# Fun With Root Tabs



## Jason Baliban (Feb 21, 2005)

*Disclaimer*

I am no scientist. I am in no way trying to make a scientific conclusion here. I am here to share my real world experiment in a real world tank. If you have a belief or contradiction to what i say, please state it. I hope we can all get some solid conclusions to this from a lot of Q & A 

*History*

Root tabs....what an interesting idea. Feed plants from the roots like we do terrestrial plants and we should have great growth right? Well, since i started in the hobby not too many short years ago, there was always a sort of kick your nose up at root tabs type of mentality. Why?

Frankly, i never intended to use them. There is so much great info on water column dosing with so many great results....why even try? I was fine with thinking this until i started working with aquasoil.

So much mystery seems to surround Amano style dosing and growth. How can he have such great growth with minimal water dosing? I always read that AS had some type of nitrate in it that really helped the plants grow. This is where science people problem remember that AS offers more organic versions of N that allow the plants to easily use this nutrient. Im no scientist, so i will have to trust them on that 

In my head i thought to myself, "why cant i mimic this with root tabs?" So off i went to the store and got myself some macro root tabs and flourish root tabs. The macro root tabs contained all the macros, and the flourish tabs contained the iron.

*Setup*

Tank: 75 Gallon

I set up the tank in three sections. From left to right....

Left: No tabs at all
Center: Macro and Micro Tabs
Right: Only Macro tabs

Lighting: 4x55PC's running 10 hours a day on timer

Co2: Pressurized - on with light cycle - roughly 10-12ppm of co2

Water:
KH 3
GH 5

Dosing: Minimal NPK dosing in the 10:1:20 ratio with manufacturer recommended levels of iron dosing.

*Effects*

Well, the leaching statement is absolutely true!! For the first 2-3 weeks my macros were through the roof!!! I could barely see through my test kits it was so dark!! HAHA

Solution: Multliple 50% WC's until this calmed down a bit.

Growth: Very interesting indeed. I let this grow for about 2 months. As you can see from the picture, there is very little difference from the left side and the center. The right side however is pathetic!!

*Conclusion and Questions*

Lets start with the right side. Very little growth? Why is this? There are a ton of nutrients under those plants? I suspect that balance is key here. Without enough carbon, iron, and light to balance the equation, the excess nutrients are almost toxic to the plant?

There really is not much difference between the center and the left side. Why is this? I suspect the plants got all the nutrients they needed from the column and or they lower co2 levels did not force the plants to need more then they could get from the substrate and or the water column. No advantage was seen.

Would I use them again? No, i dont think i would. I have heard good things with people using iron tabs for large rooted plants, however i rarely use them. I just dont see the advantage in growth to out weigh the uncontrolled leaching that is associated with the tabs.

Please feel free to add your beliefs and reasoning. I am no scientist as i stated before. I am sure there are many things i forgot to mention....please ask. I did the work, i hope that all of your input and questions can certainly help us all learn from this. I would love to know why things happened the way they did.

Thanks

jB


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## Glouglou (Feb 21, 2006)

Very interesting Jason. I’m using Seachem root tab and I don’t remember heavy leeching, but I will verify.

Anyway this is another proof that nutritive soils and good CEC is a good way to improve growt of our plants and maybe reduce the need to overfertilize the water column that help our algae friends to drive us crazy...

Good work!


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## Jason Baliban (Feb 21, 2005)

Glouglou - I dont believe that flourish have much in the way of macros, so it would be very difficult to measure their leaching. The leaching i experienced came from the macros. I can imagine the leaching is similar with the flourish, however, what would i test

jB


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## Glouglou (Feb 21, 2006)

Flourish Tabs™ Analysis from Seachem

Contain Iron and Trace.



> Guaranteed Analysis
> Total Nitrogen
> 0.28%
> Available Phosphate
> ...


Flourish Tabs
They are really compact and if you do not uproot or disturb the substrat, I don't think it will leach to much stuff, but I will check.

I don't know about "Macro Roots"?


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## SuRje1976 (Mar 3, 2006)

Jason - which micro tabs were you using? I'm guessing they (the _micro _tabs) really didn't do much leaching, or the growth would have been more consistent throughout the tank?

Interesting info!


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

Interesting observations, Jason, thanks for posting this. A couple of things that come to mind, in no particular order and of no implied importance, on my part:

-the macro root tabs which apparently leached out and created high macro levels - these would affect the entire tank equally, not just their individual sections under which they were buried. The question is, how much of the root tab remains buried, and how does it affect the micro-environment underneath the plants in that particular section? Obviously some resifual effect remains.

-micro levels might be more important than macro levels??? Again, section 3 which didn't have the micros buried under it, showed the poorest growth. It would have been interesting if you'd had a fourth section with just micro tabs.


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## Squawkbert (Jan 3, 2007)

I would like to see what would happen if this experiment were repeated with a full 4" of substrate. The tank pictures make it look like there was not a lot of substrate. This could also explain the excessive leaching seen. Root tabs are supposed to be planted pretty deep.


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## Jason Baliban (Feb 21, 2005)

SuRje1976 - I feel like both probly did their share of leaching in the beginning. However, I did large water changes twice a week for a few weeks to address this (60-70%). I believe once the initial leaching subsided, and the substrate wasnt disturbed, the leaching became minimal.

Bert - The water column levels stablized after a few weeks. The growth in the picture is after many prunings and and replantings, so the growth you see is really a good representation of leaner column nutrients and tabs. The right side was never pruned, while the center and left were probly pruned 5-6 times. Quite a difference!!!

The root tabs are still there to some degree. I can look under the tank and still see some of them there. I would imagine that this is about the end of them.

Squawkbert - there is about 3" in the front and 4" in the back. The stand is decieving because the tank actually rests in the stand.

Thanks guys.....very interesting indeed.

More thoughts would be great.

jB


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

Glouglou said:


> Anyway this is another proof that nutritive soils and good CEC is a good way to improve growt of our plants


 What do you mean? Jason's test revealed exact opposite of that. The root feeding did not improve anything.


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## Edward (May 25, 2004)

There is no substitute to simple inert silica quartz substrate with proper water column fertilization. 

Inert substrates get saturated by organic material deposits in few weeks time creating CEC controlled environment. Slow water flow through the substrate layers supplies roots and microorganism with balanced nutrients. This process is long term predictable, stable and controllable unlike other many special substrates. 



Thank you
Edward


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## Kelley (Aug 27, 2006)

Jason, did you observe the roots entwined around the root tabs? I, myself, have never tried them, but I have heard others report this. 

I wonder if this would explain the poor growth that you observed. Locally high concentrations of otherwise beneficial substances is often detrimental. Maybe it produces poor shoot growth. Perhaps in other nutritious substrates like soil and aquasoil the concentration of ferts is much lower and is better able to support good shoot growth. 

What do the roots look like in your tests? Do any of the plants have better root growth? 

Thank you for sharing this test with everyone!


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## Naja002 (Nov 15, 2005)

Jason Baliban said:


> I always read that AS had some type of nitrate in it that really helped the plants grow. This is where science people problem remember that AS offers more organic versions of N that allow the plants to easily use this nutrient. Im no scientist, so i will have to trust them on that


A bit off topic, but that may explain why my N has gone through the roof! I repotted my Emersed Plant Filter (Peace Lilies) into AS and added a bag of it to my Canister to help maintain a lower pH and Kh--now my Nitrates are sky high!

Thanx! for the Heads-Up!


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