Raltek

I am thinking of switching to Tropica Master Grow but I am worried that it does not seem to be as comprehensive to Seachem Flourish, Trace, and Fresh Trace.

Tropica doesn't seem to list the contents and amounts in their products on their website. Looking around the net I found the following for TMG:

.79 Potassium
.39 Magnesium
1.01 Sulphur
.004 Boron
.006 Copper
.0699 Iron
.04 Manganese
.002 Molybdenum
.002 Zinc

(It's called Plant Nutrition now and Plant Nutrition+ has Nitrogen and Phosphorpus in it I guess)

Based on the information on Seachem's website, TMG is missing:

Calcium - (.14% in Flourish)
Chlorine - (1.15% in Flourish)
Cobalt - (.0004% in Flourish)
Sodium - (.13% in Flourish)

Rubidium - (.000008% in Flourish Trace)
Nickel - (.000003% in Flourish Trace)
Vanadium - (.000002% in Flourish Trace)

Iodine - (.1% in Fresh Trace)
Fluorine - (.001% in Fresh Trace)
Selenium - (.000006% in Fresh Trace)

Flourish also contains "Protein Hydrolysates" which I take to mean amino acids.

This is important to me because I use 100% RO water which I remineralize.

What do you think?

MatPat

Well you asked what I think

Are you sure TMG doesn't contain the other micros you listed or does Tropica simply not list them since their amounts are so low? How reliabvle is the source you found for the ferts listed in TMG?

I would simply try the TMG for a month and see if you notice any signs of deficiencies in your plants. I am doubting that you will see an increase in any deficiencies unless something else changes in your tank (CO2, NO3 etc.)

If you do notice deficiencies in your plants and can rule out any changes in macro levels and you still want to use the TMG, why not alternate doses of TMG and Flourish Comprehensive/Flourish Trace?

I have to admit I have not tried using TMG yet and probably won't. After using Plantex CSM+B for such a long time, I found that I needed to supplement my Flourish Comprehensive dosing with Flourish Iron to keep my plants from having whitish, light green growth at the tips. I don't want to increase the amount of products I dose unless I can see a significant change (for the better) in my tanks!

czado

Someone correct me, but I don't think Sodium (except for K limitation), Rubidium, Vanadium, Iodine, Fluorine, or Selenium are used by plants.

Flourish doesn't have enough Ca to reconstitute RO, and neither TMG or Flourish adds significant Mg, so you'll need something like Seachem Equilibrium or Barr's GH Booster (or CaCl and MgSO4) anyway.

If these traces are used by fish and that is your concern, perhaps another product is needed. Of course TMG makes no claims about fish health.

Hope this helps.

Avalon

I think the question is simple overanalyzing, yet a valid one. I only say that because I've used TMG for years with excellent success. I too wondered the same thing after comparing the nutrient composition of several trace ferts. But I'm one to look at the end results: the plants. And mine grow just fine with TMG & macros. I do use Flourish Iron though, and I think the extra iron helps a little with coloration. And I also use RO water.

Salt

Many of the elements not specified in TMG but specified in the Seachem products are at VERY low levels... like "micro" traces.

It's possible these may be in TMG, or if not, then in the food that you feed the fish.

For example, Nickel... .000003% in Flourish Trace. If you dose 10 mL twice a week in 40 gallons, 10 mL in 40 gallons of water = .6604 ppm of Flourish Trace x .000003% = .00000198129 ppm of Nickel per dose. That's REALLY small, and probably either in TMG, the fish food, the substrate, etc.

fabry

Calcium - It is an essential mesoelement.
It is needed in good amounts and has to be dosed at the water change using a product like
gH booster or similar, not with a microelements fertilizer.

Chlorine - It is an essential microelement.
RO systems can't reject it 100% from tap water, so generally the needed amount will still be
present in RO water.
Often gH boosters carry enough of it under the form of Calcium chloride.
Just in case a small amount of table salt (Sodium chloride) will be more then enough for
providing the plants with the Chloride they need (more or less an equal amount than Iron).

Cobalt - Not needed by our plants but usually needed by cyanobacteria.

Sodium - Not essential to our plants.
Someone says it can be beneficial to some plants (but none of those we keep in our tanks).
In any case consider the following:
RO systems can't reject it 100% from tap water, so generally enough of it will still be present
in RO water.
Normally amounts higher than the necessary are added with the powders used to raise kH
under the form of Sodium bicarbonate.
Just in case the small amount of table salt (Sodium chloride) used to add Chlorine will add
Sodium too.

Rubidium - Not needed by our plants.

Nickel - Not needed by our plants.

Vanadium - Not needed by our plants

Iodine - Not needed by our plants

Fluorine - Not needed by our plants

Selenium - Not needed by our plants

In any case the amounts provided by the Seachem products during normal dosing are so small that can be considered just as contaminants (residual levels) in the powders (salts) used.

You can probably add more than that if you just spit into your tank a couple of times per week .

Regards,
Fabrizio.

kekon

I asked Tropica if the fertilizer contains such elements as nickel, cobalt, vanadium etc. and they told me it contains only elements that are stated on the bottle label.

Gomer

these missing elements... How many of them get intruduced to our tanks via tap water or even in fish food or the substrate etc?


I think there isn't anything to really worry about

Laith

I agree, nothing to worry about.

I've used both Flourish and TMG, currently using TMG. Both are great products though I find that TMG works better for me with my hard water (KH 15, GH 18 ), probably due to the chelators involved.

In other tanks with softer water both do the job well.