# Flourish dosing amounts for 75g



## mids1999 (Feb 22, 2007)

Can someone please tell me if this is the right amount of flourish oroducts to get me into target ranges?

I am also not sure if I targets correct. I am quite new.

30ml Flourish Nitrogen 8.02ppm
100ml of Flourish Phosphorous 1.67ppm
30ml of Flourish Potassium 4.8ppm
30ml Flourish Iron 1.06 ppm

75 gal tank
96wx3 pc lighting
press co2


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Here's a recent thread dealing with Seachem ferts that may help:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...c-fertilizing/37633-need-help-with-ferts.html

While Seachem products are excellent, in a large tank with good lighting, CO2 and good plant mass, keeping your plant nutrient levels where they should be with Seachem products will quickly get expensive  .


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I would just go with the estimative dosage that Seachem gives, I have done so and it's super simple and it works. I did so along with weekly 50% water changes.

Check either the Seachem section here or their website for a chart.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

eklikewhoa said:


> I would just go with the estimative dosage that Seachem gives, I have done so and it's super simple and it works. I did so along with weekly 50% water changes.
> 
> ...


I find that the Seachem recommendation don't hold up for a well lit, well planted CO2 tank. The Seachem recommendation of 2.5ml of Flourish Nitrogen in 160l of water is equal to a dose of less than 1.2mg/l of NO3. And they recommend this only twice a week, or a total of 2.4mg/l of NO3 in a week.

And the recommendation for Phosphorous is .07mg/l per dose twice a week. This is 0.14mg/l of PO4 a week.

I typically dose about 31mg/l NO3 and 1.6mg/l of PO4 in a week. That's in water with a high KH and GH. In lower KH and GH water I've gotten away with lower dosing, but still nowhere near the low levels Seachem recommends.

I know for a fact that I would quickly run into deficiencies of N and P very fast in my tanks at those low levels (I know, I've experimented with all sorts of different levels of dosing  ). The only way I could see good success with those levels is in a low light, non-CO2 tank and lightly planted with slow growers.

Nothing wrong with starting out with let's say half of the levels I dose and then adjusting as needed!


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I dosed per the Seachem chart along with Seachem flourish root tabs.
96w 6700k 8hrs a day over a 20g inert Tahittian moon sand and DIY co2

water out of the tap has a ph of 7.8 and kh/gh of 10-12


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Wow... very nice!  

And that on 2.4mg/l of NO3 a week? 0.3mg/l of NO3 a day?

Just goes to show once again: every tank is different! How long has the tank been up?


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I only dosed per Seachem's chart cause it was my first tank and Seachem made it easy.

the tank was set up for 6months and taken down right after those photos and is now a 30g.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Amazing. 6 months on only that much N and P per week with that much light, plant mass and CO2. My tanks would have turned to mush within a month maximum.

Do you have NO3 and PO4 in your tap water? I just have a hard time seeing how your plants got enough nutrients for six months with that dosing level and that lighting.

Maybe it's Seachem's formulation of the N in their Flourish Nitrogen... on the other hand, Nitrogen is Nitrogen.

Are you still dosing similar levels with the 30g?


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I have no Nitrates in my tap water and haven't tested PO4

I do not if it has something to do with Seachem's formula or whatever they put in it but it worked. I am now dosing GregWatson and to get decent plant growth I have to dose really heavy. 

I have Aquasoil now and about the same amount of light and find that I have to dose Double EI for 20-40g that is listed in the sticky.


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Double EI is even more than I dose  .

So you went from having enough NO3 at 0.3mg/l a day to needing about 7-8mg/l per day? 

Something is strange here. Maybe your plants had a large nutrient reserve in the other tank... but I didn't think a nutrient reserve would last 6 months.

Puzzling. Anyone else seen this with the Seachem line of ferts?


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I don't know what you mean by reserve since I did and still do 50+% water changes every week and nothing has changed in my tap.

The fish stocking is about comparable and the same filter is being used, the difference? 10gallons, twice the light(96w/20g now 192w/30g) inert sand to Aquasoil and the change from Seachem liquid ferts to dry GW ferts.

I have found a nice balance though with the new tank and the dry ferts, I just dose EI double and now all is looking great and growth is amazing! But I did have an Iron issue dosing just csm+b so I added Seachem Iron since I still have some left and dose 4ml of it along with double EI and the red plants are getting more red than before.

I don't know if it is a fluke or what but It's just something I have noticed.

Here are some comparison pictures.......

20g/96w-8hrs/seachem as directed/diy co2-30ppms/moderate stocking/Tahitian moon sand









30g/96w-8hrs 192w-1hr/Grewwatson EIx2/pressurized co2-30+ppms/moderate stocking/ADA aquasoil-powersand.


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## mids1999 (Feb 22, 2007)

How do you know if you are adding enough ferts?

For example for the iron I added 30ml in the morning and tested iron at .75
I tested again at nigt and the level was about 0.

Does this mean I am not adding enough?


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## Laith (Sep 4, 2004)

Don't worry so much about testing. Rely on the fact that by adding x amount of a nutrient, you ARE adding a known amount of ferts (given that you know in detail what's in the product you're adding). If your test kits tells you otherwise, the test kit is wrong. Of course with iron dosing, the "binding" or chelator that holds the iron breaks down more or less rapidly, making the Iron fall out of solution. And typical hobbyist Iron test kits are not very good.

If you do want to use test kits for the sake of curiosity, calibrate them first!

Here are two articles on two different methods of dosing, both of which work. They just involve different approaches:

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...zing/15225-estimative-index-dosing-guide.html

http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/...perpetual-preservation-system-new-tables.html


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## eklikewhoa (Jul 24, 2006)

I just dose and go by how the plants look after about a week of it.


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