questions regarding the flourish line...

[Tool510]

Hello, ive got some questions regarding the flourish line of products as well as how they should be utalized for my tank. Currently my only planted tank is a 55 gallon tank that has 3 large pieces of malasian drift wood, 70 pounds of sand as a substrate and 8 dime sized red bellied piranha. the plants in the tank are 5 small amazon swords, and 3 larger brazillian swords. I am also thinking of adding a few "sandy whites" (im not sure of their scientific name). My ph is kept ~ 6.8, and my general hardness is ~1dh via a water softening pillow. The lights are (2) 18" 9300k t8 flourecents. And now for my questions:

1) from what ive read, the amazon sword plants and brazillian sword plants are "bog" plants, and as a rule tend to get most of there nutrients via their roots. Since im using sand and there roots are currently anchored in the sand, is it still alright to use Flourish Excell as a viable source of carbon, and will the plants utilize it via their leafs instead of roots?
2) should the basic Flourish along with Excell for carbon supplimenting be enough iron in the tank or would i still need to add flourish iron?
3) would it be a better idea to use Flourish tablets pressed into the sand for the roots of the plants, or should the liquid work just as good? Idealy i would like to just do a daily regement of all liquid but if the tablets would work better in my scenerio i would willingly purchase them
4) lastly, with only 8 medium sized plants in the 55 gallon tank with maby another 2 small plants to be added later, should i still add Flourish potassium, phosphorus, nitrogen, and trace elements, or are they for a more heavily planted tank? I dont mind adding whatever is best for the plants, but id hate to overdue anything and hurt the fish or plants.

thank you for any help you guys can give! :)

[Tech Support LK]

In your situation, I think the Flourish tabs would benefit you greatly. These last for a few months so they wouldn't be too much of a hassle using them. The plants will be able to utilize the Flourish Excel by whatever means necessary. Flourish along with Flourish Excel will definitely not provide enough iron. Flourish Excel does not contain iron at all and Flourish only contains baseline levels. Even with lightly stocked tanks, you will likely need to dose iron on an every day basis because plants utilize this element very quickly. You will not necessarily need to use the macros (N,P,K) right now, but you may need them eventually. Just start out with the fundamentals (Flourish, Flourish Iron, and Flourish Excel) and see how the plants do. If they look like they are lacking something, you can then look into getting the macronutrients.