Jobe's Plant Spikes as plant fertilizer?

kmail5776

kmail5776

SR20 Powered
Nov 28, 2005
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Hello, I have a quick questions regarding plant fertilization. I have several houseplants around the house and because of this, I also have several plant fertilizers. I just recently set up a 10g tank with a big handful of Java moss, and thought just for the hell of it, to toss in a plant spike. a Jobe Plant Spike readily available from Orchard Supply or Home Depot. On the label it states that it has Nitrogen in the form of Nitrate and ammonia, and also amounts of Potassium and Sulfates. Unfortunately, it also has chlorine in it too. Well, the plant spike has been in the tank for a week, with no ill effects to the guppies. They are still eating voraciously. The Java Moss even shows signs of pearling. Only problem is that the plant spike is breaking down over time, probably ending up like a grey sludge on the bottom of the tank. I plan on vacumming that up in a week or two, and toss in another one. Does anyone have any experience with using these things as fertilizer in their tanks? I mean as a poor man's fertilizer, this can't be beat. 40 plant spikes for like $3.
 
i would say not to use them. if you were you would want them in your gravel where it wont be messed with so you dont get major shift in ferts and cause algae like it did with Jadis. i bought some thinking what a cheap way to add ferts to the gravel. after some reading on a few other sites the risk vs reward didnt see worth it to me. not only the ammonia and chlorine is bad i read there is another trace that is toxic to the fish. not knowing your set up its kind of hard to tell you what i would do.
 
Jadis said:
http://www.aquariacentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50989&highlight=jobes


there are lots of threads about this, i used them myself for a very short while and had a signifigant algae outbreak. not to mention they break down into a weird crumbly goo.
Click to expand...

This is about the most common experience if you take a comparison of folks that have used them over the years.

I discovered what induces Green Water using them.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Well, just giving a little update on week 1. The Java moss was pearling for the first 3 days. Either that or the bubbles from the biowheel 125 were sticking to the plant. After that, the pearling stopped. No noticeable affect to the fish. I would have assumed that urea or ammonia nitrogen would be easily converted to nitrate. As for the spike disintegrating, I just dropped it into the tank and left it alone in the back. My tank is set up so that the java is on the right, with a big open space on the left. The spike sat in the open space relatively undisturbed. When I did a 4 gal. water change, I siphoned the spike out, and it pretty much disintegrated. But the important thing is it didn't disintegrate while in the tank. I guess aesthetically speaking, it looks like moist turd sitting on the bottom of the tank. No giant algae bloom yet, but there is some hair algae growing on the glass.
 
People have been using them in the aquarium for years and years... decades. If you search the Krib you can find many references to it without people reporting any problems. It used to be that people said you should use Jobes for "ferns" because it was lower in phosphate than the other Jobes, with the current mode of thinking I don't know if anyone cares about that any mofre.

I discovered what induces Green Water using them.
Click to expand...

I had to read this a couple times before I could figure out the sentence structure... Let me guess, the ingridient in Jobes you think causes a problem is Urea, right?
 
Years ago most folks did not use turbo powered PC lighting with high efficiency reflectors, they used minimal lighting, nor nice reflectors for their tanks :cool:

Add lots of light + NH4 you will get algae of some sort.
References of past usage are fine, but only within context if similar equipment.

Lighting has changed dramatically and thus everything else revolves around that change. :idea:

If you have trouble understanding a sentenace and feel the need to comment, perhaps you'd be better off learning how to spell yourself in your own post?

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
y.o.u.r.s.e.l.f.

If I can do it, anyone can! :p:
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all!!!!!!!!!

FWIW, it does seem to be as Tom points out...more reports of problems with the spikes from people using higher light/more efficient lighting. Maybe he was just in a hurry to finish wrapping your present Tom??? :D Probably a big 'ol bottle of urea in one form or another :eek:

Best Regards to all!
-Bill
 
Far be it for me to argue with the "great" Tom Barr, but I have been using Jobes spikes for years in my substrate and dont have any problems. I think when folks do have problems with them it is not because of the new types of lights available nor the upsurge in the popularity of pressurized co2 systems.

What I have noticed over the past 5-6 years is there seems to have been a strong movement of people getting into live plants. A lot of folks try to start right at the top with a full blown high tech system without having any prior planted tank experience. The result of this is they usually get every lesson they can in doing things wrong. A perfect example is this thread where the poster just dropped the spike into the tank rather than putting it deep in the substrate where it belongs.

Tom before you call the kettle black, I suggest that you learn to proofread your own posts:

but only within context if similar equipment.
Click to expand...
There is no i in the word "of".

If you have trouble understanding a sentenace and feel the need to comment, perhaps you'd be better off learning how to spell yourself in your own post?
Click to expand...
"Sentence" is the proper spelling.

I have also noticed a number of fancy new, and usually very expensive, products being flogged by the plant divas. Of course they feel compelled to denigrate anything inexpensive and simple that works just as well. I was taught a great deal about planted tanks by some very savvy folks who did not try to charge me for the help and information they provided.
 
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