# My personal experience with completely dosing dry and EI + Liquid Fe and Micros



## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

The tank im talking about is a high tech 37g with a Catalina 4x24w t5ho fixture, pressurized co2 and ADA AS for substrate.

For the longest time I dosed EI for Macros (NPK) and either Seachem Flourish or TPN for Micros. I also dosed Seachem Fe for iron during that time aswell. For that time I had great results growing robust stands of plants some would call harder to grow with no problem.

After I grew tired of spending ~$30 for 2L of the Seachem ferts (and even more for the TPN) I researched CSM+b for my micro dosing as it would be a fraction of the cost and just as easy to dose as the Seachem products.

After recieving my CSM+b I dosed according to the EI routine with the addition of the Seachem Fe untill the Fe ran out. Over the course of a month or so after only dosing dry I watched my plants grow to look sickly and almost die. We are talking about Polygonum 'saopaulo', Ludwigia 'pantanal', Ludwigia 'cuba', Rotala 'wallichi', and even a Hydrocotyl sp. I had.

After watching this for a week I decided I needed to get some more Seachem products so I went to a LFS and acquired the Fe since IMO that would have been the main nutrient that my plants were not receiving. Only 2 days later I noticed more vibrant, healthy shoots and an almost dieing of the previous 'sickly' growth and newer growth appearing.

This may be just because I have some more demanding plants but even so I do not believe there can be a substitute for the benefits that liquid seachem Fe can do for your tank.


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## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

Why not pick up some dry Fe and mix yourself?


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

Good question. FWIW, I have not researched it too much but am kind of halfheartedly starting the search for info.



Franzi said:


> Why not pick up some dry Fe and mix yourself?


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## bosmahe1 (May 14, 2005)

bsmith said:


> Good question. FWIW, I have not researched it too much but am kind of halfheartedly starting the search for info.


I currently dose CSM+B and Seachem iron along with dry Macros with good results. I would be very interested to learn about dry FE as well. My total hardness ranges from 100 to 150 ppm so I would like to know which chelator works better in this environment.


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I stopped dosing the Flourish FE due to it precipitating out of the water. I got some DPTA FE from Greenleafaquariums.com. No precip at all!!! YEAH!! I love it. Plants haven't missed a beat.


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## Franzi (Dec 7, 2009)

aquariumfertilizer.com sells it as well. They're shipping costs are very reasonable.


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## bsmith (Dec 13, 2006)

How can one tell if it was precipitating out and what do you attribute that to>?



Tex Gal said:


> I stopped dosing the Flourish FE due to it precipitating out of the water. I got some DPTA FE from Greenleafaquariums.com. No precip at all!!! YEAH!! I love it. Plants haven't missed a beat.


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## bosmahe1 (May 14, 2005)

bsmith said:


> How can one tell if it was precipitating out and what do you attribute that to>?


I'm curious on that one too!


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## Philosophos (Mar 1, 2009)

Precipitation usually looks like water clouding, in some cases (depending on flow and such) it can look like a fine dust settling on the leaves, substrate, etc. For flourish iron's issues with gluconate, it's clouding mostly.


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## johnzhou2476 (Nov 28, 2006)

Tex Gal, How much of the DPTA FE do you dose dry? I'm thinking of getting some. Is the CSM+B from greenleafaquarium the same stuff as from Greg Watson? My CSM+B from Greg Watson has been sitting around for about 5 years, not sure if they go bad and need replacing. 


"I stopped dosing the Flourish FE due to it precipitating out of the water. I got some DPTA FE from Greenleafaquariums.com. No precip at all!!! YEAH!! I love it. Plants haven't missed a beat."


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