Diy root tabs

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

Forgot to mention, even though Osmocote Plus root tabs should be replaced every 3 months, even though it says that it last for 6 months that the time period when it's used in dry soil which let's it dry back up, whereas underwater because it's fully submerged it doesn't allow it to dry up and disperse the nutrients again when it gets wet

 

[Will posey]

I have a dirted tank so do I plant it just under the gravel or do I still go all the way to the bottom.

And Is it hard to remove them without stiring up a bunch of dirt and How do you remove it doesn't the gel capsul disolve in the water

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

The capsules dissolve in the water so there's no need to pull them out, and you want to bury them as deep as you can.

 

[Will posey]

xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx you mentioned that the osmcote you find now is without calcium how important is the calcium

And if you don't mind explaining what is csm+b tabs

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

Plantex CSM+B is a well known and highly used dry fertilizer for planted aquariums, it's basically all of the essential micro nutrients that your plants require, plus added boron. Here's a list of the nutrients it contains...

Plantex CSM + B analysis

Total magnesium - water soluble chelated magnesium 1.5%
Copper - chelated 0.1%
Iron - chelated 7.0%
Manganese - chelated 2.0%
Molybdenum 0.06%
Zinc - chelated 0.40%
Boron 0.04%
EDTA - minimum content 55%

These are nutrients that plants need to grow properly, and healthy.

So I fill empty capsules with dry CSM+B powder and mainly use them when setting up a new tank... The reason is because I've found that using a high CEC (cation exchange capacity - I'll explain) ratio substrate like Flourite (I prefer flourite), and flooding the tank with nutrients that I get better plant growth to begin with.

Cation Exchange Capacity or CEC; Is when a substrate is able to soak up nutrients in the water and release them back into the water slowly... So what are high CEC substrates... Examples would be Flourite, Eco-Complete, Special Kitty All Natural Kitty Litter... All are able to soak up nutrients and then release them slowly back into the water column.

When dosing ferts most people follow what's called a dosing regime, I follow the classic EI (estimative index) regime, other people may follow the PPS-PRO; The difference between them is with EI you're actually sort of overdosing the tank with nutrients and the plants feed off what they need leaving excess nutrients in the water, PPS-PRO you're only dosing a small amount of nutrients every day for the plants to feed on.

Example of my EI dosing schedule
Mon-Weds-Fri - Macro nutrients
Tues-Thurs-Sat - Micro nutrients (csm+b)
Sun - 50% water change every week


I use a fert calculator - http://yanc.rotalabutterfly.com/

This calculator tells me the amount of each fertilizers I should be dosing the tank with, and how often I need to dose these amounts. I use a digital gram/ounce calculator I bought off ebay, to measure out the exact amount of each nutrient I need to be dosing, and I put the nutrients into this...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036C0RT8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I put the Macro nutrients together in ever other little container, and then the Micro nutrients (csm+b) into the every other empty container. There's 30 little containers so I normally use a sharpie marker to draw lines between the containers and then mark the days of the week with 1 or 2 letters, this way I know which one is which, and what day of the week I need to dose it.

Never mix macro & micro nutrients together because if you mix phosphate with iron one of them will precipitate the other making it useless, and with EI you're dosing on alternate days between macro and micro nutrients.

 

[Manu8__too]

xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx you mentioned that the osmcote you find now is without calcium how important is the calcium

And if you don't mind explaining what is csm+b tabs

According to Tom Barr (a world renown planted tank expert), it's almost impossible to develop CA deficiency in a planted tank. Assuming you're adding fresh tap water with wc's, you're almost certainly providing enough calcium to your plants. Unless you're using pure RO water, it's completely unnecessary to dose addition CA. In addition, most (not all) micro mix ferts contain some degree of CA.

 

[Will posey]

Plantex CSM+B is a well known and highly used dry fertilizer for planted aquariums, it's basically all of the essential micro nutrients that your plants require, plus added boron. Here's a list of the nutrients it contains...

Plantex CSM + B analysis

Total magnesium - water soluble chelated magnesium 1.5%
Copper - chelated 0.1%
Iron - chelated 7.0%
Manganese - chelated 2.0%
Molybdenum 0.06%
Zinc - chelated 0.40%
Boron 0.04%
EDTA - minimum content 55%

These are nutrients that plants need to grow properly, and healthy.

So I fill empty capsules with dry CSM+B powder and mainly use them when setting up a new tank... The reason is because I've found that using a high CEC (cation exchange capacity - I'll explain) ratio substrate like Flourite (I prefer flourite), and flooding the tank with nutrients that I get better plant growth to begin with.

Cation Exchange Capacity or CEC; Is when a substrate is able to soak up nutrients in the water and release them back into the water slowly... So what are high CEC substrates... Examples would be Flourite, Eco-Complete, Special Kitty All Natural Kitty Litter... All are able to soak up nutrients and then release them slowly back into the water column.

When dosing ferts most people follow what's called a dosing regime, I follow the classic EI (estimative index) regime, other people may follow the PPS-PRO; The difference between them is with EI you're actually sort of overdosing the tank with nutrients and the plants feed off what they need leaving excess nutrients in the water, PPS-PRO you're only dosing a small amount of nutrients every day for the plants to feed on.

Example of my EI dosing schedule
Mon-Weds-Fri - Macro nutrients
Tues-Thurs-Sat - Micro nutrients (csm+b)
Sun - 50% water change every week


I use a fert calculator - http://yanc.rotalabutterfly.com/

This calculator tells me the amount of each fertilizers I should be dosing the tank with, and how often I need to dose these amounts. I use a digital gram/ounce calculator I bought off ebay, to measure out the exact amount of each nutrient I need to be dosing, and I put the nutrients into this...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036C0RT8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I put the Macro nutrients together in ever other little container, and then the Micro nutrients (csm+b) into the every other empty container. There's 30 little containers so I normally use a sharpie marker to draw lines between the containers and then mark the days of the week with 1 or 2 letters, this way I know which one is which, and what day of the week I need to dose it.

Never mix macro & micro nutrients together because if you mix phosphate with iron one of them will precipitate the other making it useless, and with EI you're dosing on alternate days between macro and micro nutrients.

I am loving this site you ask a question and within a day you get a full detailed answer it is truly helpful
THANKS

 

[Manu8__too]

Plantex CSM+B is a well known and highly used dry fertilizer for planted aquariums, it's basically all of the essential micro nutrients that your plants require, plus added boron. Here's a list of the nutrients it contains...

Plantex CSM + B analysis

Total magnesium - water soluble chelated magnesium 1.5%
Copper - chelated 0.1%
Iron - chelated 7.0%
Manganese - chelated 2.0%
Molybdenum 0.06%
Zinc - chelated 0.40%
Boron 0.04%
EDTA - minimum content 55%

These are nutrients that plants need to grow properly, and healthy.

So I fill empty capsules with dry CSM+B powder and mainly use them when setting up a new tank... The reason is because I've found that using a high CEC (cation exchange capacity - I'll explain) ratio substrate like Flourite (I prefer flourite), and flooding the tank with nutrients that I get better plant growth to begin with.

Cation Exchange Capacity or CEC; Is when a substrate is able to soak up nutrients in the water and release them back into the water slowly... So what are high CEC substrates... Examples would be Flourite, Eco-Complete, Special Kitty All Natural Kitty Litter... All are able to soak up nutrients and then release them slowly back into the water column.

When dosing ferts most people follow what's called a dosing regime, I follow the classic EI (estimative index) regime, other people may follow the PPS-PRO; The difference between them is with EI you're actually sort of overdosing the tank with nutrients and the plants feed off what they need leaving excess nutrients in the water, PPS-PRO you're only dosing a small amount of nutrients every day for the plants to feed on.

Example of my EI dosing schedule
Mon-Weds-Fri - Macro nutrients
Tues-Thurs-Sat - Micro nutrients (csm+b)
Sun - 50% water change every week


I use a fert calculator - http://yanc.rotalabutterfly.com/

This calculator tells me the amount of each fertilizers I should be dosing the tank with, and how often I need to dose these amounts. I use a digital gram/ounce calculator I bought off ebay, to measure out the exact amount of each nutrient I need to be dosing, and I put the nutrients into this...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0036C0RT8/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


I put the Macro nutrients together in ever other little container, and then the Micro nutrients (csm+b) into the every other empty container. There's 30 little containers so I normally use a sharpie marker to draw lines between the containers and then mark the days of the week with 1 or 2 letters, this way I know which one is which, and what day of the week I need to dose it.

Never mix macro & micro nutrients together because if you mix phosphate with iron one of them will precipitate the other making it useless, and with EI you're dosing on alternate days between macro and micro nutrients.

Agree with this as well. EI dosing (also pioneered by Tom Barr) is how many of us dose our tank(s). You just need to be careful with the CSM+B, because it's easier for it to become toxic at excess levels.

 

[xxUnRaTeDxxRkOxx]

Glad we can help you with transitioning into planted tanks, it's by far my favorite side of the hobby!!! With New World Cichlids (south/central american) is my 2nd favorite side, and then Saltwater is the 3rd!!! What I love about the aquatic hobby is that no matter how much you know about it, you're always learning something new all the time!!!

For me I prefer my planted tanks to be "messy", meaning I don't like to have a coordinated layout with specific plants in specific areas because nature's not like that. In nature aquatic plants are strewn about in different areas, and to me keeping things as close to natural is what I want to portray with my planted tanks!!!


My old 75 gallon tank

 

[Manu8__too]

Glad we can help you with transitioning into planted tanks, it's by far my favorite side of the hobby!!! With New World Cichlids (south/central american) is my 2nd favorite side, and then Saltwater is the 3rd!!! What I love about the aquatic hobby is that no matter how much you know about it, you're always learning something new all the time!!!

For me I prefer my planted tanks to be "messy", meaning I don't like to have a coordinated layout with specific plants in specific areas because nature's not like that. In nature aquatic plants are strewn about in different areas, and to me keeping things as close to natural is what I want to portray with my planted tanks!!!


My old 75 gallon tank

Agree completely. I'm not a huge fan of the "miniature scenes" underwater. They look too unnatural to me. I too, prefer the controlled jungle look. I've taken this approach with my current tank below. The key is trimming it back just enough to allow the other plants to receive adequate light.