Easier than gel caps, adding osmocoat the existing aquariums

[chad320]

Indeed cubes are a great tool. I use them for wormcastings. Osmocote is tricky since it floats, and will, if youre pulling stems out. I use lagunas plastic fert sticks since the cap comes off and theyre refillable. I use 19-6-12 osmocote. Buyer beware, there are several varieties of NPK ratings. I havent tested many but this one for sure works good.

[Tom Barr]

Indeed cubes are a great tool. I use them for wormcastings. Osmocote is tricky since it floats, and will, if youre pulling stems out. I use lagunas plastic fert sticks since the cap comes off and theyre refillable. I use 19-6-12 osmocote. Buyer beware, there are several varieties of NPK ratings. I havent tested many but this one for sure works good.

I forgot about thoise refillable caps they sell.
Good call.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[ibnozn]

I've been wondering whether to try this in the 15G (long) seagrass fuge I have on my mixed reef system. I'm dosing Co2 and just get the sense my established Halophila and Halodule should be growing a bit faster. I keep a fair amount of SPS in the system too so my nutrient levels are pretty low at <5ppm No3 and <.25ppm Po4. I'm struggling with coral coloration issues so I'd like to keep them there. If I added Osmocote; probably say 2-3 pellets every 3 square inches, 2" deep in the aragonite capped mud substrate via gel caps, is it likely there will be a jump in water column nutrient levels?

[Tom Barr]

Coral might be due to alk and Ca, not PO4/NO3.

If the ppm's are correct, and I'm not so sure they are..............then the plants should be okay..........if you can mange to keep the N and P at those levels and not drop/
IME, few are able to do this and these low residuals are highly variable and hardly representative of the whole picture over time.

It takes just a little bit of DBS bacteria to remove 2-3ppm of NO3.
Likewise, PO4 in any semi dense plant growth should be gone in a few hours.

CO2 dosing is not likely needed. These weeds grow well using KH or your Alkalinity.
Most all marine plants do.

In otherwords, few if any are carbon limited.

You can certainly try adding osmocoat to the sediments.

Regards,
Tom Barr

[cannibal]

i have osmocote at home, but i'm not using it..why? because of precent of amonia, i know, on package they not write there is amonia in osmocote, but on croatian package they told there is some small precent of urea..
my parents have a flower farm (i'm not good with english ), and they also using osmocot for plant soil, they told me that osmocote release fertilizer for about 6 months..some aquaristic in serbia uses osmocote, and they told there is a good results with him, but i think there is a problem how to add osmocote on right way..the point is how much to add osmocote and that you heaven't algae boom.
sorry for writing so bad, but i'm trying to write somehow

[Robert H]

Hey Tom, Doesn't Osmoscote contain Urea? What is your feeling on the affect of Urea in the aquarium?

[Tom Barr]

Hey Tom, Doesn't Osmoscote contain Urea? What is your feeling on the affect of Urea in the aquarium?

Yes, urea can be added to a WELL run planted tank fairly easily, provided there are not sensnsitive species and you are not larding it on.
Around 0.8ppm per day can be added without much issue.

If there is poor CO2 or plants are limited by some other factor, then this will likely not do too well.
Bacteria can take care of some overloarding if you slowly ramp things up, but uprooting a lot of osmocoat is not a good idea.
Then this can cause problems, but liquid urea has been done fairly well among a few folks, I've never been able to detect much growth/plant health difference between NH4 and NO3 dosing though.
If urea is all you can get locally say in some other country etc, well.....little choice but to try it........

[Tom Barr]

i have osmocote at home, but i'm not using it..why? because of precent of amonia, i know, on package they not write there is amonia in osmocote, but on croatian package they told there is some small precent of urea..
my parents have a flower farm (i'm not good with english ), and they also using osmocot for plant soil, they told me that osmocote release fertilizer for about 6 months..some aquaristic in serbia uses osmocote, and they told there is a good results with him, but i think there is a problem how to add osmocote on right way..the point is how much to add osmocote and that you heaven't algae boom.
sorry for writing so bad, but i'm trying to write somehow

About 5 grams per 25 cm x 25cm of sediment surface area 1x every 6 months

[darkoon]

is osmocoat suitable for soft water plants that prefer acidic substrate?

[Tom Barr]

is osmocoat suitable for soft water plants that prefer acidic substrate?

I've never met such plant that is a soft water obligate or acidic sediment, having grown pretty much anything folks can name, some 400 species at this point.

Few hydric sediments are acidic. They are trending to neutral in every case I have seen good growth.
The water column might be low pH etc, but the sediments are rarely so.

Sometimes there might be a peat layer on top, but below this the soil is rarely low pH.
ADA AS over time also goes to neutral.

So does Sac river Delta sediment which is similar to ADA AS.

But it's suitable for most plants.