# Aquarium plant Food



## SJL (26 Feb 2012)

Hi  , apologies if this is a dumb question but have just starting using a ready mix fertiliser from the above and wondered how the general plant growth will improve from previously using seachem flourish which reading the ingredients i presume its micro nutrients not macro which i believe the ready mix is  , so have i been overdosing on micro ? i also add liquid co2 every day.

regards stuart


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## Matt Warner (26 Feb 2012)

Hi, the general plant growth should improve quite a lot. You can overdose micro nutrients as much as you want, but if the plants aren't getting enough macro nutrients they won't grow. Are your plants showing any signs of deficiencys at the moment?


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## SJL (27 Feb 2012)

yes matty , brown marks on leaves and some leaves lost the green and just look like pale skeletons! but they did grow .
Im only a few days in but hopefully your right.

cheers stuart


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## Matt Warner (27 Feb 2012)

What lighting are you using on this tank and how long are they on for? Also do you have good flow around the whole tank?


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## SJL (28 Feb 2012)

my tank is 60ltr , i have a rena external pump rated up to 180ltr and lighting is 1x 15w 6500k t8 and 1x 15w sunlight t8 on for about 8hrs a day? plants are small crypts of some sort , amazon swords , dwarf grass name unsure & Hygrophilia difforms  , so not realy anything to difficult for set up i think any ideas welcomed tho!!


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## ceg4048 (28 Feb 2012)

Hello,
      AS Matty alluded to, try using a filter that's rated at 600LPH instead. Also add more Excel or whatever liquid carbon product you are using because what you describes sounds like typical poor CO2.

Cheers,


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## SJL (28 Feb 2012)

sorry i meant 180ltr tank its rated over 700 ltr per hr  i am using excel at the mo and dosing 1ml daily

regards stuart


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## ceg4048 (29 Feb 2012)

OK, it's a 180L tank which, if CO2 enriched "ideally" requires 1800LPH of flow rating, although , your lighting is low enough that you shouldn't need that much flow. Add more Excel and see how it goes. It's also not really clear what you are dosing. The expression "ready mix" doesn't really mean anything. Exactly what are you dosing, i.e. do you have a link to the product or a name of the vendor you purchased it from? Does the product have a name?

Cheers,


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## hinch (29 Feb 2012)

he possibly means this http://www.aquariumplantfood.co.uk/fert ... s-dry.html

its pre-mixed EI with micro and macro in it you just add water and a set amount each day.  I think the bottle recommends like 5mm per 10 litre of water something like that.  I use it but I basically ignore the dosing recommendation because I've found my tank likes much much more I put about 20ml a day in in a little 35 litre tank (probably 20 litre effective)


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## ceg4048 (29 Feb 2012)

Oh, OK, I get it now. Well, all right, but it might possibly have been better to post the question in the AquariumPlantFoodUK  sub-forum.

In any case, this is all a bit strange and I reckon we need more data because the original post and subsequent information were a bit cryptic.

So, SJL, please help us out here. I do not have my Magneto/X-Men Mind Reading Helmet with me today. Does the story go like; I was using flourish micronutrient + Excel and everything was going fine for months, and then I switched to APF all-in-one + Excel and suddenly my plants started to melt? I apologize but this is completely unclear. Cause and effect have very specific relationships, so we need more details because your problems could possibly be completely unrelated to APF all-in-one. As I mentioned, this sounds like translucency and leaf dropping, which is CO2 related. Usually I'm bashing people for using too much light, but 30 watts T8 over a 45G is not unreasonable. Were the plants growing OK when using the combination of flourish micronutrient + Excel  with this lighting level or were they already in decline by the time you switched to APF all-in-one?

Sorry if this seems like an interrogation at, but I'm just not getting a full picture here. Could you clarify?

Cheers,


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