Anyone dosing root tabs under sword mother plants in sand?
Planted my amazon sword mothers in plain sand a month ago and the older leaves are going yellow with pinholes. Water column ferts only so far, low tech, moderate light. Thinking root tabs every couple of months but I've heard they can leak and feed algae. Anyone running tabs under big root feeders in sand without trouble? Pic of the tank setup is below.
6 comments
Pinholes and yellowing on the old leaves is classic root feeder hunger. Push the tabs in deep near the crown, a couple inches down, and they won't leak much. I do one per plant every two months and never had algae from it.
Same here. I'd also check iron in the water column, swords chew through it fast in sand.
Good call on iron. I'll add a comprehensive trace to the water column and push a tab in next to each crown this weekend. Will report back in a few weeks.
Don't overdo the first round, one tab per plant is plenty. Swords in sand take a few weeks before new leaves show it worked, so don't panic if the old yellow ones don't recover.
One thing on tabs in sand, swords are heavy enough feeders that I'd rather err toward a small tab per plant than skip. Pinholes usually mean potassium too, so a dose of K in the water column helps while the roots catch up.
ah potassium, didn't think of that. I'll add some alongside the trace and keep notes on which leaves stop pitting.
Sign in to join the discussion.