diy root tabs

[Christos Ioannou]

Thanks for your in depth feedback, as always.

 

[Edvet]

One quick question, would any mormal green plant fertiliser work too (like the ones bought in a garden centre for houseplants, liquid green stuff, add a cup to a liter ; stuff like that, regular NPK stuff)

 

[ian_m]

would any mormal green plant fertiliser work too

Doubt it. Most house plant fertiliser we buy contains either ammonium nitrate or urea compound as this is by far the cheapest (and most concentrated) way of providing nitrogen to terrestrial plants. Just had a look at some common garden fertilisers here:
http://www.bayergarden.co.uk/Products.aspx
and you will see most contain ammonium or urea compounds in some form or other (as well as potassium nitrate), ammonium citrate appears common.

 

[Jose]

If you want to add DIY root tabs (which, if you are dosing the water column you don't need to do this anyway) then just use your existing fertilizers dissolved in water and put them in ice cube tray. Freeze the cubes and then take them out of the freezer and push them quickly into the substrate.

I cant see how this is not going to be dissolved into the water column in a couple of days. This is the same as injecting via a syringe.

 

[Edvet]

ammonium nitrate or urea compound

OK thx, but no problem for an plants only tank then i guess.

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,
Controlled Release Fertilisers, like Osmocote, have urea formaldehyde or IBDU (Isobutylidenediurea) as their nitrogen source.

Most liquid fertilisers or foliar feeds will have urea or nitrates as their primary nitrogen source. This is because high levels of ammonia can cause fertiliser "burn".

I'd have to have a search on the WWW, but there will be foliar feeds with low, or no, urea and/or ammonia.

cheers Darrel

 

[Edvet]

Wel they only state N.P.K. it seems (at least the ones i look for)
Funnily on the other hand i think it's good to be able to make orchid fertilizer out of dry ferts ( in stead of having to find it on the shelf in the gardencenter)

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Wel they only state N.P.K. it seems (at least the ones i look for)
Funnily on the other hand i think it's good to be able to make orchid fertilizer out of dry ferts ( in stead of having to find it on the shelf in the gardencenter)

They should give you a breakdown of the nitrogen source somewhere.

Making up your own feed from dry fertilzers makes a lot of sense, it is infinitely flexible, even if it doesn't work out much cheaper.

I have used <"whatever liquid fertilizer I have to hand"> to feed the tanks (via the "Duckweed Index"), without any problems, but I keep extremely weed tanks, and it must involve some risk of poisoning your livestock. When I've made root tabs, I've used <"Growmore" or "Vitax Q4">, but again the same proviso would apply.

cheers Darrel

 

[Jose]

I think people can use root tabs with ammonia in ithem. Unless they do a lot of replanting and moving around. This ammonia gets oxidized in the gravel most probably before it gets to the water column. Also I have to say that there is no sure way for hobbists to measure ammnia but test kits in this case are a great help if used sensibly, specially in tanks without a lot of water changes.
I had a tank full of these root tabs which had everything in them and no sick fish or anything. They were mostly cardinal tetras. But as ceg points out maybe not the best for a beginner.