# Seachem Flourish Dosage



## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

Hi All:

I have a Java Fern that was looking like it needs some help so I got a bottle of Seachem Flourish. What is the dosage I should use for a 3 gallon tank with filter and heater? Many thanks!


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## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

Also, there are some stringy thing growing off the tip of some of my leaves. Is that normal or algae. Here is a picture. Not great but you can somewhat see it on the leaf on the left that is bent.


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

Flourish directions are 10 drops per gallon on initial use or after a large water change, and 2 drops per gallon for maintenance daily or every other day, however, it can depend on your tank setup.

What is in your tank, why types and amounts of plants are in there?
What is your lighting situation?
What are the current inhabitants of the tank?
What is the water change schedule?

You could end up having an algae explosion if you dose at the recommended levels with insufficient plants to absorb the material. It's a real balancing act.

As to your second question, I believe congratulations are in order. Those appear to be the roots of baby plants growing. Just leave them and the baby plants should grow leaves and eventually detach from the parent leaf. The parent leaf will die but you'll have some new babies that you can plant.


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## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

@Veloran

Thank you!

I have a 3 Gallon Tank with filter and heater
1 Betta Fish
1 Java fern with about 10 leaves (adding another ten leaf Java Fern and a Small Bunch of Anubias this week)
3 Giant Moss Balls
50 to 75% Weekly Water Change
Light: 
Mingdak LED Clip Aquarium Lights Kit For Fish Tanks,24 LEDS,Light color White and Blue

Seachem recommended 5 drops twice a week. Does that sound right?

Also, the string things, do they become leaves that detach and float around? So I should just leave them be and then once they float around attach them to something?

I used to have a kit light and after I switched to this one I started seeing a lot of diatoms on the java fern. I think maybe it is too much light so I moved the light to one side of the aquarium and the fern to the other so it get s a little less light. I am hoping that helps. The Betta seems to enjoy the darker corner to hang out at sometimes. Oh, the light is on a timer and switches off between 9p and 6am.

Thank you for any and all insight.


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

I can't find the color spectrum for the light, but it should be able to grow low light plants.
Your tank has a very low nutrient requirement, essentially the only thing really pulling nutrients is the java fern, the moss balls are negligible.

Your light is on for a long time as well, 15 hours is a little too much, try to get that down to about 8 hours and your betta is hiding due to this and that there doesn't appear to be any top cover for him to feel relaxed.

You can go 5 drops twice a week as Seachem recommends or 2 drops per day to level out the nutrients a little more but keep an eye out for algae. 
If you're getting more serious about plants, I'd say to upgrade the lighting. You can start small and get something like a desk lamp with a 6500k CFL bulb. It looks stylish over a small tank.

The baby plants will grow leaves and once they have about 4 leaves and a good looking root structure, you can pluck them and replant or leave them until they fall off. Last group I had, the parent leaf died before the plants fell off, so I just plucked them from the dead leaf.


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## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

@Veloran

Thank you for your reply! 

In terms of top covering, what do you suggest I add to the aquarium for that? Can I let the Anubis float, would that provide top covering or should I get something else?

Thanks again!


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

You can let the anubias float, or get some floating plants like frogbit, salvinia, water lettuce or (the pain in my side) duckweed. These plants will also chew up the excess nutrients in the tank and will produce a nice top cover. The should reproduce like crazy and you can always thin them down as you like.
You can also get some stem plants like cabomba, anacharis, pennywort or moneywort and let them float at the top.


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## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

Veloran said:


> You can let the anubias float, or get some floating plants like frogbit, salvinia, water lettuce or (the pain in my side) duckweed. These plants will also chew up the excess nutrients in the tank and will produce a nice top cover. The should reproduce like crazy and you can always thin them down as you like.
> You can also get some stem plants like cabomba, anacharis, pennywort or moneywort and let them float at the top.


 @Veloran

Is it ok to leave the Anubias floating around like in the photo? It’s fine just like that with light and some Flourish added to the tank at the scheduled time discussed previously?


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

Yep, you can leave the Anubias floating for him, keep an eye on it for algae.


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## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

Veloran said:


> Yep, you can leave the Anubias floating for him, keep an eye on it for algae.


 @Veloran I just got this Hornwort. Are you able to tell if it’s healthy? It’s a bit on the yellow side and I’m not sure if this is what it should like or if it’s dead/dying? Thank you!


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

It should be a nice green, it looks to be a little stressed.
You will probably see a bit of a die off, but it should bounce back.


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## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

Veloran said:


> It should be a nice green, it looks to be a little stressed.
> You will probably see a bit of a die off, but it should bounce back.


 @Veloran So, I had to take the hornwort out of the tank today. Since putting it in I have seen tears show up on Frankie’s fins. I thought I was imagining it but it’s gotten bad and the addition of the hornwort was the only change made to aquarium. Is there another plant that you suggest I add that has soften leaves? Is Comboba a better alternative? Is it easy to grow without substrate but continuing the liquid fert.?
Thank you so much for all your help! 
Oh, will the tears heel themselves with clean water and healthy environment?


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

I can't imagine a live plant would cause tears in his fins, it's possible that with some of the dying leaves the water quality deteriorated and caused an issue with his fins or the change made him nip his own fins.
I had a betta that loved cabomba, I couldn't grow it for the life of me and didn't like the needles, but he loved just resting and playing in it. It is supposedly an easy plant to grow as it is considered a weed and it could benefit from liquid ferts. You can either leave it floating or anchor it to a rock or the substrate (I chose a combination when I had mine).

Some low light recommendations are Anubias, Anacharis, Pennywort and a nice Java Fern. If you like sword plants Echinodorus parviflorus 'Tropica' should work out.

As long as you keep his water clean and give him nutritious food, he should heal up fine.


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## renatabalmeida (Dec 19, 2017)

@Veloran

Thank you so much! The tears are on his top fin sliced all the way down in two places. I also noticed a couple of holes in his bottom fin that looked like he bit himself. All in all it didn't work out for him. I ordered an Anacharis Elodea hoping it is less obtrusive and softer. When I introduced the hornwort he got all excited and swan all over it and then after a day or two kept avoiding it at all costs. Since it was so large in his tank it probably stressed him out that he didn't want to touch it and therefore had little room compared to before. 

He has an anubias and a Java Fern in there already and seem to really like both.

Thanks for all your help.


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## Veloran (Jun 28, 2014)

I'd keep his water especially clean so that his fins heal.
If the fins are torn all the way to the body, they may not heal back into one piece. Also, if there are holes in his fins, that's either a water quality issue or a fin blowout from flaring, if there are chunks missing from the edges, then that is typically fin biting.

If it was dying, it probably didn't do well for the water quality. He'll recover, they're resilient.


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