Hey I was wondering if anyone uses flourish tabs in their tank? I have a 5.5 gallon and it is getting heavily planted and was wondering what the pros and cons are of using the tabs or flourish liquid? Or if there are any other ferts I could use or if anyone has any recommendations they would be appreciated.
-Thanks, Steve.
The pro's are they don't leak into the water column so are less likely to contribute to free floating algae types. You can also direct your ferts to specific parts of your tank if you have bare areas that aren't planted
The cons are they are more expensive overall compared to dry or liquid ferts. As well, since they are buried, its hard to know when its time to replace. As well, if you gravel vac you risk displacing them.
In a 5.5 gallon though, they are a viable option since you aren't dealing with a lot of substrate footprint.
I use them whenever I add new plants, just to help them through the first few weeks (I don't even know how long they last). I never replace them afterward though, I find it's too much trouble to get them in without damaging the roots.
I couldn't keep any plants alive until we started using Flourish, now it's part of our weekly tank maintenance, and our tanks are loaded with plants :) The tabs we use every couple months or if we notice a plant or two not doing too well; they usually bring them right back to life and blooming in no time. You can also break them in half if you want them to be in a more concentrated area, like for just one plant, otherwise they do an area of about 6 inches.
Hope this helps!
:)
Thanks everyone, I think I am going to pick some up tomorrow. I started using this Fluval soil-ish kind of substrate and it looks awesome, Post some pics later.