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DIY ROOT TABS

No ammoniacal nitrogen is ammonium nitrate and toxic to fish.

However in small quantities ie Tropica is ok'ish in small quantities and maybe ok under substrate provided you dont expose it majorly when fiddling with your substrate.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you need the slow release type terrestrial fertilisers? Else it'd just leach completely into the water column. Don't know if the substrate can lock it in quick enough? Most people seem to use Osmocote Plus, which is a slow release fertiliser with NPK + some micros.
 
flygja said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you need the slow release type terrestrial fertilisers?
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Yes and no. Some people put a layer of ferts right under their substrate so it ends being slow release anyway.

To use slow release Osmocote (which does have ammonium in ammonium citrate) freeze some of it with water in ice cube trays and push the frozen cubes under the substrate. Done.
 
You could also look in the pond section of the shops for the clay fertilizer balls for pond plants. 🙂 They are rather large, but if you keep 'm somewhat wet for a while in a closed canister they get soft, after all it's clay. And than you can roll smaller pills from them and leave them to dry again. Ponds fertilizer in general follow the same content criterium and the sticky clay doesn't fall apart so easily and there for slowly releases the ferts into the soil. 🙂
 
What's the best? Thats always the 1 milion dollar question. 🙂 It's a matter of preference and experience. i never used anything else than clay balls the last 25 years i was more into ponds then aquariums. In ponds the clay balls are common practice. I see no issues why they would be bad for aquarium plants.. till now i have no bad experience with them. I would say give it a try, you do not need any extra capsules or what so ever just roll your pills rather small and see the effect before you add more or roll bigger pills the next time.. 🙂 Actualy cant be more convinient. Only need to be very quick when you use tweezers to place them, because they tend to get sticky in the water. Holding them to long they will stick to the tweezers.. 🙂

I use these
http://www.velda.nl/files/image/products/fot_prods/growth+balls.png
 
🙂 Just hop in to a pond shop, they probably have them.. Used different brands and never realy noticed a big difference.. So it doesn't need to be Velda, it was the first pic i could find.. 🙂

and as Darrel said bake 'm a little. Thats a very good idea.. Than they release even slower..
 
ian_m said:
To use slow release Osmocote (which does have ammonium in ammonium citrate) freeze some of it with water in ice cube trays and push the frozen cubes under the substrate. Done.
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I agree that this is easier than using gel caps. Gel caps have a lot of air in them and tend to be floaty and difficult to insert properly, even if you stuff them completely with ferts.
 
Edvet said:
clay helps binding ferts and hase some micronutrients, but macro's?
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The last bucket with 55 Velda clay balls ive bought is a few years ago, still have a few ball left. 🙂 The package doesn't realy elaborate on content other then "Blue Clay" of which i do not know the english term and it''s older name is "Calais deposite" ( 😀 Hence the name Clay?? lol).. It's an ancient blue clay deposite out of the Atlanticum ocean floor. Velda states it contains natural Trace Elements and Minerals enriched with necessary basic fertilizers. My best guess, the necessary basic ferts probably are the Macros, since its a complete fert for lillies and these are real known Nitrogen slurpers.. 🙂 As are the irises they sky rocket on these balls..
 
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Just sculptors clay can do, just not sure which varieties you can get. You can get it from the web. It can be bought in powder form too (i used it under my gravel like that). I am sure Darrel knows which are best😉
 
Hi all,
dean said:
Is there an easy way to make my own clay balls
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Any clay will do, like Ed suggest you can get potter's clay ("Red Terracotta Clay") relatively cheaply.

Personally I just got some clay soil, rolled it into a ball, then flattened it out, put the "growmore" in the middle of the flat circle, folded the sides in, and rolled the ball up again. Once the ball was formed I just left them in the sun for a week or so to dry out, then I used them. I also had a go at baking them in the oven.

Our garden is quite clayey, but calcareous, so I got some mole-hill soil from the road side at <"Spye Park">, our nearest local area of acid soil.

cheers Darrel
 
dw1305 said:
Hi all, Any clay will do, like Ed suggest you can get potter's clay ("Red Terracotta Clay") relatively cheaply.

Personally I just got some clay soil, rolled it into a ball, then flattened it out, put the "growmore" in the middle of the flat circle, folded the sides in, and rolled the ball up again. Once the ball was formed I just left them in the sun for a week or so to dry out, then I used them. I also had a go at baking them in the oven.

Our garden is quite clayey, but calcareous, so I got some mole-hill soil from the road side at <"Spye Park">, our nearest local area of acid soil.

cheers Darrel
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Actualy got me thinking here. 🙂 I remember buying me small bag of "special soil for water lillie" in the pond shop. Now i see it's also Velda's.. anyway i remeber it as quite sticky and easily rolled into balls. It contains Peat and Blue clay. No idea actualy how this would work out as fert balls for aquarium with the peat.
http://www.bradshawsdirect.co.uk/velda-lelite-water-lily-soil-10-litres
They sell the whole velda collection even the clay balls by the bucket with 55 balls..
http://www.bradshawsdirect.co.uk/brand/velda/velda-super-plant-growth-balls
 
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