Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V5 #29

[Greg Morin <greg at seachem_com>]

>Date: Sat, 13 Apr 2002 17:48:46 -0600
>From: Jerry Baker <jerrybaker at weirdness_com>
>Subject: Confusing SeaChem Product Line
>
>Flourish, Flourish Potassium, Flourish Excel, Flourish Iron, etc. It's a
>long list of products. For me, it generates a lot more questions than it
>answers.
>
>1) If you dose Flourish Iron separately, how do you keep track of your
>traces (since iron is usually used to indicate trace levels)?


Just follow the dosing instructions for Flourish Trace... it's ideal 
for every tank! Just kidding ;-) For most tanks, yes, the recommended 
dosing will do the job (that's why we tried to formulate it to be 
easy to dose into the "average" tank, if any tank is truly "average" 
that is). However, it is still important to watch your plants and 
keep your eyes out for signs of deficiency or excess... then adjust 
dosing accordingly.


>
>2) How much K does one need? SeaChem's site says that one 250 mL bottle
>will raise K about 30 mg/L in my 80G (300L). Why isn't this stuff in
>Flourish? Will it hurt if I mix the two together for single dosing?


We do not put large amounts of macronutrients (NPK) into Flourish 
because the macronutrients requirements can vary quite a bit from 
plant to plant vs their micronutrient/trace element requirements. To 
provide them in a fixed ratio in a product would not allow the 
hobbyist to vary one vs the other as the case may be. So that's why 
we don't put it in Flourish. But yes, you can mix them together as 
you see fit, for your particular tank(s) without any ill effects.


>
>3) What's the point of using Flourish AND Flourish Trace? Everything in
>Flourish Trace is in Flourish (the amounts differ), so why isn't
>Flourish formulated to contain more of what's in Flourish Trace?


Flourish Trace is just the trace elements (non organic) while 
Flourish is both trace elements and micronutrients (vitamins, amino 
acids, etc). In general, one typically only needs to use Flourish, 
however, in some situations Flourish Trace can provide an additional 
benefit if for example the trace elements are being removed at a rate 
substantially greater than the other components of Flourish. This can 
either be chemical loss or rapid utilization loss due to intense 
growth or just the differences in trace element uptake among 
different species. Basically it comes down to this: try it for a 
month or two, if you see an improvement, continue to use it and 
Flourish, if you don't see an improvement, then you can safely 
discontinue it.

>
>Anyone who knows the answers would sure help clear things up for me.
>Thanks.


Hope that helps to answer your questions.

-Greg Morin

-- 

Gregory Morin, Ph.D.  ~~~~~~~Research Director~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Seachem Laboratories, Inc.      www.seachem.com     888-SEACHEM
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~