyway. Tank is quite heavily planted but my Amazon swords don't seem top have taken off yet.

I am also 4 weeks into a fishless cycle so maybe the high nitrates is causing the algae. I have done 3 50% water changes last weekend to try and get nitrite and nitrate levels down but the have risen back up again, not sure what i'm doing wrong there.

I have small amounts of grey hair algae which I did have alot of, this seems to have died down now leaving a horrible brown power at the bottom of my tank. I have had alot of string algae but that seems to have died down a bit too. Also have alot of brown algae, especially on the swords and also on top of my filter with some tufts of green algae in it.

what do you suggest?

 

[zig]

Its hard to know what exactly is going on if you are going through a fishless cycle, its hard to give advice because the parameters are not yet set in the tank, although i would have thought the tank would be cycled by now, but having said that i have never done a fishless cycle so i cant advise you on this either, but a month seems a long time, maybe double check in the beginners section that everything is going ok with the cycle unless someone else can advise on this aspect.

Its not true to say that Seachem flourish contains all the nutrients that a well managed fertilising regime like the Estimative Index would provide, Seachem flourish although a very good liquid fertiliser is only good for providing micronutrients it will not provide the plants with sufficient quantities of macronutrients, and other than light and co2 plants will use far more macronutrients then they will micronutrients.

Im probably making this a bit confusing basically flourish will not provide NPK or nitorgen phosphate and potassium, flourish contains very small quantities of these but not enough normally for most plants needs, and this is why we dose them seperatly when we use the EI method.

When the tank finally cycles and the levels even out a bit, you will probably have to consider dosing NP and K, with 2 WPG you have a medium light tank and the fish waste and fish food alone may not provide enough nitrate and phosphate for the plants needs, because the tank is heavily planted the plants may use up any nitrate and phosphate very quickly and you will probably find you will have 0 levels in the tank unless the fish load is very heavy and this will be a recipe for more algae.

Also the fact you are using the co2 units will propel the plants growth even further and therefore require even more nutrients.

Anyway ive probably gone a very long route to answering the question, the bottom line is once the tank is cycled you may have to consider extra ferts other flourish alone.

The brown algae or Diatoms are very common in new planted setups and will disappear in a few weeks, other nuscience algaes are also common at startup and may dissapear once things settle, i would make sure you have fast growing stem plants in the tank to help balance this tank in the initial stages and also check your nitrate and phosphate readings once the tank is cycled.

 

[B2k2]

Its hard to know what exactly is going on if you are going through a fishless cycle, its hard to give advice because the parameters are not yet set in the tank, although i would have thought the tank would be cycled by now, but having said that i have never done a fishless cycle so i cant advise you on this either, but a month seems a long time, maybe double check in the beginners section that everything is going ok with the cycle unless someone else can advise on this aspect.

Is the reason you haven't done a fishless cycle because your tank is heavily planted? I have read else where that it is pointless doing a fishless cycle if you have plants.

Thanks again for the advise.. i will definatly look into doing EI when everything else is sorted

 

[zig]

Yep no point in cycling a planted tank............i suppose you could stop the cycle you are doing and do a 100% water change add lots of fast growing stem plants and then add some fish, not to many mind just a couple to start off and then add more slowly over the coming weeks, basically the plants consume any ammonia that the fish will produce so you wont get any spike, obviously for this to work you provide light co2 and sufficient nutrients for the plants to grow, if the plants arent growing they wont use up the ammonia quick enough and you will be back to a traditional cycle scenario, and thats why we use fast growing stem plants when we do this, you can then swop out the fast growers in a couple of months for slower growing plants if you wish.