# Homemade root tabs



## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

I made these using Osmocote Plus, available at Lowes, which contains NPK and micros. Pour into ice tray, add water, freeze, push into substrate about 1.5 to 2 inches (quickly, before they melt). Should last 6 months. An old method that can be used to add just about anything into the substrate.


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

I would love to see an experiment on how slowly those spheres dissipate submerged in water. the reason I pay top dollar on Seachem's Flourish Tabs, is because they are only trace/micros, and take months to dissolve. I would not mind the macros in Osmocote Plus if I knew those balls were still somewhat intact a few months later. note there is Copper Sulfate in Osmocote Plus, so it may not be suitable for sensitive invertebrate tanks.


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## Michael (Jul 20, 2010)

I've been thinking about trying this in my El Natural. Have you been doing it very long? Please let us know what results you get.

-Michael


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## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

spypet said:


> I would love to see an experiment on how slowly those spheres dissipate submerged in water. the reason I pay top dollar on Seachem's Flourish Tabs, is because they are only trace/micros, and take months to dissolve. I would not mind the macros in Osmocote Plus if I knew those balls were still somewhat intact a few months later. note there is Copper Sulfate in Osmocote Plus, so it may not be suitable for sensitive invertebrate tanks.


The Cu is shown by weight, not ppm. It's not at a level to be concerned about. No more than Flourish.


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## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

Michael said:


> I've been thinking about trying this in my El Natural. Have you been doing it very long? Please let us know what results you get.
> 
> -Michael


I haven't used it before. I meant to seed my tank with it during setup but forgot BOTH times. Easier for me to do than you can imagine. It has been used with good results by many people for over a decade.

It may deplete in less than 6 months submerged, but if your substrate has a good CEC, it will either be absorbed or leach into the water column. Since we know that nutrients don't lead to algae, no real damage can be done. But it really all depends on the rate of uptake in a particular tank, so I think you would never find a definitive answer. If you don't have alot of plant mass and you use low light, you probably don't need root tabs in the first place if your substrate already contains nutrients. If you have alot of plant mass or high light, you're probably dosing the water column. A few weeks of depleted substrate shouldn't cause any major set backs.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

How is it working? Are you getting any algae blooms? Would they work in a Florite only tank?


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## spypet (Jul 27, 2007)

Ekrindul said:


> It may deplete in less than 6 months submerged, but if your substrate has a good CEC, it will either be absorbed or leach into the water column. Since we know that nutrients don't lead to algae, no real damage can be done.


  :shock: 

I'm trying to determine how long it takes for these balls to dissolve completely.
I'm aware that "results may vary" so maybe you could give us a range please.


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## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

digital_gods said:


> How is it working? Are you getting any algae blooms? Would they work in a Florite only tank?


It's too soon to say how's it is working as far as plant health is concerned, but there's no reason it shouldn't work. Plants have roots for a reason. If they find nutrients, they will make use of them. Outside of a controlled, long term experiment, you can't say much more than that anyway. Anything else I say about their success would really be BS. I can't know for sure without testing. But with what we know about how plants operate, there's no reason to assume they wouldn't be utilized, is there? The obvious advantage to seeding the substrate with nutrients is those plants that can make use of it will do so and leave that much more nutrient in the water column for other plants. How would you measure that with certainty, though? You really can't. Again, with what we know about how plants operate, there's no reason I can think of that it shouldn't be advantageous.

Florite is no different from any other inert substrate, so there's no reason it wouldn't work. Root tabs will work well in any substrate, inert or otherwise. Nutrients are nutrients.

Regarding the algae bloom, let's have a discussion about fertilization and algae, cause I don't want to just answer no 

My position is this: *Ferts don't cause algae.*

Why would I get algae blooms from root tabs? I dump ferts directly into the water column in pretty decent amounts daily with no algae. If that doesn't cause algae, why would ferts in the substrate? There are so many companies and magazines, books, etc. telling us too much phosphate, iron or nitrate, etc. is bad, *but ferts don't cause algae* in my tanks. Even excess ferts, beyond the uptake of the plants in the system, doesn't cause algae. _Estimative Index has shown the correlation between ferts and algae isn't directly related_. I dump KNO3, KH2PO4 and K2SO4 into my tank every week with no algae bloom, as well as DTPA Fe and Ca/Mg supplement. All the things these companies, magazines, books, etc. swear should cause algae simply don't.

Despite common wisdom, algae is most commonly caused by a lack of nutrients (Not good news for companies wanting to sell us their phosphate absorbing filter media, huh?) This actually makes more sense if you think about it. Algae is a very simple organism with little to no adaptability; plants are complex organisms with high adaptability. Algae is going to do best in an environment where plants do poorly, otherwise it wouldn't have evolved into the form it is and would have vanished from the Earth. So what environments do plants do poorly in? Too much light (notice I said too much, not high; lots of types of algae and diatoms love this), poor circulation and/or fluctuating CO2--kind of go hand in hand-- (BBA loves this), limited nutrients (lots of types of algae and diatoms loves this). All these conditions are poor for plants, and that's what algae has to have is a piss poor situation for plants. Why? Cause healthy plants shade algae; healthy plants suck up nutrients more efficiently and grow much larger, faster. Algae's great adapation is to go dormant until conditions are more favorable.

Some examples:

BBA has been shown to be correlated to fluctuating CO2 levels (carbon for all intents and purposes is a nutrient). Do weekly water changes (fluctuating CO2 level causer) without any form of carbon enrichment and you will have a higher likelihood of seeing BBA. Plants adapt to low CO2 over time by producing enzymes that make it possible for them to survive with less carbon. If you keep suppressing this mechanism with fluctuating CO2 (water changes and no carbon enrichment), the plants suffer carbon deficiency. Sounds like something algae would want to know about, right? Plants doing badly. Algae-time.

Several types of algae can be induced with NH4. Why would this be? Because plants release ammonia as they break down/decay. Unhealthy plants would obviously break down/decay a great deal more than healthy plants, so more ammonia. Similar situation to overfeeding; more food, more ammonia in the long run. Sounds like something algae would want to know about, right? Plants doing badly. Algae-time.

So why would excess ferts not cause algae maybe? Algae does like ferts, after all. Could it be that excess ferts, being a good thing for plants, wouldn't tell algae anything about the environment and how conducive it might be? Algae has a spore state for a reason, the same reason other organism have spore states: to survive a length of time when conditions aren't conducive to them. Why emerge from the spore state into a situation where your biggest competitor is doing well?

I think alot of these myths about fertilization causing algae are due to people doing water changes weekly without any form of carbon enrichment (El Natural is the better option for these folks). Everyone tells them you gotta do water changes to prevent algae from excess nitrates and such, but they still get algae, so they assume it must be something else. Algae likes nutrients, so it must be the nutrients, right? So they begin starving the plants so they don't feed the algae. In a planted tank, it's not so, though. Things are completely different for a planted environment, but we constantly see people applying fish-only tank logic. The fluctuating CO2 caused by the water change each week is what is causing the problem.

Then they begin limiting phosphates and seeing some progress in containing the algae without realizing that limiting PO4 can lower CO2 need, so the plants get some relief and recover a bit, but that's bad horticulture. And it's an unstable solution, so it will become a nagging, recurring issue. Or worse they start dumping in algacides which aren't good for the fish or plants most likely, which is again, bad horticulture. And, the plant's needs are still not met and so they never see what good growth they could have if they would spend the time addressing the plants needs first, and forget about worrying about algae. We see more questions on the net about how to get rid of algae than we do about how to achieve healthy plants. If you put plant health first, algae becomes a non-issue, because the best defense against algae is the plants themselves.

How many people consider the possibility that it isn't the root tabs that caused their sudden algae, but an NH4 spike from disturbing the substrate? Much more likely.


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## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

spypet said:


> :shock:
> 
> I'm trying to determine how long it takes for these balls to dissolve completely.
> I'm aware that "results may vary" so maybe you could give us a range please.


I don't think the mfg's range is unreasonable. Soil retains moisture over time, people water their gardens constantly. I'm sure they take these conditions into account when making the 6 month claim.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

I'm going to have to try this because the seachem root tabs are not cheap, do you remember how much a bottle of osmite is josh?


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## Ekrindul (Jul 3, 2010)

Don't remember and the Lowe's site is currently down. I'm sure by volume, it's much much cheaper though.


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## fishyjoe24 (May 18, 2010)

cool thanks I bet it could be more then 12-15 dollars maybe 20.00 I was going to buy some 2x4's so i will go to the garden section and look.


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## digital_gods (Apr 23, 2010)

It retails for $16 at Lowes. I was on sale for $8 last month, might be continuing the sale to move out the excess stock.


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## CptanPanic (Oct 18, 2010)

Note that balls never disintegrate. The fertilizer is just released through the walls of the balls.


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