Ack... stupid substrate fertilizer issues

[Obsidian]

Stupid stupid stupid....

Okay... I put Jobe plant spikes under a few of my plants a couple weeks ago... all fine and good.... until yesterday when I decided that it would be a good idea to move the moneywort into the corner. I forgot all about the plant spikes. For future reference, plant spikes are very messy if you disturb them. :rolleyes: :eek:

I mananged to vacuum out most of the crud... it was kind of gooey, and the plant was partially rooted into a large chunk of it. And so far my fish seem okay and the tank hasn't turned into an algae nursery yet. But maybe I should stick to the flourish tabs, expensive as they are. Does anyone else have any better ideas for substrate fertilizing?

On the bright side, my new SAE has removed most of the bits of hair algae from my plants. And I added 3 Otos yesterday, and they seem to be very healthy and well-adjusted.

[Darkblade48]

Because of the uprooting of the Jobes stick, you might want to check your ammonia levels as well, as I'm pretty sure that land based fertilizers have some ammount of ammonia/um in them (and of course, this will be toxic for fish).

[plantbrain]

Do a large, 50% + water change to remove any of the crud.
Add nutrients back, KNO3, PO4, traces etc.
NH4 will cause algae if you leave it there.

So remove it asap.
SeaChem tabs are good but do not have NO3/PO4 in them.
Jobnes etc would not be an issue if all they used was NO3, but they add NH4 and Urea which turns to NH4 quickly.

This is not an issue in terrestial systems.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[Obsidian]

Thanks... yeah, that is what I did... 50% at least. So far everything is okay again. I think I'll stick to the seachem tabs and leave the jobe spikes for my terrarium.