Tropical Fish Forums

[lenoirj]

I bought some new plants for my aquarium today and along with them bought Seachem's Flourish (plant fertilizer) and was noticing that it contains chlorine (1.15%) and copper (.0001%). Aren't those harmful to fish?

[Jose]

Believe it or not both of those are plant micronutrients and are essential for plant life.

[lenoirj]

I understand that but should I NOT be using the fert in my aquarium???? Is it going to kill my fish????

Please, only reply if you can help me!

[Bob]

I think you will find they are safe for use in your tank, the volume will be small, and in a form far less harmful to your fish and bacteria, than how it is used in the water supply.

Bob

[Jose]

Of course its not going to harm your fish, fish can stand way higher levels of copper than plants can. Your tap water probably has more copper than .0001%.
With the chlorine the concentration ounce it is in the tank will be 0.0023 ppm, 1 ppm is when bacteria start dieing (maybe fish) so you would have to dose 434 X the reccomended dose to kill your fish.

[Steve Hampton]

The copper is a very very small amount and its chelated so it is harmless to your fish and invertebrates. Chlorine is not directly added to Flourish. Chloride is added and derived from adding potassium chloride, calcium chloride, and magnesium chloride. Labeling must have the elemental percentage. Note also that chloride is harmless. Adding chlorine would be bad, even in small amounts, adding chloride is completely safe...actually its beneficial in that chloride offers protection against nitrite toxicity. When we treat our water with a water conditioner such as sodium thiosulfate it renders harmful chlorine into harmless chloride. Note that Seachem states that chlorine is provided via potassium chloride.

http://www.seachem.com/products/product_pages/Flourish.html

What's important to note on labeling is not the elemental percentage but rather the derived from list of compounds.
_________________