My Plants Are Struggling

[snowflake311]

Root tabs! If you have heavy root feeding plants like swords it's but to have a good plant substrate or use rot tabs. They are amazing. But in my 10gal planted tank I have a thick layer of good plant substrate and I see a huge difference in these plants vs the ones in just sand.

 

[simonas]

cheers Snowflake I;ll try some root tabs as well what brand do you use?

Simon

 

[JoshuaA]

You can pick up like 50 root tabs by "Sera" for around £10, for quantity and quality it's much cheaper than any rival brands. After all they nearly all have the same stuff in it.

 

[ian]

It remains to be a bit of a myth regarding root tabs, as aquatic plants much prefer to uptake the nutrients via the leaf as they use less energy doing so. Saying that, it doesn't hurt to use root tabs if you forget to dose you trace elements.

 

[JoshuaA]

I only ever use them when adding a new plant, for example when my Crinum Thai went in I literally stuffed an iron root tab in it's root ball and put it in. I've had it for about 4 months now and the bulbs roots have taken over half the tank, it's weaved it's way down into the tropica clay and back up it was actually impressive the speed it did it at. I merely use them as a "booster" to help them adapt. Other than that they're seriously not worth the hassle for me, I often end up having them break down in the water before I get a chance to place them properly

 

[snowflake311]

I use flourish tabs I have to disagree with you guys. If you are using only sand as your plant media these tab are needed for some plants. But if you have a plant substrate then no your don't need them. It also depends on the plant.

Some plants use their roots more then others. I know for a fact that the with the root tabs I got my Cryptocoryne pontederifolia to grow like a weed. It sent out runners like crazy I started with only 2 plants now I have more then I know what to do with. I have some in just sand and no tabs. They don't send out runners and the growth is very slow. Light is 2wpg. The Crypto. pontederifolia that is in good substrate is growing like a weed again. Same for the dwarf sag in sand alone I did not get any runners. As soon as they got some root tabs they took off but only in the area were I used the tabs. Sand does not have the stuff plants crave. Also CO2 is key to good plant growth. There are plenty of plants that do take most if not all from the water.

I am doing an experiment with my plants. I have a sword plant that is doing fine I have had it a year. Its in just sand with with rot tabs. I moved it to a pot with plant substrate and want to see if this increases it's growth rate.

Good light, co2, and plant substrate is what you need for plants.

 

[tribalbrit]

You might want to buy some magnesium sulphate too.. dont bother with the mixing bottles just add the ferts straight to the tank.. alternate days for the trace mix to the rest though.

 

[JoshuaA]

Hmm interesting point snowflake

Though some root tabs only contain micro nutrients which can be supplemented with liquid ferts easily. I've had amazon swords grow humongous in my sand base tanks with nothing and their roots have stayed tiny and I was purely dosing the water column. Though yes if I do use a planted substrate the root growth is phenomenal, However they both effectively grew at the same rate for me.

If you want some Macro ferts in the substrate I would recommend something like Osmocote but at the end of the day the root tabs I use are mostly micro.

 

[lljdma06]

I had my crypts in inert sand in Endor no rootabs, just water column dosing. I think it really depends more on the system. They are now in Amazonia soil in my ADA setup, I notice no difference in amount or vigor. The vallis and crypts in my 20g system a few years back also had an inert substrate and I used growthtabs on that one, if memory serves. Same growth, same vigor. Three different systems, three different ways to treat the substrate, same growth in the crypts. Geez, even some of the same plants have been in all three systems. I don't know, somehow, I think it's something else. The only common factor was that the tapwater used in all systems had high mineral content, and the waterchanges were done more frequently.

But that's just based on my observation.

Oooo, and no CO2 in any of the above systems. No, don't agree with you, you don't always need good amounts of light or CO2.

 

[ian]

I use flourish tabs I have to disagree with you guys. If you are using only sand as your plant media these tab are needed for some plants. But if you have a plant substrate then no your don't need them. It also depends on the plant.

You will read quite a lot of people saying that the likes of Crypts and Swords are heavy root feeders, the infact aren't and will do equally well in inert or nutrient rich substrates. The roots on these kind of plants are mainly used for anchorage during wet seasons. They will utilise the water as their main source of nutrients, as i have said before, it takes less energy for a plants to use the water column. The root systems in these kinds of plants will store nutrients though. They will use if needed, but if the water column is being dosed adequately, you don't need them

Also the water column extends into the substrate, so when you think about it, root tabs are only the same as dosing the water column.

to quote Tom Barr

Actually most all aquatic plants will get nutrients through either the leaves or the roots(if they have them). Problem is that in nature often there are very low nutrients in the water column.

If you supply good nutrient levels to the water column, the plants will take it up from there.

This has been shown in numerous research studies on aquatic plants(Madsen and Cedergreen 2001 etc), and you can also try it yourself by using inorganic salts like KNO3.

Adding a little something under the plants will not hurt but neither will adding it to the water column.


Plants do not "Prefer" root uptake over water column uptake, it is simply a function of their variable environment which tends to have low nutrient levels in the water column overall.

 

[JoshuaA]

No, don't agree with you, you don't always need good amounts of light or CO2.

Heh, my nano tank is a testament to that. No Co2, poor light and with a nutrient-less top substrate then peatmoss + osmocote at the bottom. It's taken a few weeks for things to start growing but now they've started I don't think they're going to want to stop any time soon! Substrate is never cleaned because its shrimp poop but water is changed every other day, It only includes carpeting plants so I'm hoping this regime will benefit them.

Starting to dose TPN+ and EasyCarbo and the difference is noticeable even under low light.

Edit: Come to think of it... I'm probably seriously over doing the TPN+ but it isn't having any ill effect on the shrimp nor is there any algae so I will keep doing it.

 

[snowflake311]

All tanks have co2 you don't have to add it. What the fish breath out is co2 there is co2 in tap water. So yes your tank had co2. It all depends on how much light you have. If you run high light the plants use up co2 faster and more of it then a plant in a low light or mid light tank.

If you were to not do any water changes and did not keep any fish no matter what you did your plants would die once they used up all the co2. It's like o2 for fish and us.

Yes if you don't clean your gravel and after lots of poo and food get in it that helps grow the plants and acts as a dirt for roots. But with sand poo will not get down to the root.

 

[ian]

I think the other peeps are talking about adding additional C02. The amount released by the fish is negligible, and the C02 in the tap water will gas off pretty quickly, the C02 in the likes of llj's tanks will come from mainly the rotting stuff in the substrate. Obviously the low light helps keep this regulated.

The fish poo will enter the substrate and rot.

 

[lljdma06]

I think the other peeps are talking about adding additional C02. The amount released by the fish is negligible, and the C02 in the tap water will gas off pretty quickly, the C02 in the likes of llj's tanks will come from mainly the rotting stuff in the substrate. Obviously the low light helps keep this regulated.

The fish poo will enter the substrate.

There is very little rotting in my substrate because I have wonderful, healthy growth. It's the fish poo. LOLOL

 

[JoshuaA]

All tanks have co2 you don't have to add it.

If we're going to play that game then

Your local tap water will come with various nutrients in it, said water penetrates the sand making nutrients available to the roots. No need for tabs

Edit: In fact that is the main aim of a substrate like tropica to absorb excess nutrients and release them slowly into the water column. In my case many of my carpet plants are sitting in a nutrient-less gravel with no contact to the rich substrate beneath but the nutrients are in the water and are taken up by the roots anyway.