Flourish vs Iron + Trace

[hjsvt]

Is dosing Flourish Iron plus Flourish Trace the same as Flourish? I'm almost out of Flourish but still have Iron and Trace. I'd like to use them until I get some of the Plantex Csm+b to replace the Flourish. The Plantex CSM+B is the dry fertilizer equivalent to Flourish right?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

 

[bcarl_10gal]

The short answer is no, trace and flourish iron is not the same. As csm+b and flourish trace they are comparable but have slightly different nutrients.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

 

[hjsvt]

The short answer is no, trace and flourish iron is not the same. As csm+b and flourish trace they are comparable but have slightly different nutrients.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice

Thanks for the reply. Okay so is there a dry fertilizer replacement for Flourish? Or maybe two that you mix together? I guess I'll have to do a little bit more reading I thought Flourish was basically iron and trace micro nutrients.

 

[bcarl_10gal]

Yes, CSM+B is a great replacement for flourish trace. Iron is kind of a complicated topic. Flourish iron does work but its draw back is its Fe Glut, which means its only available to plants for a short time. Iron dosing depends on your pH/KH, if you go with a DTPA or EDTA. Iron dosing depends a lot on your current light levels. Some hobbyists will dose .5ppm of iron others only .1ppm. There is a lot of misconceptions around iron such as it being toxic at certain levels. A lot of people spike their trace mix with extra iron, I would not advise trying to hit a certain iron concentration with the CSM+B.

Let me know what other questions you have.

 

[hjsvt]

Yes, CSM+B is a great replacement for flourish trace. Iron is kind of a complicated topic. Flourish iron does work but its draw back is its Fe Glut, which means its only available to plants for a short time. Iron dosing depends on your pH/KH, if you go with a DTPA or EDTA. Iron dosing depends a lot on your current light levels. Some hobbyists will dose .5ppm of iron others only .1ppm. There is a lot of misconceptions around iron such as it being toxic at certain levels. A lot of people spike their trace mix with extra iron, I would not advise trying to hit a certain iron concentration with the CSM+B.

Let me know what other questions you have.

Thanks so much for the great information.

I have a 29 gallon with lots of water lettuce plants, one large amazon sword and three babies swords, multiple dwarf sagittaria, 4 banana plants, 3 java ferns with lots of babies, 2 moss balls, 2 anubias hastifolia, and a little bit of micro sword. I use 100% RO water which I buffer to 7.5 and add Equilibrium to maintain my KH about 3.5-4.5, my GH is 6-7. My TDS stays fairly steady about 300-335. My ph usually drops after water change to about 7.5 and climbs to about 7.8 before WC. I have a Finnex Stingray light that I run for 4 hours in the morning, 5 hours off, 5 hours on in the afternoon/evening. I think I'm low light. My tanks does see some very early morning sun for about an hour when the sun shines. About 3-4 hours after my weekly 50% WC, I test my water to see where my baseline numbers are. I usually dose with F. Nitrogen back to 10 ppm, phosphate back to 1-1.5 ppm (I recently purchased the dry KH2PO4 and I'm making my own solution), 5 ppm of F. Potassium., 17 ml of Flourish (which according to the calculator is 0.5 ppm of iron) and then 20 ml F. Excel. Daily I'm dosing 3 ml of F. Excel. On days 3 and 5 I test again. Usually the iron is gone and the phosphate has dropped to 0.25 ppm and my nitrates have been hanging about 10-20. So on Day 3 I usually dose F. Iron and F. Trace, Potassium and Phosphate. On Day 5, I usually dose Flourish, Potassium and Phosphate. Once a month I add 5 DIY root tabs. Everything is growing really well, algae is very minimal and I'm happy with everything. So maybe I should just stick with my current dosing schedule and buy more Flourish. If I buy it on Amazon with Prime shipping, it's only costing me about $0.38 twice a week. If there isn't an equivalent dry fertilizer for Flourish that's cheaper maybe I'll just stick with my current plan. I do have a used 55 gal set up that I'd like to move to someday but I'm not there yet. So the cost would go up if and when I move to a larger set up.

Thanks again for the great help. I appreciate it!

 

[bcarl_10gal]

I mean CSM+B is the equivalent and cheaper. But hey if you dont mind spending the little bit extra and things are going well dont sweat it!