Seachem Flourish or root tabs for pool filter sand substrate?

[dundadundun]

i can make 200-300 root tabs for the price of a couple 10 packs of store bought tabs. once you make them you have them for quite a while. also, with the dry ferts left over you should be able to last a year or so when the same price in liquid ferts would only last about a month.

i was just about broke and doing very poorly with my tanks until i took the dry ferts/diy root tab plunge. i've been sitting pretty with successful tanks and spare cash since.

one thing that scares people away is also the scientific sounding names. trust me, once you have it it's as easy as this much of this powder and that much of that. IMO it's easier than any bottled ferts, honestly.

it's your call. i've done both and i know what worked for me. that's all i can say.

 

[bazil323]

Personally, I'm lazy and don't need much, so I just bought tabs through a guy on The Planted Tank. He has his own website now and is starting out with some tools and such too. For a limited time, he has a buy 2 get 1 free deal. Link to website. The tabs are kinda neat, puts them in those pill capsule things so it slowly dissolves and leaves the round balls of ferts in the substrate that can last up to 6 months. (I think it's a guy, sorry if I'm wrong!)

 

[lake_tuna]

I ended up buying a bag of regular Flourite as I really like the look of it. There's only about an inch of substrate so I'm going to add some cheaper gravel I bought also. I rinsed it in my tank as much as I could using a siphon and it's much more cleaer now. It looks like it will be settled by tomorrow. I'll give the root tabs a try after all is set up and the sags don't grow well. I had used soil in a small tank before and they grew so fast in there!

I drove around looking for a lighter colored sand that wasn't too fine but it was two hours wasted because I couldn't find sand coarser than 30 grit.

 

[FISHSHROD]

ive used both Flourish and root tabs, i can say now that i dont use root tabs and probably never will again, flourish is one of the best water column ferts i have used

:grinyes: I am using up the last of my Flourish on my shop tank with amazon swords and they are growing like mad right now shooting spikes with new plants. I am going to switch it over to dry ferts when the flourish runs out.

 

[jptjpt]

Try Riiz's DIY root tab for rooted plants, and you'll be very happy. Every time I put one of them near my Kleiner Bar sword, it sends out a flower stalk that becomes a new plant within 2 wks. I posted a pic of it a while back. The plant has another stalk it just sent out this week. The leaves on this plant has become so big, they're around 4" in width.

 

[lake_tuna]

Where can you buy these ingredients locally?

Plantex csm+b - aquariumfertilizer.com or greenleafaquarium.com
Potassium sulfate - K2SO4 - aquariumfertilizer.com or greenleafaquarium.com
Potassium nitrate - KNO3 - aquariumfertilizer.com or greenleafaquarium.com

 

[lake_tuna]

I might actually try this in a few weeks. How long do these fert balls last though? Can I store them "indefinitely" without them going impotent?

 

[dundadundun]

Where can you buy these ingredients locally?

Plantex csm+b - aquariumfertilizer.com or greenleafaquarium.com
Potassium sulfate - K2SO4 - aquariumfertilizer.com or greenleafaquarium.com
Potassium nitrate - KNO3 - aquariumfertilizer.com or greenleafaquarium.com

rex griggs site, bobstropicalplants.com (mgamer here), i think even drsfostersmith.com too... and places seem to be popping up everyday any more.

I might actually try this in a few weeks. How long do these fert balls last though? Can I store them "indefinitely" without them going impotent?

once they dry hard they're good as long as you can keep them dry. i keep mine in a sammich bag. (it is sammich by the way... i don't care what you say. :dance

OOOH... almost forgot... don't forget kh2po4... important nutrient there!