Mebbid's DIY root tabs

[ImACoolguy]

I added the root tabs I made to the new puffer tank. Plants look great but one of the tabs surfaced when I brought the puffer home today! The ammonia was way high at 2.0ppm and after tons of water changes I've brought it to 0.25ppm but now it won't budge.

Any answers on how I can make it drop to 0ppm? My puffer is in a holding tank till this is resolved.


Caleb

 

[Brookster123]

I added the root tabs I made to the new puffer tank. Plants look great but one of the tabs surfaced when I brought the puffer home today! The ammonia was way high at 2.0ppm and after tons of water changes I've brought it to 0.25ppm but now it won't budge.

Any answers on how I can make it drop to 0ppm? My puffer is in a holding tank till this is resolved.


Caleb

Tank cycled? Biofilter and plants should knock it out soon enough. How deep is substrate? You pushed them wayyyy down right?

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[ImACoolguy]

Tank cycled? Biofilter and plants should knock it out soon enough. How deep is substrate? You pushed them wayyyy down right?

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The substrate is at least 2 inches deep. 2.5 in places. The filter was from an established tank that's ran for months.


Caleb

 

[Delapool]

Makes me wonder how slow release all these ferts are.

 

[Mebbid]

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

Makes me wonder how slow release all these ferts are.

Checkmy post

 

[Delapool]

Thanks!

 

[Delapool]

I just read in an aquarium book that you can also use dried rabbit or guinea pig droppings for DIY substrate ferts.

The mind boggles.... Has anyone tried this? Hundreds of posts and I could be just walking outside to get ready made ones

 

[Mebbid]

I just read in an aquarium book that you can also use dried rabbit or guinea pig droppings for DIY substrate ferts.

The mind boggles.... Has anyone tried this? Hundreds of posts and I could be just walking outside to get ready made ones

Thats not surprising at all. It never would have occurred to me to do it though

 

[Delapool]

Thats not surprising at all. It never would have occurred to me to do it though

Tsk! So now I'm thinking how does one work out the 'ingredients' list? I only want high potassium ones?

I guess we have kangaroo poo here which would be similar(ish) but the darn dog eats it..

Edit - it said they should be dried. Any risk to trying them do you think?

 

[Mebbid]

Tsk! So now I'm thinking how does one work out the 'ingredients' list? I only want high potassium ones?

I guess we have kangaroo poo here which would be similar(ish) but the darn dog eats it..

Edit - it said they should be dried. Any risk to trying them do you think?

I would probably bake them to 165 degrees to kill off bacteria. That wont kill everything, but it will just about do the trick.

The only risk i can think of would be introducing bacteria to the tank. I doubt its terribly pathogenic to fish, but it could make you sick.

If you want customizable nutrients then i would look at making something akin to ru tabs. Theres a how to video posted on youtube.

 

[Delapool]

Will post on here if I do. Probably a dry weather, summer collection job. Thanks for the information.

 

[Coyne]

I was moving around some plants last week and, along with the typical uprooting mess, a butt load of undissolved Osmocote Plus came up to the surface. The capsules are gone, but there are now a year+ worth of tiny yellow balls all over the place. I had been adding new tabs every other month under the assumption that they had been dissolving.
Any ideas as to why they aren't breaking down? My water is pretty hard and alkaline with a pH around 8.5. Could this be a factor?


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[1998golfer]

I was moving around some plants last week and, along with the typical uprooting mess, a butt load of undissolved Osmocote Plus came up to the surface. The capsules are gone, but there are now a year+ worth of tiny yellow balls all over the place. I had been adding new tabs every other month under the assumption that they had been dissolving.
Any ideas as to why they aren't breaking down? My water is pretty hard and alkaline with a pH around 8.5. Could this be a factor?


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The little balls are just the shell, I'm sure the ferts inside have been dissolved. The little yellow balls stay in mine too.

 

[Coyne]

You think? When I pinch them with planting tongs, something comes out of them.

 

[Mebbid]

You think? When I pinch them with planting tongs, something comes out of them.

Not all of the stuff will readily disolve from them when they are buried. I don't know why. I base my suggestion on how often to use the tabs on the growth rates I've seen while using them.

 

[Delapool]

I can't remember if this has been tested but just put in DIY tabs of about 1 per 5 gallons (about 30 tabs in a 4ft tank). Tested ammonia 12hrs later and got a reading between 0.25 to 0.5.

I had the canister filters off to let the new plants settle in a bit but glad I dosed with prime just in case.

 

[Fishperson]

Has anyone ever tried grinding up the pellets themselves and sprinkling them along the bottom of the tank before adding substrate, like James Findley does with his substrate additives?

I would avoid the problem of the balls popping up whenever the plants are uprooted, although I assume you'd have to add some tablets again in a couple of months anyway.

 

[ImACoolguy]

Has anyone ever tried grinding up the pellets themselves and sprinkling them along the bottom of the tank before adding substrate, like James Findley does with his substrate additives?

I would avoid the problem of the balls popping up whenever the plants are uprooted, although I assume you'd have to add some tablets again in a couple of months anyway.

That could depend on the thickness of the layer?

Very neat idea though and I hope this gets tested.


Caleb

 

[PoppaRyno]

Great idea... But im curious abt once that layers nutrients are dispatched. How would you re layer? Or is this more of a kickstarter for the substrate?

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[fish wrangler]

I remember watching a video on DustinsFishTanks channel where he covered the bottom of a tank(55gal maybe?) in O+ granules. Don't remember how it turned out though.