Use flourish excel with flourish tabs?

[Parrisgg]

I have been looking recently at the seachem website and I noticed something and got confused a little bit. I noticed that the flourish additive adds the same things that the flourish tabs do, which I added to my tank when I first set it up. Should I actually get flourish excel or do I just dose normally?

 

[aqua_chem]

Different plants, and indeed the often the same plant, harvest nutrients by different means. Stems tend to get more nutrients directly from the water column, when crypts, swords, and other rosette type plants tend to get much of their nutrients directly from the substrate. Because if this, fertilizer both directly in the water, as is the case with normal Flourish, and fertilizer in the substrate with root tabs feed different plants, or alternately allow a single plant together nutrients from both places. You can and should definitely use both.

Also, did you mean normal flourish? Flourish excel has no ingredients in common with either normal Flourish or root tabs.

 

[Rivercats]

Flourish Excel is a liquid carbon. Flourish root tabs are fertilizers, they are two totally different things. Now if your talking about Flourish liquid fertilizers, not Excel, then yes there will macro and or micro nutrients depending on which product you use. The reason you use root tabs is to make nutrients avaiable for root uptake. Liquid ferts make nutrients available in the water column. Some plants take up more nutrients via their roots and others plants via their leaves. That is the reason many use both root tabs and liquids are used in planted tanks.

 

[Parrisgg]

My understanding is that the regular flourish is the liquid fert, but the flourish excel is sort of an artificial co2 introducer. I will use flourish liquid along with the tabs.

 

[aqua_chem]

I like to think about it as a co2 alternative.

 

[Parrisgg]

Do you think it would be a good idea to dose with excel until I get a DIY co2 system set up?

 

[Rivercats]

Do you think it would be a good idea to dose with excel until I get a DIY co2 system set up?

Yes, it would be a good thing to do. But be aware there are a few plants that are sensitive to Execl. Vals are one of them and you can goggle to see the list to see what other plants are on it. If you don't have any on the list your good to go.