Aquariumplants.com Total Pellet Fertilizer - Review

[dinokath]

Hi all,

I am trying something out and wanted to share my journey with anyone interested in following. I recently started this hobby, about a week ago actually. I just planted my tank last Friday, so it has been up a week. When ordering my plants, I was talking the rep from aquariumplants.com and he told me about their pellet ferts. He promised success or my money back. How can you go wrong?! Less work (you dose once per month at the root) and great results. I will give it a shot!

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/members/21964-albums538.html

Here's my photo log. I will post regularly and give some close up shots of leaves and growth and will give a 100% objective look at this product.

Here's a link to thier website with the instructions:

AquariumPlants.com's own: SUBSTRATE VITALIZATION SYSTEM

I know there are some very strong feelings out there on liquid/dry ferts! I'm just curious as to how well these will work and this is more for my own info than anything else, but since I am going to be taking the pictures anyway so I can refer back to them at some time in the future, I figured I would share with everyone here too. These pellets will be the only ferts in my tank. Nothing more, nothing less. They will be re-dosed once per month per the instructions. So join me on my journey! Enjoy.

 

[mom2reds]

thanks for posting this i will be following your thread to see how well they work. I was just wondering how long your tank has been set up for and what you were dosing previously?

 

[dinokath]

My tank was a fish only tank until last Friday, April 24, 2009 at around 5pm.

Before I put the pellets in today, May 2, 2009, I dosed as follows for the last six days:

KN03 - 200g in 400ml H20 - 4ml per day (M-Sunday)
K2SO4 - 25g in 250ml H2O - 45ml x2 per week (Tuesday and Saturday)
KH2PO4 - 30g in 250ml H20 - 2ml x 2 per week (M, W, F)
MgSO4+7H2O - 70g in 250ml H2O - 50ml x1 per week (Saturday)
Plantex CSM+B - 10g in 250ml H20 - 8ml x 3 week (T, Th, Sat)

The last dose of dry/liquid ferts was Friday, May 1, 2009 in the morning before leaving work. You can see my setup in my profile so you know what light and all that I am running.

I am brand new to the planted tank end of the hobby. Been keeping a fish only tank for around 30 years or so, since I was like 7 years old, so I am not a noob by any means to the hobby overall.

Enjoy!

The plan is to do weekly water changes/gravel cleanings on Saturday morning to the tune of 25% each week and nothing more. Maybe scrape the glass if needed.

Thanks for following! I am curious how it will do myself. I have all my dry ferts vacuum packaged and in the closet for now but ready to go should they need to be.

The Total Pellet

 

[jsoong]

Maybe you can also include a plant list. Plants that take nutrients from the substrate should do well with pellets (or root tabs) in the substrate. But I wonder how the ones that takes in nutrients from the water column will do.

 

[joy13]

I see the trace and total both have copper in them. I was wondering if they are safe for shrimp.

 

[dinokath]

My plant list is in 'My Tanks' just under my name on the left. Good question in the plants that take in from the leaves. I think Java Fern does it this way and I have one of those in there so we shall see!

Great question on the copper. I will email them and ask. I know they are sensitive to copper.

 

[mgamer20o0]

the copper tends to be so little that the plants use it up. same with flourish it has copper in it and people use it with shrimp tanks fine.

did they try to sell you their substrate too? lol

 

[dinokath]

Nope, they did not. Thanks for asking though. LOL.

 

[joy13]

the copper tends to be so little that the plants use it up. same with flourish it has copper in it and people use it with shrimp tanks fine.

did they try to sell you their substrate too? lol

I keep looking at that substrate wondering if it is as good as fluorite.

 

[mgamer20o0]

dont let them know i told you but its the same thing as sms which costs 10-15 for 50 pounds. i wouldnt say its as good but it works and is cheap if you get it from the right place. people tend to have problems with it since its very light weight.

 

[dinokath]

That's what I have heard about it, lightweight.

 

[mom2reds]

what is sms, Mgamer?

 

[krap101]

I think they stopped making sms (soilmaster select) since it got bought out by John deere or something. It's called Turface now, and its supposed to basically be fluorite... (fired clay) I got 50 lbs for 9$ (they let me go on taxes) and 1/3 of the bag filled my 29 gal. I didn't have enough the first time, washed the second batch at around 9:00, and I guess I didn't get everything out, and the water is pretty cloudy. I'm considering breaking down the tank again, rewashing the substrate and redoing it, since it seems like this won't settle.

 

[timwag2001]

how long has your substrate been in krap? i didnt wash my flourite anywhere near what i should have and it took about 3 days to settle. i had to rinse out my filter everyday. when i did my water changes it would stir up some more. got back to normal after about 3 weeks.

just be patient. it's aggrevating, kinda like waiting for your tank to cycle, but it will settle

 

[krap101]

Well... I have a powerhead that's diffusing co2 right now (broke my glass one) and I'm deciding between turning it off and leaving it on. Also I'm looking at my filter (emperor 280 cartridge and the second one with a 100 micron pad) and it seems like the particles are too small to get filtered out. It's been around 10ish days. I'm not sure how and if it's true, but I think that the suspended particles are also causing a green algae bloom (also it could be caused because of the changing substrates) but I also set up a 10 gallon shrimp tank, with a sponge filter, and it never got cloudy. I'm thinking of it as a "control" since the second batch of Turface wasn't 100% clean. One of my teacher's mottos is "I work my butt off right now so I can be lazy later". I just think it'd be better to get it out of the way. Otherwise I think I like this alot better than sand or pea gravel. It sinks quickly, looks natural, and is overall a good choice imo.

 

[mgamer20o0]

I think they stopped making sms (soilmaster select) since it got bought out by John deere or something. It's called Turface now, and its supposed to basically be fluorite... (fired clay) I got 50 lbs for 9$ (they let me go on taxes) and 1/3 of the bag filled my 29 gal. I didn't have enough the first time, washed the second batch at around 9:00, and I guess I didn't get everything out, and the water is pretty cloudy. I'm considering breaking down the tank again, rewashing the substrate and redoing it, since it seems like this won't settle.

they stopped making the charcoal sms. they now have turface which is close to the same. thats a good price for the turface it tends to be closer to 20-25. it is really dusty. i stopped washing it since it never seemed to do much good. what i do is put it in the tank fill the tank stir it around and wc a couple times. let the tank sit a week or two for the dust to settle.

 

[krap101]

Well, it did take awhile to wash, but the first batch (shrimp tank) is totally clear.

 

[dinokath]

Update

Ok, here's an update with some shots. Water chemistry is as follows:

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 10ppm
Phosphate - 3ppm
GH - 4
KH - 3
pH - 6.7 (regulated by the SMS122)

There is some floating leaves and I am not sure where they are coming from. Most folks, I would imagine, don't take pictures and post them with crap floating in their tank, but objectivity is the name of this experiment here. I remove about 10 leaves per day, not all from the same plant, but mostly the bright red one there in the center and the microswords, but those are the two I see the fish playing in the most, so I am assuming they are breaking them off. Thoughts?

The gouramis (blue) are building a bubble nest too! I am stoked. I have never had fish breed before in all the years I have been doing this. I usually don't have four gouramis at the same time either, so I always figured I had bad luck and had two males or two females in the past. Too cool. Bubble nest is located on the back left.

Everything is healthy and looks good to me, but feedback is requested. There are some leaves with tears on them, but I have seen this in almost every picture of plants. I think my kissing gouramis are hungry during the day or something.

Cleaned a little bit of brown algae off the glass and a very small amount of green spot algae it seems. That was yesterday. I went a bought three oto's to help in that department.

Thoughts are welcomed. Thanks.

 

[dinokath]

More shots

A couple more close ups.

 

[mgamer20o0]

looks great