Root Tabs Vs Liquid Fertilizer

If I'm using root tabs near my Amazon Sword because I'm told their a heavy root feeder plus I place root tabs near stem plants and places where Wisteria roots enter substrate. On top of all this I liquid dose Nilocg C weekly. My Nitrates run a little high but this should be expected with all the macro in my tank. My question is could I back off the liquid fert? I just emptied the bottle and I'm thinking root tabs in substrate dissolve and release nutrients into column anyways so why spend the extra money on liquid fert. Roots from Wisteria and other stem plant borrow into substrate.

 

Don’t stop using liquid, cut back. Or don’t do anything. How are your plants doing?

 

You are right that tabs release a little into the water column, but probably not as much as you'd like. I think you could cut back the Thrive to once every week and a half or two weeks, just make sure you still have enough micros and macros

 

I use root tabs and regular Thrive. I dose my tanks with thrive a day after my WC’s and that’s it. Then when I see a little deficiency I add root tabs around my plants. You can stretch em to last longer by cutting them in half they go a good month or so in my tanks and all my tanks I would consider heavily planted

 

Yes you can dial it back. Try ever other week and see how the plants react. No reaction all good if you see some deficiency’s add the liquid ferts. Root tabs alone will not be enough. Most of your stem plants are not using them. They are taking nutrients out of the water column.

 

You are right that tabs release a little into the water column, but probably not as much as you'd like. I think you could cut back the Thrive to once every week and a half or two weeks, just make sure you still have enough micros and macros

According to directions on bottle I'm to do a substantial water change at the end of the week to reset everything. I might switch to Thrive S instead of Thrive C or possibly a totally different brand. Honestly I didn't notice any difference using this vs flourish comp. I wish my root supplement were tablets instead of capsule so then I could cut them in half. Not sure what direction to go. I may look for something that has more micro than macro. Currently I'm fighting BBA and staghorn since replacing light fixture to one that has more intensity.

 

Peroxide dip for bba. Also a couple of sae to eat it.

 

Peroxide dip for bba. Also a couple of sae to eat it.

I'm currently doing the H2O2 spot treatment. LFS at the time didn't any SAE and if memory serves me correct they don't carry them so I was left with no choice but to purchase a chinese algae eater. At that time I also purchased two nerite snails. one of the two just died day before yesterday. I've had them for about close to a year. I'm reluctant to buy something live over the internet. I figure they'll just arrive dead and then I'm forced to deal with DOA or just forget about it and take the lose which is probably what I would do because I really don't have the time or patients to deal with it. This includes buying plants, I've seen some that I would love to have.