jobes fert spikes

[supersmirky]

Has anyone tried using these in their planted aquariums? Apparently from what I have read, they do real good for your root plants.

[AndrewH]

I haven't tried any taps/spikes, so definitely let us know if you go for it. :hehe:

[supersmirky]

Yeah I will....Someone said the reds on their plants got redder and considerable growth. The only problem would be buring under the substrate and making sure nothing dug it up and gets it in the water column.

[supersmirky]

Andrew - Here is the spikes they are using

http://www.walgreens.com/store/product.jsp?CATID=100502&id=prod386469

Also, if you are interested, here is the thread that mentions it...I had been using pond ferts and this discussion has some noteworthy points.

http://www.plantgeek.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11246&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[Homer_Simpson]

Supersmirky, I have some of these on standby for testing. The ones that I have are
Jobe's 16-2-6 spikes for Lush Ferns. These are the ones, I believe that most people have had the most success with. I haven't got around to testing them. Lol, that is for a future project. They were insanely cheap at the Wal-Mart in my city. PM if you want, and I will ship a pack out to you, no cost. The only thing is that I am not sure if they will get held up at customs at your end. As far as I know, ferts that would normally be available in the US anyway, should have no custom restrictions.

Regards

[supersmirky]

Yeah, I would be curious to know how they work out for you. I hear people saying they work fine. Do you test fishless or with fish? I tried pond tabs but those ended up having arsenic in it! (Highland Rim) Anyways, aside from the tried and true root tabs at the aquarium store, I thought the spikes might be worth a try.

[Homer_Simpson]

Yeah, I would be curious to know how they work out for you. I hear people saying they work fine. Do you test fishless or with fish? I tried pond tabs but those ended up having arsenic in it! (Highland Rim) Anyways, aside from the tried and true root tabs at the aquarium store, I thought the spikes might be worth a try.

As with most controversial things, I would likely test without fish and once plant growth was strong and water tested zero for ammonia and nitrites, I would throw fish in. I became interested in them as I also read that these worked well for people, but there was also controversy surrounding their use. Some claim that as they contain urea, the urea would leak into the water column and algae would begin forming in response to ammonia spikes caused by the urea, plus the ammonia spikes resulting from the urea could harm the fish. Some say that you could end up with a serious case of green water. The thing that kills me is that those that seem to say the spikes work well are usually speaking from personal experiences and those that discourage their use are just speculating and have no experience using them and have not even tried them. Personally, I would be more willing to trust those who have some experience with them.

If I were going to use them in a setup, here is what I would do. I would crush them up into really fine powder or pieces. I would sprinkle them on the bottom of a bare tank, dust them with some peat moss, and some mulm. I would lay roots of swords and crypts on that layer, then I would then cap with a good 1 mm grain pool filter sand at least 2.5-3 inches and not gravel. I think that as long as they stay deep enough in the bottom layer and are locked in place with a good cap of pool filter sand and not gravel, fish would be unable to dislodge them(lol, unless you have a lot of snails) and cause huge leakage issues. The idea is to have them deep enough but in close proximity to the roots which can use them that is why if you do that, you would want to have the roots on top of the crushed spikes/peat moss/mulm mixture and them cap with a 2.5-3 inch or even more of a 1mm grain pool filter sand.

As long as do this as part of a low light setup and you follow up with weekly water changes to dilute any ammonia that may be produced by any leaked urea, I don't think that you would have major issues. However, please keep in mind that I am only speculating as to what may work, I cannot tell you if this will work that way 100% as I have not tested them to confirm. Also ammonia is only lethal to fish at higher temperatures and higher PH levels, so if you manage to maintain a slightly lower PH(naturally - DIY c02 injection, not artificially with chemicals), the production of ammonia from urea may not cause issues. Here is an interesting chart that shows the link between temperature PH and toxicity of ammonia.
http://dataguru.org/misc/aquarium/AmmoniaTox.html

[supersmirky]

That's a real interesting link with those charts. I can see how the temp affects the toxicity of ammonia. More than likely, we are all hovering around the 75+ degrees in our tanks unless we are keeping gold fish or the like.

Thanks for jumping in on this. Let us know what you come up with when you do the testing. Have you ever tested the pond tabs?

[Homer_Simpson]

That's a real interesting link with those charts. I can see how the temp affects the toxicity of ammonia. More than likely, we are all hovering around the 75+ degrees in our tanks unless we are keeping gold fish or the like.

Thanks for jumping in on this. Let us know what you come up with when you do the testing. Have you ever tested the pond tabs?

No, I haven't tested the pond tabs. I recently tore down by 5 gallon "Natural Planted Tank" Hex Tank as it was doing terribly. Plants were doing terrible and it proved to be pretty much a death bed for any fish/shrimp kept in it.

I redid it, using the following which I have had the most success with in other tanks I set up.

Dusting of peat moss on the bottom, thin layer (1/4") leonardite, and for something different 1 Seachem fert tab broken into really small pieces with a hammer mixed in, capped with about 2 inches Seachem Onyx Sand, and 1"(this is the first time I did this) pool filter sand. I eventually want to put in some peppered cory catfish and I heard some stories of people with peppered cory catfish and seachem onyx sand who found that the cories lost their barbells because the seachem onyx sand was too sharp for them. For this reason, I capped the onyx sand with about 1" of pool filter sand to provide a soft cushioning for the cories barbells. So far the plants seem to be doing well and appear to be settling in fine, but it is too early to say how this will go. I have one Zebra Danio in there that I am using to cycle the tank. No c02 injection, but Seachem Excel for Carbon source. Light is with compact fluorescent, 14 watts (6400K daylight) for 8 hours.

This is my third attempt with the tank. The first attempt trying the high light route wiht DIY C02 failed. I believe using a 26 watt compact fluorescent pretty much caused overheating issues with the water and cooked the tank.

The second attempted was Natural Planted Tank. I believe using soil as substrate just caused too much unresolvable water quality issues, leading to plant and fish death.

[supersmirky]

Someone here had a cory with barbell issues...the above by Homer might solve this unsolved mystery.

I would assume that with high lights over a small body of water and adding in the DIY yeast mixture would yield somewhat undesirable results unless you actually did the more expensive CO2 canisters.

We all learn lots of your posts. Thanks again!

[Homer_Simpson]

I would assume that with high lights over a small body of water and adding in the DIY yeast mixture would yield somewhat undesirable results unless you actually did the more expensive CO2 canisters. I think that the temperature was the big issue. I read that upto a certain temperature, and I believe that I must have hit that celing, that plants will actually cease to grow and die.! With a 5 gallon hex gallon with such a tight fitting cover, to allow little air circulation, the conclusion that I have come to is, to use a low wattage bulb(no more than 15 watt compact fluorescent bulb) to keep the temperature from climbing too high and go the low light, low light plant, low tech route. Otherwise, remove the cover completely, to allow full air circulation, use a H0B filter, and shine a desklamp with 30 watt compact fluorescent, and use DIY c02 or pressurized for the high tech route. The open cover should allow plenty of circulation and prevent heat build up. Of course it means, not putting fish in that are jumpers and no Dwarf Aquatic Frogs(my favourites) Someone here had a cory with barbell issues...the above by Homer might solve this unsolved mystery. I cannot seem to find the bookmark to this guy's site who was had an article about sand as a substrate. He claimed that the catfish in his tanks where he used pool filter sand had the healthiest and longest barbells of all. We all learn lots of your posts. Thanks again! No thanks needed. Quite honestly, I got into testing as there was so much conflicting and contradictory information that I was coming across in forums where people were posting about planted tanks and what worked for them. I decided that the best way to weed through the conflicting information was to test for myself and see what I discovered. I am still learning about this stuff, but am always happy to share my findings. By the way, I mailed the jobes spikes to you. They are to the attention of: Mr. SuperSmirky. You should get them in 11 business days.