Sand

[Coursair]

Its all good man. This was based on my cheapskate, Im not gonna buy any kind of root tabs, experience lol

Root Tabs? Mine are DIY. Cheap is my method as well. Osmocote Plus rules !
I use Black Diamond blasting sand. Super cheap.

Tina ( still not a man or a dude or a male of any kind )

 

[jetajockey]

My point was that gravel's ability to hold and make nutrients available is very limited compared to clay. That's why the specialty planted tank substrates are mostly clay based, even the DIY ones are (aka kitty litter/oil dri). If gravel/sand were equal to or superior to them then there'd be no point in using them.

Oil dri is on par with playsand in price (~$3 for a 30lb bag) and cheaper than gravel, and soil is even cheaper (soil pretty much makes your entire substrate like a giant root tab, so to speak) so if someone is up for a little DIY a planted tank with a good plant nurturing substrate is actually really cheap to make.

 

[GodFan]

Root Tabs? Mine are DIY. Cheap is my method as well. Osmocote Plus rules !
I use Black Diamond blasting sand. Super cheap.

Tina ( still not a man or a dude or a male of any kind )

oops sorry lol Well I am interested as to how you make these root tabs. I tried cabamba with PFS and it didnt do to well. Then again a NO t5 may not have been enough light who knows.

 

[Coursair]

oops sorry lol Well I am interested as to how you make these root tabs. I tried cabamba with PFS and it didnt do to well. Then again a NO t5 may not have been enough light who knows.

DIY Root Tabs

DIY Fert-Cicles.
Osmocote Plus from hardware store or nursery
+ Ice Tray
+ Tank Water

Fill trays 1/2 way with Fert
Fill trays with tank water
Freeze

Bury deep under or near Crypts and Swords or struggling plants. You don't need to put one per plant. Space them about 6" apart I think ??

I use O+ in my tanks. Got a RAOK of O+ root caps, gel capsules. They work great.

 

[Fishguy1997]

Thanks what is osmocote

 

[GodFan]

Thanks!

 

[Fishguy1997]

So I picked up some pieces of driftwood today at the beach but I don't how to prepare them for the tank. Can some help me

 

[butterfly_koi]

So I picked up some pieces of driftwood today at the beach but I don't how to prepare them for the tank. Can some help me

check to see if its a soft wood first, if so don't use it as it will rot. Mine I soaked in a big bucket of hot water for about a week changing the water every so often. After about a week it no longer floated. Its been in my tank for a couple of months now and still going strong. Sometimes it takes a little longer than a week though. I've read about some people boiling the wood or baking it in the oven but since I've never tried that I couldn't give you accurate advice on how that's done.

 

[GodFan]

Thats risky since their is salt in the wood.

 

[butterfly_koi]

Thats risky since their is salt in the wood.

Is fire island near the ocean?

Edit: sorry I didn't know where it was, I just looked it up on google maps. In that case I wouldn't recommend using the DW for your tank. The wood can contain salt boiling it might not remove the salt to where it would make it safe in your tank unless you were setting up a brackish water tank

 

[Fishguy1997]

Thanks..... Ok I gues i wont use it... But would this be safe for a land hermit crab tank if we boiled it

 

[bskerrichard27]

I would say yes

 

[Fishguy1997]

We decided it was bad we put it in the tank then my sister found little bugs in the tank so just to be safe we threw it put and were going to get new sand and stuff for it..

 

[TenaciousTriggerFish]

Went my local k-mart got a bag of normal playsans rinsed it slot then rinsed it clear then rinsed it a couple more times for good Mesure and it looks SPECTACULAR look in my other threads I started fir pics