All-in-One liquid fertilizer?

**R&L** · 17th Jan 2006, 00:34

Hi, i am planning to purchase liquid fertilizer and hope to buy just one bottle first since i'm relatively new to planted tanks. Would like to know if there is such thing as a All-in-One type? I noticed most brands have a few different types and each containing different elements/ nutrients.

Went down to C328 and ask the uncle there. He recommended Tetra's FloraPride. Hmm... noticed no one seems to recommend/ talk about this brand. Is it a good type of 'all-in-one' liquid fertilizer for a beginner?

Thanks for advising.

**|squee|** · 17th Jan 2006, 00:44

Welcome to AQ!

There's no such thing as a all-in-one fertiliser. Reason being imho, that it's impossible to blend all nutrients required by plants into one product and keep it stable (aka no chemical reactions rendering the product useless). Also, every tank is unique in terms of nutrient requirement and related quantities.

Tetra's Florapride has been used by some people here, they'll comment I expect.

You basically need a source of nitrogen (nitrogen from fish is almost always never enough for CO2-enriched tanks), potassium, phosphorous and trace elements. Calcium and magnesium issues are rare.

There are a number of fertilisation regimes to go about. Dennerle is a good regime to follow, provided you have the money, tried and tested. Most of us go for dry-dosing following the Estimative Index method (link in the Informative Links), also tried and tested. Some have hybrid fert regimes. Go for what works for you.

**Fei Miao** · 17th Jan 2006, 16:00

If you are looking for one that is easy to use, IMO Ferka suits that.

**tango** · 17th Jan 2006, 21:48

Tetra's Florapride is a good fertiliser to start with.
I use it during the beginning phase (about 9 mths) of my hobby. I just follow the instructions and no algae boom was encountered.

tango

**loupgarou** · 17th Jan 2006, 22:25

ferka, tropica mastergrow, floreal, jbl ,tetra.. all have "all in one ferts"

**Phillipians** · 18th Jan 2006, 01:03

i ll recommend you get the Lushrow Aqua + micros set, should provide you all you need.

**grey_fox** · 18th Jan 2006, 11:26

Originally Posted by Phillipians

i ll recommend you get the Lushrow Aqua + micros set, should provide you all you need.

Hi Phillipians,

Sorry to hijack (again) but where can I get this Lushgrow Aqua + micros set? Any LFS selling it off the rack?

**|squee|** · 18th Jan 2006, 11:30

Nature Aquarium, Ecoculture got if I'm not wrong.

Back to topic

**tango** · 19th Jan 2006, 12:35

Originally Posted by grey_fox

Hi Phillipians,

Sorry to hijack (again) but where can I get this Lushgrow Aqua + micros set? Any LFS selling it off the rack?

U can find it from Dr Mallick office, somewhere in the HDB estate behind ICA building (Lavender MRT station)

dr mallick website is
http://www.singaporehydroponics.com/pages/1/index.htm

tango

**Nicky** · 19th Jan 2006, 13:04

Originally Posted by R&L

Hi, i am planning to purchase liquid fertilizer and hope to buy just one bottle first since i'm relatively new to planted tanks. Would like to know if there is such thing as a All-in-One type? I noticed most brands have a few different types and each containing different elements/ nutrients.

Went down to C328 and ask the uncle there. He recommended Tetra's FloraPride. Hmm... noticed no one seems to recommend/ talk about this brand. Is it a good type of 'all-in-one' liquid fertilizer for a beginner?

Thanks for advising.

This is what I will do if I were you.. Get those so-call all-in-one popular brands already mentioned (consider also Easylife) and use it and observe how your plant behave. If you do not like what you see (yellow leave, holes in leaves, no bubbles, red-color not red enough, algae, etc) then read up more on how to have a fix then get those additional 'booster' fertilizer. Personally I find playing with those NPK too difficult as a beginner. But you will get the hang of things eventually if you hang on long enough. Another thing I learnt is the recommended dosage refers to an tank with 'average' plant density. How 'average' is that 'average' and what plants were involved in deriving that 'average'? You guess is as good as mine. I only dose half the recommended dosage when keep ferns and anubias. But when I was doing stem plants I have to throw in all sort of extras to get things moving. Another thing you probably want to know is that there are very few LFS owners/attendances who knows anything about planted aquaria. We cannot blame them for wanting to sell you the product they carry, can we?

**sage08** · 19th Jan 2006, 14:31

hey, what do u guys think of seachem flourish? I've seen a few posts here concerning this particular brand. Is this a good "All-In-One"?

**Nicky** · 19th Jan 2006, 14:41

Originally Posted by sage08

hey, what do u guys think of seachem flourish? I've seen a few posts here concerning this particular brand. Is this a good "All-In-One"?

For the entire range of Seachem fertilizer I only use Equilibrium because I find the rest of the series too diluted for my likings.

**taz_boy** · 19th Jan 2006, 16:03

Originally Posted by sage08

hey, what do u guys think of seachem flourish? I've seen a few posts here concerning this particular brand. Is this a good "All-In-One"?

seachem flourish only provide micro nutrients.....i gave up on it aft using it for like 6mths..plants not doing very well........flourish can be used as supplements on top of the seachem NPK....

**valice** · 19th Jan 2006, 16:23

A problem with seachem NPK is that it seems like it contains iron which is not declared... If you use APC's Fertilator, you will notice that the Fe value increases... There might be a bug in the program, I don't know. But I do notice thread algae growth, which is normally due to excess iron as I only do 2ml of Fluroish a week and Seachem NPK 3x a week...

**PeterGwee** · 19th Jan 2006, 16:27

Originally Posted by valice

A problem with seachem NPK is that it seems like it contains iron which is not declared... If you use APC's Fertilator, you will notice that the Fe value increases... There might be a bug in the program, I don't know. But I do notice thread algae growth, which is normally due to excess iron as I only do 2ml of Fluroish a week and Seachem NPK 3x a week...

No, thats not the issue. Been there...never an issue, I can bump my tropica MasterGrow dosage up to 15ml 3x a week on my 20gallon with no issue. You are not dosing enough of some nutrients or CO2.

Regards
Peter Gwee

**valice** · 19th Jan 2006, 16:40

Hmmm..... Okay.... I shall bump it up higher then....

**PeterGwee** · 19th Jan 2006, 16:59

Originally Posted by valice

Hmmm..... Okay.... I shall bump it up higher then....

No, not just the traces but the N,P,K,GH and CO2 need to be in good shape (non-limiting) as well for it to work. Keep up with attacking the algae by trimming the infected leaves/ rotate substrate if infected and etc. Always do a large water change after working on the tank. By dosing regularly and doing maintenance often say 2x a week, you can whip a tank into good shape in about 2-3 weeks time. Focus on the plants...not the algae.

Regards
Peter Gwee

**valice** · 19th Jan 2006, 18:27

Oh... I meant to bump the NPK up...
My main problem is thread algae, so can only do manual removal everyday... Will try to change the water as often as I can...

**brad** · 22nd Jan 2006, 00:41

I like the Seachem line. I stopped using the NPK because it`s basically the same as dry ferts but much more expensive. The Flourish for micros is a good product though. Flourish Trace is not worth adding. It`s too diluted.

**|squee|** · 27th Jan 2006, 20:46

jacquetlc, I moved your post to a new topic.

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