# Dosing micro's with Flourish



## shewey (Jun 19, 2006)

Hi all,

I am looking at using the EI method and am going to use Seachem Flourish for my micro nutrients. I have however noticed two different products, Seachem Flourish and Seachem Flourish Trace. 

Which one should I use? I have a look at both bottles and can see that the Trace bottle does not contain any Iron or Nitrate, however on the forums everyone always refers to Seachem Florish and not the "Trace" version.

Which one do people recommend?

Regards,
Mark


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## Salt (Apr 5, 2005)

Flourish.

Flourish Trace contains a subset of minerals that are in Flourish. Seachem says that the minerals that Flourish Trace contains get used up quicker than the other minerals in Flourish. So they say you can by both Flourish and Flourish Trace, then dose Flourish twice a week and Flourish Trace in between that, rather than dosing Flourish four times per week:










Since you're doing EI, you would probably just want to go with Flourish.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Use Florish, and get some Flourish iron as well for some extra iron, skip the 'Trace'.


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## shewey (Jun 19, 2006)

Thanks for the replies Bert and Salt.

I think I should also add that I will be dry dosing KNO3, KH2PO4 and occasionally K2SO4. Does this make a difference to the above answer? Is Flourish still the go for the micros?

Also how often should I dose iron? I think I will be dry dosing the iron also, but am interested in whether I should dose iron regulary or just dose it when it looks like it is deficient?

Thanks for all your help.
Mark.


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

> I think I should also add that I will be dry dosing KNO3, KH2PO4 and occasionally K2SO4. Does this make a difference to the above answer? Is Flourish still the go for the micros?


No difference. Yes, Flourish is fine for the micros. The scenario you describe is something a lot of us (myself included) do.



> Also how often should I dose iron? I think I will be dry dosing the iron also, but am interested in whether I should dose iron regulary or just dose it when it looks like it is deficient?


You can add some iron when you add the micros. Why wait until a deficiency develops to dose? What kind of iron are you using that you can 'dry dose' it?


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## shewey (Jun 19, 2006)

Bert H said:


> You can add some iron when you add the micros. Why wait until a deficiency develops to dose? What kind of iron are you using that you can 'dry dose' it?


Hi Bert,

Thanks for the information. Dosing iron regulary makes sense to me. I was looking at using Yates Chelated Iron. I know someone else who has been using it over the past year in his Discus tank with great success.

Here is the url to the product:

http://www.yates.com.au/Products/Fertilising/Specialised/Chelatediron.asp

If you think this is not suitable please let me know.

Regards,
Mark


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Mark, I have no experience with that particular product. If you know of someone else who is successfully using it, then I would say to try it. The thing to try to find out is if there are any other trace metals in there which could cause toxicity to the plants/fish. If the product is indeed safe, then just prepare solutions as flourish and dose similarly. I have been using Greg Watson's chelated iron mix and it's been great. It's a dpta chelate rather than gluconate. I have hard water and with dpta I don't see the precipitate I used to with gluconate.


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