Seachem Flourish Trace Elements

[Jaap]

Hello,

I am dosing with EI. I dose macros with dry salts 3 times a week but I dose micros with Seachem Flourish. My question is if the directions on the bottle are the ones bellow, the how to I manipulate them to suit my 3 times a week dosing for my 80L tank?

Use 1 capful (5 mL) for each 250 L (60 gallons*) once or twice a week. For smaller doses, please note that each cap thread is approximately 1 mL. Refrigeration after opening is recommended but not required.

Thanks

 

[flygja]

Hi Jaap. Trace elements aren't needed in huge amounts so just dose according to the instructions and increase accordingly if you start seeing plant deficiencies. Do you dose Seachem Flourish or Flourish Trace? Trace doesn't contain any Iron, so you need to source it elsewhere. If you're dosing Flourish, then you can dose according to the Iron requirement of 0.5ppm per week. James' page has the analysis for Seachem, but I have forgotten how to convert from % to ppm. Perhaps someone else can enlighten us instead.

http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/traces.htm

 

[Jaap]

I think I am dosing Seachem Flourish and not Flourish Trace...

The directions though say once or twice a week....how do I adjust it so I dose three times a week? And why do they say once or twice a week....is it once or twice?

 

[Jaap]

Anyone?

 

[flygja]

I'd say dose it at the recommended amount 3 times a week. So if the instructions are to dose 1 cap once or twice a week, dose 1 cap 3 times a week at first, then watch for deficiencies. If there aren't any, you can consider reducing it and continue to watch for deficiencies.

Trace dosing is usually more forgiving than macros in my experience. I don't even necessarily dose it 3 times a week. Sometimes I just pour in a week's worth after a waterchange

 

[Jaap]

According to EI Iron should be 0.5ppm per week.

According to http://www.fishfriend.com/fertfriend.html 1ml of Seachem Flourish in my 80L tank will give 0.04ppm and 12 ml will give 0.48ppm.

So should I dose 4ml of Seachem Flourish every other day 3 times a week?

 

[ceg4048]

Yes. then you will see how outrageously expensive this product actually is and why we suggest that you just buy the powder from a sponsor or garden center and get on with it. Again, we are assuming you have a carbon enriched tank? Non-enriched and low light tanks do not require nearly this level of fertilization so you need to be clear on that.

You can also simply observe the tank and look for deficiencies as previously pointed out. No one can give you a formula for how much you actually need because every tank is different. Start with your proposal and observe. reduce the dosing a little if all looks good and wait another three weeks. You may, for example have tap water that is high in micronutrients so no one can really say for certain.

Cheers,