Seachem Flourish Comprehensive vs Tropica Premium Nutrition

[ClownLurch]

I followed @Retired Viking iirc advice and do 1/2 recommended weekly flourish dose twice a week. Rooted plants were flourishing initially but not so much now.
I’m putting that down to floating plants flourishing as well and cutting out light.
Only way around that I think will be to coral all the floaters along the front of the tank as I’ve no plants in the front half of tank apart from those at the sides.
Post Esha water change today so may do that later.

 

[mbsqw1d]

I followed @Retired Viking iirc advice and do 1/2 recommended weekly flourish dose twice a week. Rooted plants were flourishing initially but not so much now.
I’m putting that down to floating plants flourishing as well and cutting out light.
Only way around that I think will be to coral all the floaters along the front of the tank as I’ve no plants in the front half of tank apart from those at the sides.
Post Esha water change today so may do that later.

How did the clown coral work out CL? Was it Anacharis you had entwined around it?

 

[ClownLurch]

Anacharis, and elodea densa.
Works ok but is only about 4” diameter so has a tendency to snap when threading it around pipe. It’d be perfect if it was self threading but it grows out at all angles so snags on floating plants, tall rooted plants, Filter, air hose, heater cable etc. Also it doesn’t really work for coraling floaters inside as they get trapped under water or escape.
A great idea in theory! Maybe a bigger diameter may help?

 

[StevenF]

I used Flourish the longest In my RO water tank with inert gravel substrate. but I Also tried 3 others. But I didn't try Troica. In my tank I Intermittently I got growth but most of the time I only had algae. I eventually stopped using commercial fertilizers and many my own. My first micro fertilizer with GH booster and macro nutrients was the best fertilizer I had used at that time.

I have used this fertilizer calculator to calculate the concentrations of the Micro nutrient for the two fertilizer in question. I set the calculator to target 100 Parts Per Billion. In my experience I have not been able to use up all the iron in one week.

Micro concentrations for flourish, Tropica in Parts Per Billion:

	Fe	Mn	B	Zn	Cu	Mo
Flourish	100	3	2	0.22	0.03	0.28
Tropica	100	57	6	0.3	0.9	3
My Tank	100	50	20	20	10	1?

Note For MO I had difficulty measuring accurately so It was likely was much higher than the target of 1.

What I learned was that comercial fertilizers are very dependent on your tap water having some of the needed nutrients. Most fertilizers don't have calcium, and minimal magnesium, boron, zinc, and copper. So the fertilizer that works best for your will depend on your tap water more than anything else.

I start all my tanks at 1/2 the recommended weekly dose and only adjust if needed. A few weeks ago I switched one of the small tanks from 5ml per week to 0.5ml per day. The plants definitely responded well to the more consistent supply. I have now switched all 3 tanks in that room to daily doses. Easy to do at the moment because my fish room has turned into my home office and its where I spend every work day - so when the tank lights come on it prompts me to add the ferts

The reason you are having success with a daily dose is that most commercial fertilizers have only enough zinc and copper for about 1 Day of growth. With my fertilizer recipe I can go 10 days on only 1 dose. My plants are doing very well and I have no algae issues. My Blue dream shrimp are also doing very well.

 

[Gemmsy]

I used Flourish the longest In my RO water tank with inert gravel substrate. but I Also tried 3 others. But I didn't try Troica. In my tank I Intermittently I got growth but most of the time I only had algae. I eventually stopped using commercial fertilizers and many my own. My first micro fertilizer with GH booster and macro nutrients was the best fertilizer I had used at that time.

I have used this fertilizer calculator to calculate the concentrations of the Micro nutrient for the two fertilizer in question. I set the calculator to target 100 Parts Per Billion. In my experience I have not been able to use up all the iron in one week.

Micro concentrations for flourish, Tropica in Parts Per Billion:

	Fe	Mn	B	Zn	Cu	Mo
Flourish	100	3	2	0.22	0.03	0.28
Tropica	100	57	6	0.3	0.9	3
My Tank	100	50	20	20	10	1?

Note For MO I had difficulty measuring accurately so It was likely was much higher than the target of 1.

What I learned was that comercial fertilizers are very dependent on your tap water having some of the needed nutrients. Most fertilizers don't have calcium, and minimal magnesium, boron, zinc, and copper. So the fertilizer that works best for your will depend on your tap water more than anything else.


The reason you are having success with a daily dose is that most commercial fertilizers have only enough zinc and copper for about 1 Day of growth. With my fertilizer recipe I can go 10 days on only 1 dose. My plants are doing very well and I have no algae issues. My Blue dream shrimp are also doing very well.

Very interesting, thanks for that.
So basing my plan off your knowledge it is probably sensible for me to get my tap water nutrient tested and then select or build a fertiliser based off the deficiencies found. Also can’t hurt for now to use a basic root tab for plants that feed via roots rather than water column.

Thanks again for the advice, I won’t bother with liquid fert till I’ve had a test done. My water is pretty hard so I’m sure most bases are covered. Testing won’t be for a while though as my plants are easy enough not to require it. Next tank!

 

[StevenF]

Very interesting, thanks for that.
So basing my plan off your knowledge it is probably sensible for me to get my tap water nutrient tested and then select or build a fertiliser based off the deficiencies found. Also can’t hurt for now to use a basic root tab for plants that feed via roots rather than water column.

yes I believe testing your own water and them going from there is the bast approach.. A Good test to have done is the ICP-IES tests. I use this one. This test is becoming popular owners of salt water tanks. But be advised that any actions their web site my recommend are focused on salt water tanks. Not fresh water tanks. Also although the they state it will detect Manganese( Mn). IN reality it only detects manganese if you have too much in your fresh water tank. Other than Mn if you see any plant nutrient at zero with this test, you are deficient in that plant nutrient. this test doesn't detect nitrogen. Also note if your short on Magnesium (Mg) and Calcium (Ca) use a GH booster. If you need nitrate use potassium nitrate (KNO3). IF you need phosphate use Potassium Phopsphate..(KH2PO4). In my tank I target 10ppm NO3 and 1ppm PO4. This mix has more then enough phosphate so I don't add any phosphate. but if you do need it use potassium chloride or potassium sulfate.

 

[Fishmanic]

I do 1/2 dose of Seachem flourish comprehensiveone to two times per week and on a different day, I full dose seachem trace elements which will supply some of the elements missing in in flourish comprehensive.

 

[seangee]

Are you planning a high tech tank? For a fish tank with plants all those tests are rarely needed and the difference between brands is probably negligible.

 

[Gemmsy]

Are you planning a high tech tank? For a fish tank with plants all those tests are rarely needed and the difference between brands is probably negligible.

One day but not any time soon. I was just trying to see why there was such a difference in rate recommendations and nutrient levels. Just out of interest and for future ref.

I agree a bit of any fert in general will be fine for now. My water is fairly hard at GH18 KH11 so I don’t imagine the plants will be short of much anyway just now.

 

[Helina]

Hello Gemmsy!

What is your experience with Tropica Premium Nutrition now after all these years? How did the experiment go and did you find some other fertilizer more suitable for your tank or did you experience any difficulties or algae problems with Tropica Premium Nutrition?

I ask this because I've started using Tropica under a week ago. I initially purchased Seachem Flourish because I thought it to be more professional, but according to a water test at a local known aquarium store here, Flourish added very little plant nutrients to my tank. So I ended up purchasing the Tropica out of the other options, since I had seen it mentioned in one of the GreenAquas youtube videos about fertilization and because of its user friendliness.

My experience with Tropica is only in the beginning but the first water test revealed the nutrient levels increasing. I haven't yet had a chance to do a full weekly 6ml/50l, because I was advised to take it slowly and increase it every other day with 1 pump (2ml) to 50l. I'll be wiser again next Monday, that's when I'll most likely have the next water test done and a full week of Tropica used.

My main concern being, did you pick it and did you have any algae issues soon after?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

My first bottle of ferts was Flourish. Most of it got thrown out and I have used Tropica ferts for 23 years now. I have both of them these days but for many years they offered only one. I messed around for a while with the floueish single ferts but also gave that up.

Tropica was and still is one of the worlds major grower and seller of plants for the hobby. Nobody does it better so what is good enough for Tropica is certainly good enough for me.

Instead of worrying about too much of anything or too little you might consider this:
https://barrreport.com/threads/the-estimative-index-of-dosing-or-no-need-for-test-kits.52/

 

[Helina]

Tropica was and still is one of the worlds major grower and seller of plants for the hobby. Nobody does it better so what is good enough for Tropica is certainly good enough for me.

Hello!
Thank you for letting me know your experience! I think your points sound valid and I am eager to see how things work out in the future with this Tropica Premium Nutrition which I have now.

What comes to the link you shared, I'm not so sure how it would work in my low tech low plant tensity, but fast growing plant species tank. Some of the advice concerned macronutrients and mostly adviced doing 50% water changes weekly in order to avoid buildup. I try to manage with less water changes and less build up of nutrients and more macro nutrients from fish debris and food. It was a very informative post though, and I'm considering, according to its advice, wether to cut back not the dosage but the frequency of adding the liquid fertilizers!

Nearly all my plants are now root absorbing plants with root fertilizers since 2 weeks ago, and have started to do vigorous new growth just recently, despite of the water comlumn nutrient levels being still extremelly low. I checked that the root tabs which I'm using contain actually macro nutrients too, so that might explain the new vigorous growth.

To conclude, I'm left pondering if maybe it would actually suit my tank well to stay low in water column nutrient levels by cutting back with the recommended weekly Tropica dosing frequency? And instead focus on keeping up the root nutrient levels after every few months? Anyone with experience with such an approach?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

I also do substrate ferts. But these are targetted towards specific species like sword and crypts. For a very long time I have used the Hobes Spikes for Lush Ferns adn Palms. I cut the sticks to size based on the plants I need to feed. These are not advised for those who like to rescape and/or change plants. If they get uprooted you will very quickly earn your MBA (Mastered By Algae).

I dose my liquid ferts and Flourish Excel weekly after I refill the tank. The Jobe's get added to the substrate every 3 months= March, June, September and December.