Mebbid's DIY root tabs

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Thanks. The whole tank will be planted. A few swords and some crypts but mainly stem plants: star repens, a. reineckii, lemon bacopa, and maybe ludwigia repens.

I want to start with a good nutrient base to help them get established since most of the plants are already growing out (submerged) in a 10-gallon.


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Ok, I made my root tabs last night(I sure do hope I used the right Oscomote plus ;))
Couple more questions, how long do these things last? Both in the tank and in storage. My tanks are small so I think I have enough to last the next few years.
Thanks


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BigQFan said:
Ok, I made my root tabs last night(I sure do hope I used the right Oscomote plus ;))
Couple more questions, how long do these things last? Both in the tank and in storage. My tanks are small so I think I have enough to last the next few years.
Thanks


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They should last around 2 months in the tank. I would replace them monthly if you're using gravel.

As for storage, they shouldn't have a shelf life as long as you keep them in an airtight contrainer. A packet of silica gel will help keep them dry. The gel caps melt when they get moist and humidity is no different.
 
Thanks so much for all the help in this thread. I'm sure you covered all of that earlier but boy has this gotten to be a long thread ;)


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Sooo, API root tabs!

Added quite a few this time and noticed a few issues.

The tank has gone cloudy as others have noticed. Don't get that with DIY.

The tabs were dissolving slightly as they went in which didn't help matters. A few also tended to break up getting pushed into the gravel. On the plus side, the tabs aren't slippery like the DIY gel capsules are.

I left one tab in a drop of water on top of the tank accidentally and found it had broken up when I tried to use it. I also get that with DIY so maybe operator error on that one...

The tab ferts smelt to me to be more like quick release nitrates, etc. Just smelt similar to garden ferts I have bought which dissolve very quickly.

On the other side of the tank I noticed the clay from the DIY is starting to hang around and not dissolve/disappear as quickly as before.

The convenience is nice but I think I'll being going back to DIY and maybe also try some root tabs from a local supplier.
 
I just made up my Oscomote tabs this week, but I am curious, how do I supplement calcium for the rooted plants?


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BigQFan said:
I just made up my Oscomote tabs this week, but I am curious, how do I supplement calcium for the rooted plants?


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Calcium is not a major nutrient, even compared to the other micro nutrients. I honestly wouldn't worry about it.
 
I feel like I should be paying you for all the help you give


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I tested one of my root tabs out in a 5g bucket of water over a period of 36 hours to test the ammonia production.

One size 00 root tab produced 0.5ppm of ammonia and 0ppm of both nitrite and nitrate in approximately 4.5g of water.

This means that in 1 gallon of water with 1 root tab there should be:

0.11ppm of ammonia
which converts to approximately 0.4ppm of nitrates in 1 gallon of water.


Math gives us an approximate measurement per day and a half of production for each root tab thats exposed to the water column.
0.01ppm ammonia / 0.04ppm of nitrate in a 10g tank
0.002ppm ammonia / 0.007ppm nitrate in a 55g tank
 
Well, I am an idiot and hit the wrong button while doing the math and in my coffee fueled state I didn't realize it. So now I'm fixing it :D

2.25ppm of ammonia per gallon

0.225ppm of ammonia or 0.81ppm nitrate in a 10g tank
0.04ppm of ammonia or 0.114ppm nitrate in a 55g tank

Again, this is a size 00 completely unburied root tab over a 36 hour period.
 
In the name of science testing an API root tab. Unfortunately I'd had no coffee and filled up a 5 gal bucket while watching the garden. Will post tonight on results but wish I had just put it in 1 gallon now.
 
Delapool said:
In the name of science testing an API root tab. Unfortunately I'd had no coffee and filled up a 5 gal bucket while watching the garden. Will post tonight on results but wish I had just put it in 1 gallon now.
Click to expand...


Ok, so one root tab in a 5 gall bucket of tap water (approximately) after 12 hours gave a surprising reading of ..... 0.25 ammonia. Definite green tinge.

So then of course I had to go and test the tap water and this was 0 as per previous testing. Definite yellow tinge and chalk / cheese compared to the first one.

Sooo, think I'll stick to dosing seachem safe with my root tabs (DIY or bought) just in case.
 
An airtight container will help keep them good longer. Packets of silica gel will help even more.
 
I finally got around to reading the WHOLE thread and decided I am going to do this. I purchased some Osmocote + yesterday and will hopefully try it, using the ice cube method, in a tank I'm setting up this weekend :), thanks again Mebbid!


Question: How much Osmocote + should I add per ice cube compartment?
 

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