Awesome, thank you! That was the idea. To make all the science very approachable for the masses ;) We hope you were able to learn something!

Thank you! I'm working on it! hehehe

Thank you thank you! Subscribe because there is more to come.

Thank you! We hope you were able to learn something.

I'm glad. Even though it highlights Thrive, it really is how to tell if a fertilizer is holistic ;)

@@aquascapeguide I’m from the UK and it was good to recommend the similar version of good fertiliser for us too

Yeah! There is a Thrive equivalent in most countries, but knowing which one is hard, hence why I mentioned a handful. I'm glad that helped you! TNC Complete is a great fertilizer. We are working on our own fertilizer and would love to make it available in Europe one day.

Yeah! 2HR is a great second option, especially in Asian markets. I look back and wish I added that in there. I suggested one for Europe (TNC), but forgot about Asia :( If you are reading this and in Asia and can not get Thrive, check out 2HR APT.

@@aquascapeguide glad I refreshed your memory. Hope your viewers in Asia find it helpful.

@@ethanray-louisvilleaquasca3553 Present! Im using APT ferts!

Glad this helped! Shrimp keeps be trippn. Hahaha. They are soooooo paranoid about Co2, copper, TDS, etc. Thrive is 100% safe for shrimp. I used the EI method on this tank which is A LOT of fertilizer for a tank. I do admit I cut it back to half the dose, but it does have copper and the shrimp were fine. I would just dose really low and slow, and if you are super worried about it, use ThriveS as it's designed for shrimp tanks. - kzfaq.infoozhcgvPeIA4?feature=share

And maybe this article can help you on your shrimp/planted tank quest ;) They are tough tanks to keep because shrimp and plants have competing goals, but there is a good amount of overlap where both can be happy! - www.aquascapeguide.com/post/neocaridina-shrimp-in-planted-aquariums

As stated in the reply to your comment on our "providing nutrients" video, ADA has a different approach. They do not rely on the CEC of the substrate to soak up nutrients from the water column. Instead they keep the soil nutrient rich, and the water column super clean. This is why ADA's fertilizations methods are super lean. The thought process is that less fertilizers in the water column, the less algae, which is a viable approach that relies heavily on root tabs. So we are comparing apples and oranges when comparing Thrive to ADA. Thrive would be WAY to heavy as a fert for ADAs approach. And ADA would be missing tons of nutrients for the ASG method. You'd have to chose which method of feralization you want to go with, and select the appropriate fertilizer to get you there. The lean approach has ASG really intrigued, but we have not run that approach in the past. But we are looking to try it out soon, so we can teach everyone else the pros and cons of it :) Hope that helps!

Ehsan, thanks for reaching out. Ok, as stated in the video, we want to raise up our feralization table and we use nitrates as a way to see how far we have pushed it. Flourish is SUPER watered down so you'd burn through a bottle before getting anywhere. And who wants to pay $100 for the macro and trace bottles you need to pair with Flourish. Its just an antiquated system all together. For larger tanks like yours, I would go with Thrive+. Its more concentrated, which means you'll go through less making it cheaper over time. You could use the regular Thrive, but you'd need to dose more liquid over time going through the fert quicker. And C is REALLY watered down by design. It has an algae inhibitor in it which is nice, but you'll be dosing a TON to get your fert levels up. And if you're running the true ASG method, you wont really need to worry about algae. So for cost reasons I would get Thrive+, and then use enough to boost nitrates up a smidge, around 5-10ppm. Make sure you test your tank before adding the ferts to learn where it sits naturally with the livestock you have, then boost the nitrates another 5-10ppms from there. Just go real slow with it and make sure you are keeping up on those water changes. And focus on the new growth in your Java Ferns, not the old growth. That is going to need to be trimmed away and we'll keep an eye on the new growth. Epiphytes and swords are potassium hogs, so they will love the addition of a balanced fert. With all that being said, ASG is working on its own fertilizer. We'll blast it out when we release it. I am hoping maybe by the end of this month or next. Its going to be our own blend of micros and macros, but will be higher in potassium than Thrive, and EasyGreen. So keep an eye out for that. Also, check out our ASG forum on our website. Questions like these would be great to ask on the forum. I will be monitoring that as well to help answer questions. Anywho, hope that helps! Ask more questions if you have them. Later scaper!

Subscribed. Thanks so much Phil. Amazing help.

Sorry one last question. In Australia I have better/cheaper access to LCA brand fertiliser. Is there one you recommend from that brand in line with my needs? I do have some BBA which is why i was leaning towards the one with the algae inhibitor in either brand, but I see your point about them being watered down.

@@ehsanhaidary9766 You're welcome! Good luck, and reach out if you have more questions :)

@ehsan haidary Yes! LCA would be your local equivalent of Thrive in your area. I'm on the fence with algae inhibitors, I feel like they are a bandaid to a problem. I think it's best to address the root cause of the algae popping up than relying on a bottle. Like BBA, it's generally due to high phosphates, or a lack of Co2. If you nip it at the cause, you don't need inhibitors. We wrote an article on BBA, but also have a free interactive alge guide on our website if you sign up as a member. But here is the BBA article if you'd like to read up on it - www.aquascapeguide.com/post/algae-black-beard

Hi hi hi! On my website, you can sign up for a free account, from there, if you use the member drop down you'll see the free Official Algae Guide. You can follow the prompts and it will take you to green hair algae.... or any other algae in the hobby if you run into issues. HOWEVER, I see filamental or string algae when there is too much light coupled with too much nutrients... mainly phosphates. I teach to keep phosphates within the redfield ratio of 1ppm of P, to 10ppm of N. If your P gets too high, you can see filamental algae. Also, it seems like to more stagnant water as well. So a couple questions, what is the PAR of your light set at? How long is your photoperiod? What kind of light do you have. Also, where is your N to P ratio. Lastly, I always recommend injecting CO2 as it increase overall plant health. Healthy plants produce allelochemicals which naturally fend off algae. And planted tanks LOVE water changes. I suggest 50% weekly if there is no issues, and you want to kick up and suck out as much detritus as you can. Water changes not only remove DOCs that build up over time, they also reset our fertilization table preventing a single nutrient from building up. You can skip a water change here and there, but if you continue to skip them, you'll definitely see issues. If there is an issue, I suggest 75% weekly. So that could be causing issues as well. As far as your macros not dissolving, using really hot RODI or distilled water will help that. If your still not having luck, dissolve the phosphate first, shake it real good and let that dissolve, THEN put in the nitrates and potassium. For some reason, sometimes all the phosphates don't fully dissolve, but if your phosphates are too high, then maybe its good there is less in the macros mix ;) Hope this helps!

Thrive+ as a whole is a comprehensive and complete fertilizer. There is nothing you need to add to it and can just dose it as is.

Hello! And thank you for asking your question as others could benefit from it. First, I would check if your micros have iron in them already. We generally use CSM+B for our micro mix, and it already includes enough iron... so you might be dosing too much iron. Secondly, the short answer is it doesn't matter what time you put the micros and macros in, as long as you are following the schedule. The idea behind the EI method is that we are dosing nutrients in excess, so your plants should have what they need at all time. We would not be running lean enough to where dosing in the evening, versus morning should be an issue. Futhermore, if you are running an aquaosoil as recommended by us, that should hold on to nutrients as well, soaking it up like a sponge, so even if you missed a say or two, your plants should still have what they need. We hope this answers your question... but if you have more, check out our nutrients guide on our website @ - www.aquascapeguide.com/nutrients

What up DJ STICKXXXXXXXXX. Great question as I see this question a lot in Facebook groups. Easy Green is a nice little fertilizer but does not have as many of the compounds as Thrive does. Easy Green has 9, Thrive has 11. With the exception of Nitrogen and Magnesium, Easy Green is less concentrated, which means you are getting more water in your bottle than Thrive. Lastly, Thrive has a large lineup of option. Like ThriveC has an algae inhibitor in it for tanks that don't run CO2. ThriveS has no copper for those that are all freaked out about dosing copper in their shrimp tanks. And even Thrive+ which is even MORE concentrated than regular Thrive for those of us with CO2 injection and high PAR setups. So again, Easy Green is nice, but Thrive is stronger, more comprehensive, and have more options for for users. Thanks for reaching out! :)

Debora! Sorry I didn't this comment sooner! Thrive might make it worse... derp*.. The two main reason why BBA shows up is because of either 1) your phosphates are too high... or 2) your plants are depleting naturally available CO2. With reason 1, your phopahes need to be in a gold ratio with nitrates, which are 1ppm Phos, to 10ppm of Nitrates. When our phosphates get out of wack, we see all sorts of hair agales, including BBA. Reason 2 might be a byproduct of Thrive working well! You plants might be soooo happy that they are growing like crazy and consuming the natural available CO2 you have in your water column. There are a few ways to fix it without CO2 injection, but this is one of many reasons why its wise to inject CO2. To learn how to address BBA without CO2 injection, take a look at the article we wrote on our blog - www.aquascapeguide.com/post/algae-black-beard

Cloud you water in what way? Green cloudy, or white cloudy? White cloudy would be a filtration/organics issue. Green cloudy would be dosing too much too quickly.

Sorry for the confusion on the CEC part of the video. When it comes to aquasoils, all are pretty much the same from a CEC perspective. And when you pair an aquasoil with a holistic fertilizer, the only difference between aquasoils is just how much nutrients it comes pack with. This is why we like ADA, as it not only has a high CEC, but also comes with a ton of nutrients. So much so that it will produce more then enough ammonia to cycle your tank. SUPER easy. Tropica is our second favorite, with Fluval Stratum last as it doesn't have any nutrients in it, even though Fluval says it does. Shame on Fluval. And as far as APT goes, get whatever you can that has as many of the nutrients as possible. You may be limited to what is in your area which is unfortunate, but there is nothing you can do there other than find the micros and macros yourself and dose the EI method rather than buying an all in one. And to answer your last question about root tabs. You can run root tabs, and because of the aquasoils CEC it will absorb the nutrients and disperse it better than if you had an inert substrate, but then your water column feeders are going to be starving... like your mosses, epiphytes, floaters (which we are not a fan of). Others also run the lean method, in which you just dose potassium into the water column, and then you'd HAVE to use root tabs. But from what I've experienced with the lean method, you still have to dose Nitrates and Phosphates, just at a VERY minimal amount. So you're still dosing all micros and macros anyways, so whats the point. I hope that clears somethings up for you! :) Reach out if you have more questions.

@@aquascapeguide Ph3 on co2 Ph4 no on co2 Nitrate around 50mg/l ~100mg/l Gh4 Kh 3~4 May i know why u ask specifically for 20-40 ppm nitrate but in vids u said its fine if you have 100 nitrates lvl? Next I did my gh and kh but for kh i am not sure which range is it, its either a 3 or 4 but from what i see using nt labs test kit the yellow in 3 drop is not as dark as the 4 drops, does that 3 drop count or the 4 drop? Next u said if your kh and gh is 4 you ph will be 6.8 but somehow my test show a different ph. Is it something wrong with test kit?

A lot of hobbyists are concerned about adding nitrates into their tanks, thinking that it will harm their fish. So I mention that one can get their tank up to 100ppms of nitrates, slowly, and their fish will be fine. It was just a comment to help other understand that adding nitrates isn't going to harm their fish. I try to keep my tanks at 20ppms or less. And this is the hard part about the liquid hardness kits, you are probably some where between 3 and 4, which is totally fine. I wouldn't get too focus on getting things perfect. So long as you are close to and GH and KH of 4, doing water changes and keeping your GH/KH in that range, you'll be successful. Problems arise when your water's GH/KH continues to creep up higher and higher, or you are using RO water and each water change your water gets softer and softer until there is no mineral content. And European and Asian test kits measure things like nitrates, Ph, and other parameters in different units. Like you nitrates test kit measures in mg/l, where the popular kits in the states measure ppms. So your PH test kit probably uses a different measurement that what is in the states. So I can't really comment on what kit you have, but yes, generally speaking, when using RODI water and remineralizing to a GH/KH of 4, your PH will sit around a 6.8-7.0. Hope all this helps!

Thank you for reaching out! We hope you were able to learn something from the video. If you are running an aquasoil as we suggest, it is not an issue when dosing as recommended. Many hobbyists in the shrimp community are hyper focused on NO COPPER at all, but we've ran the EI method, which includes copper, with an aquasoil and not had any issues. To help put your mind at ease, trace amounts of copper are in a lot of municipal water supplies. If you're using TAP water, you might be dosing trace amounts of copper anyways. You can Google your counties water quality report to see what's in your water. If you are still worried about it, or are not doing your water changes, OR, do not have an aquasoil, there is a link in the description to ThriveS which has no copper in it. Its less concentrated than regular Thrive, and if you're using tap water, then you can rely on the trace copper in your tap. Hope this helps!

I contacted Niloc G, the company that makes Thrive, and they said that as long as you follow the directions - all of their products are safe for shrimp

@@belliqueu This is true! But running copper stresses people out because of misinformation they've found on the internet. Yes copper is leathel to shrimp in larger quantities, but like you said, not in the dose the Nilocg is recommended. But at the end of the day, if ThriveS will allow them to enjoy their tank more and not stress out about killing shrimp, then that might be a better option.

They make a shrimp safe version

Right! Once people get the hang of using Thrive, I generally recommend them to move onto the EI method, as its customizable ;)

"EI methods also can cause out of control algae blooms" professional aquascapers disagree with you on that statement. Maybe you can make a follow-up video that talks about concentrations. That is a great idea! Thanks for doing that for the hobby.

Hi Craig. The root of that statement is based off LieBigs Law of the Minimum. Google it. If you dont agree with his findings, you'll have to present something scientific that would superseded that. Lots of people have opnions on the internet, so we try to stick with the science of tank keeping. But science also is constantly learning. So there might be new findings we have not seen yet! Do you have any other scientific findings or research that might help support your idea that plants will continue to be happy and thriving while missing essential micro or macro nutrients?

@@aquascapeguide One does not need a scientific dissertation to ascertain knowledge. All one needs to do is study a subject matter and experiment. Sounds complicated but it is rather simple. Man has been doing this simple method for thousands of years. He hybridized many species without any degree or publications. I have been doing this since i was a child. Instead of books, learn from life before given out so called "knowledge" that is obviously second hand.

@@craigathonian Oh, then this channel definetly isn't for you. We like science here. There are some flat earth QAnon channels that might be more your speed :)

You're right! And it coincides with our approach we call the ASG method. We are teaching people our approach to keeping happy and healthy tanks. Those trying to get into the hobby don't need all the options, they need direction and mentorship, and that is what we are providing. Feel free to start your own channel and provide whatever content you'd like 😀

​@@aquascapeguideyes you're absolutely right. As a beginner I just needed simple instructions. Before the video I was breaking my head, and couldn't figure it out.

It totally is! The science explains why its basised and why hobbyists should be as well. You talk about other liquid fertilizers being better. Will you elboarte which ones and the science behind why? We are always looking for the newest and most effective way to fertilizer our tanks. I mean, we are big fans of the EI Method and LieBigs Law of the Minimum, if you can't tell. But hey, science changes as we learn :) Looking forward to hearing your perspective.