Will I need root tabs with these plants?

**serbusfish** · 01-29-2013, 09:25 PM

I currently have 5 bunches of Vallisneria in my tank along with another plant I dont know the name of (pic below) and I have just order some Sagittaria subulata from ebay (25 bunches, dont think i'll need it all to be honest!)

Now my question is will any of these plants do better with root tabs? At the moment I dose once a week with a liquid fertilizer (JBL Ferropol), I have only been using it for less than a week so I dont know how effective it will be in the long run. I dont use any co2.

Here is the plant I need an I.D on (the middle one):

**funkman262** · 01-29-2013, 09:29 PM

Need? No.
Benefit? Possibly.
Worth it? Up to you.

I've never used root tabs even though I have heavy root-feeders. I dose dry ferts though.

**Goes to 11!** · 01-29-2013, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by funkman262

Need? No.
Benefit? Possibly.
Worth it? Up to you.

+1
With an inert substrate like sand it's possible you will need them eventually [and they are cheap to use on small tanks IE: Flourish tabs] but you can also wait to see if you have any deficiencies.

It won't be an emergency either way so you can ride it out and see how they go if you want.

**dizzydezzy** · 01-29-2013, 10:25 PM

Stem plants (the saggitaria, and whatever it is you already have there... sorry, I'm not help with ID!) tend to get most of their nutrients from the water column. The vals tend to be more of a root feeder, and would benefit from root tabs a lot more than the others - though, to be honest, my vals always seem to grow like crazy regardless of whether I fertilise.

**serbusfish** · 01-29-2013, 11:11 PM

Ok thanks a lot guys, I will stick with the liquid ferts for now and see how the plants do.

**Aeonflame** · 01-29-2013, 11:23 PM

Vals are quite hardy and feed from the water column also. You dont need the root tabs, but use them if it makes you feel more comfortable with growing your plants.

**biotsrama** · 01-31-2013, 04:00 AM

Your mystery plant looks like Mayaca fluviatilis to me.

It's a nice plant; too bad my fish thought it was tasty!

**homemadepopcorn** · 01-31-2013, 05:10 AM

You definitely don't need them for the plants you've listed, but when I gave my plants some root tabs, they went nuts. Its up to you really and depends on how much trimming you want to do.

**dmagerl** · 01-31-2013, 02:03 PM

The nice thing about this hobby is you can go nuts with experimentation. Just take a root tab and put it under one of the plants. The plant would have to be isolated distance wise from all the others. Then sit back and see which grows better.

My vote would be on the root tab. My Vals just never seem to do all that great with just water column dosing.