How to properly use our fertilizers
Aquatic plants need nutrients! That isn’t a theory, that is a simple fact. And, fish poop is not adequate fertilizer for plants. Plants need all sorts of nutrients- Nitrogen, Magnesium, Manganese, Iron, Boron, you name it. Fish food simply doesn’t contain these nutrients, so naturally fish poop won’t contain them either.
As a sidenote, remember that algae is caused by an imbalance, not by nutrients or light. Adding fertilizer to a tank that hasn’t had it before is sure to cause an imbalance, so seeing new algae growth after dosing fertilizers is normal. As your plants grow better and your tank matures, the algae will naturally go away. Don’t panic!
Clean N’ Green
Clean N’ Green comes in an 8oz pump bottle pre-measured for the perfect dose in either high tech or low tech tanks. We mix the “high tech” mix a bit stronger since setups with more plants and CO2 will naturally need more nutrients.
Clean N’ Green is very easy. Simply pump one pump of fertilizer per 10 gallons, once or twice a week. Once a week is adequate for less densely planted setups, but if you begin noticing unhappy plants just start dosing twice a week.
We generally recommend performing a moderate (40% or so) water change first, then adding the fertilizer. This introduces more oxygen and CO2 into the water and removes excess nutrients, reducing the risk of algae and encouraging plant growth.
Growth Grub
Growth Grub is our unique product that mixes homemade fish food and powdered fertilizer. The idea here is that we include our pre-mixed full range fertilizer mixed into the food, portioned so that each pinch provides roughly the correct amount of fertilizer needed. While its okay to feed daily, we mix and portion growth grub for feeding every other day, which is generally beneficial anyway.
To properly use Growth Grub, just provide a pinch of food into your tank every other day (or a smaller pinch daily). Obviously, smaller tanks will have less fish and thus need less food, while larger tanks will have more fish and need more food, so just feed the right amount for your fish so that they eat all the food within 30 seconds. This will provide your plants great nutrients and they should be perfectly happy! Keep an eye on your plants and dose with additional fertilizer if necessary.
The powdered fertilizer is perfectly okay for your fish. We’ve fed hundreds of tanks and thousands of fish with this and we’ve never seen a fish hurt from this food. Occasionally a fish will gobble up a piece of fertilizer, but they’ll immediately spit it out upon realizing it isn’t food. Even if they do happen to swallow it, it’ll simply dissolve and pass through them. No need to worry.
