[WillR1496]

I've been using Thrive in liquid form and just purchased the thrive tabs to use instead. Should I do both liquid and tabs or discontinue the liquid fert and just use tabs?

My thinking is using both is overkill but this is the first time using the tabs so I just want to make sure.

 

[nicole.ouellette99]

It depends what kind of plants you use. Heavy root-feeders will benefit most from root tabs while water column feeders will benefit from liquid ferts. SO you have to compare your plants nd figure out what works best with them. For example, i have some amazon and bacopa. Im going to not put root tabs near the bacopa but instead near the amazon since they love root tabs.

 

[minorhero]

If you want to use root tabs I would definitely also continue using liquid thrive as well. Root tabs do not instantly fertilize everything. They need to break down and then whatever plants want nutrients need to grow roots in areas where the root tab has broken down. I think of them more as a supplement then as the single source. They have the advantage of being under the substrate so hopefully less of the nutrients leech into the water column.

One way to figure things out like this is find someone who has a tank you like and want to emulate and then figure out what they do. The journal section is VERY helpful for this. I also like youtube and have a number of content creators I follow on a regular basis there.

 

[Asteroid]

If your going to do one thing, dose the water column. That will take care of any plant you decide to grow including ferns, anubias moss and other epiphytes that aren't planted in the substrate. There isn't a plant out there that won't grow perfectly healthy, including swords and crypts with just water column dosing.

The only real benefit of root tabs is that if your not dosing the water column they can act as a backup method of dosing if someone in the water column runs short. But as @minorhero pointed out there are limitations to their effectiveness.