understanding osmocote and ferts in inert substrate

[pandamonium]

hey everyone,

so i planted my tank today, you can see what it looks like now in my tank journal in my signature. i put in a lot more stem plants than what i had before. i am going for a low tech tank so med-low lighting and no CO2. the plants i have are frogbit, pennywort, s. hygro, blyxa, and s. repens. i am planning on a couple more amazon swords. seeing as the latter are all stem plants/root plants, i thought about fertilizing. i am a newbie when it comes to this so apologies in advance. right now i only dose flourish comprehensive which i learned was basically micro nutrients. macro nutrients in a low tech tank i was told, come from fish poop or decaying matter.
so then i am assuming flourish comp stays mainly in the water column? and since my substrate is sand (sakrete playsand), will the stem plants not get enough nutrients?
this brings me to the next question. will i need root tabs or some form of substrate fertilizers to help my stem/root plants grow? i looked around and people have been talking about osmocote. first of all i have no idea how it works but i heard great things about it. there are a lot of differnet things people do with it like freeze it or put it in gel caps? again complete noobie about this here haha. can anyone elaborate on this? i would be interested to try it if it was cheaper than using root tabs.

[steven p]

if you can get osmocote plus, it would be best. take an ice cube tray, half dust the bottom of each cube with osmocote, top with 1/2 cm water. wait.

insert fertcicles every few inches as needed, ice melts, leaving fert pellets buried in the substrate. osmocote is recommended for it slow release traits. topsoil mud can be subbed for water in the fert cubes.

[pandamonium]

osmocote plus has copper as well as trace minerals that plants need to survive right? this copper, will it affect my other scaleless fish? also i have heard of this sizing for osmocote. like 00 gel caps or something. do i need a special kind of osmocote, liek aquarium osmocote, or would one from OSH or Lowes/HD work?

[Diana]

There is no aquarium osmocote. Look for osmocote plus in any garden center, including the stores you mentioned.

00 gelcaps are a medical thing, easily available on line. Fill them with osmocote and push them under the substrate.
Freezing as described above is a good way, too.

There is not enough copper or other nutrients in osmocote to cause problems in the aquarium. First of all, you are not using very much. Second of all it is slow release, so all the minerals etc that are in the osmocote are released slowly, so the plants use almost all of them.

[pandamonium]

ok that is good. i will look at OSH, HD, and lowes or any other garden stores for it. i am looking for osmocote plus multipurpose plant food by miracle gro is that right? i dont want to get the wrong stuff.
and with the fertilizing, would i put one cube for every batch of plants that needs fertilizing?

[Kyrol]

Depending on where you live you may have to buy some of it online. I couldn't find it locally. People on the forum sell them pre made if you dont feel like making them.

[pandamonium]

i called my local garden centers and i dont think they stock it here. i may order it online on monday and start fertilizing my plants. i think my recently acquired plants are going through the official melting stage. lets hope they survive!

[Aquaticfan]

Even in low light or no co2 tanks it may ne possible and I've seen it happen more then not. You may need to add macro. It will depend on bio load vs plant load. Some plants like hygro are nutrient suckers. Let your plants tell you what they need. As this goes on you will see if any signs of nutrient issues arise.

sent from my HTC EVO 3d

[pandamonium]

the bioload on my tank is moderate right now. i have a school of lemon tetras (7), 3 GBRs, 3 honeycomb cats, 2 otos, and 1 lone hatchetfish (7 more coming on tuesday). i will use the osmocote as soon as i can order it. i was looking at the CSM+b as well but i think i will only be using that after i run out of flourish comprehensive. do you know if osmocote plus has micros as well?

[Aquaticfan]

Osmocote plus does supply micro and macro. But its meant to do so VIA under the substrate. Not all plants are heavy substrate feeders. This is why having non limiting nutrients even in the water column of both micro and macro complete the puzzle.

sent from my HTC EVO 3d

[Aquaticfan]

Btw... 3 GBR may not work very well. Do you have them sexed yet? GBR's are monogamous creatures. One male one female. If you have a 2nd female chances are she will get bullied and chased. If 2 males one female. Then one male gets bullied. And so on.

sent from my HTC EVO 3d

[pandamonium]

i had 4 originally, but one fell to ich i think. the other 3 are getting along ok. i had hoped to have them pair off as they grew up. i bought them from a local breeder when they were small. right now i am inclined to say all are female...which is kinda disappointing considering that i was hoping there would be at least one male. i had a spawn that was unsuccessful before my ich outbreak. the eggs did not hatch, im assuming due to infertility. once i can figure out the sex of these ones, then i can purchase 1 more (hopefully it may match, i know males are picky). i was told that 4 gbrs in a 40 gallon is acceptable.

and regarding the osmocote being under substrate. that is good for me i think. i have a few substrate rooted plants, s.repens, s. hygro, alternanthera rosefolia, and soon stargrass. those will benefit from osmocote right? the others i have pennywort and frogbit would only benefit from water column ferts? since this is low tech, im aiming for my macros to come from fish and their waste + decomposing matter. if it turns out not to be enough, then ill look into a dry fert mix or something. do you have any that you like? i was looking at the plantex NPK i think it was for if i needed it

[Diana]

pandemonium, the Home Depot in Concord sells Osmocote Plus, that is where I got it. Maybe I just got lucky and they had some that day.
Try again in your local stores, though maybe the stores in the city do carry a different range of products. The big picture that comes up first is the one I got.

http://www.scotts.com/smg/templates/...20&id=cat50020

Start by putting just a few capsules or frozen cubes next to each plant. Not really close, but an inch or two away. Maybe one on each side of the faster growing plants like hygro. For more diffuse plants that are planted over a larger area or that have runners you might spread out a few capsules in their general location, perhaps 2"-3" apart. As the plants grow their roots spread all over the tank, so that a capsule placed way over here is supporting a plant that is growing way over there. As this happens you are no longer adding capsules next to each plant, but will spread the capsules pretty much equally through the whole tank. Still wide spread, though.

[Aquaticfan]

Plant x is different from npk. Plant x is your micro. Npk is 3 different items that are nitrates, phosphates and potassium. But try it without first. See what happens.

[pandamonium]

Originally Posted by Diana

pandemonium, the Home Depot in Concord sells Osmocote Plus, that is where I got it. Maybe I just got lucky and they had some that day.
Try again in your local stores, though maybe the stores in the city do carry a different range of products. The big picture that comes up first is the one I got.

http://www.scotts.com/smg/templates/...20&id=cat50020

Start by putting just a few capsules or frozen cubes next to each plant. Not really close, but an inch or two away. Maybe one on each side of the faster growing plants like hygro. For more diffuse plants that are planted over a larger area or that have runners you might spread out a few capsules in their general location, perhaps 2"-3" apart. As the plants grow their roots spread all over the tank, so that a capsule placed way over here is supporting a plant that is growing way over there. As this happens you are no longer adding capsules next to each plant, but will spread the capsules pretty much equally through the whole tank. Still wide spread, though.

thanks diana, i will check it out when i have time today. i called two local garden centers. one by the SF zoo and the other in the city and they only carried the outdoor/indoor and the normal version, not the plus.
ok i will do that when i get it. i plan on using the ice cubes to distribute the fertilizer. how many pellets should i put into each cube? i read anywhere from fully dust the bottom of the ice cube tray to 6-8 pellets. i plan on using the containers for frozen fish food to make more manageable ice cubes, not the actual ice tray ice cubes.

Originally Posted by Aquaticfan

Plant x is different from npk. Plant x is your micro. Npk is 3 different items that are nitrates, phosphates and potassium. But try it without first. See what happens.

ok will do