Jobes fertilizer spikes

I found some info on using these in the aquarium as root tabs. The ones for palms and ferns seem to be the ones most used. Anybody ever tried this? It would be alot cheaper than buying the root tabs that I currently use. Just wondering if anyone has used these or has any thoughts on this.

Thanks, Mark

Never heard of it but sounds interesting

I used to use them but noticed a spiked in algae growth along with lush growth of my plants, algae was not worth it.

oh not good.

typicaltony, did you also have fish in the tanks you used the spikes in? I am thinking about trying some.

But be careful and not use so much and try to dig it in the substrate as deep as u can, some sticks contain urea which can leak into the water column and be harmful to the fish..read the label. I used half a stick per 5g... the reason there was a spike in algae growth is bc of the high level of phosphate contained in the sticks

Cool, thanks for the info. Gonna give it a shot.

MarkM wrote:

Cool, thanks for the info. Gonna give it a shot.

Give us some feed back let us know how it goes.

I use tomato spikes in my lilly pots in my Koi pond. They grow like weeds using them.

i use them in my planted aquarium all the time.
the no name brand is the best.
BUT if you do a major rescape you will have an algea bloom of some kind.

been there done that.

Which ones do you use alan j t? I was gonna go get some, but lowes was closed. I seem to remember seeing the ones labeled for ferns and palms there last week.

I have used it before, and I did notice a bit of an algae spike, particularly after a thorough substrate cleaning and tank rearranging. I used a quarter stick for each large amazon sword plant(3 total), the bunched plants and smaller plants didn't get any. That was my way of not overdoing it. I was actually curious if it'd work myself, and had some Job's fertilizer sticks on hand. Another thing to remember is to stick them deep as previously mentioned in a post. It never really biodegrades; if you uproot a fertilized plant you'll be greeted with a cottony poofy thing (imagine saturated tampon, yes it's about that gross looking) that breaks up like wet paper/wood pulp. Needless to say I don't really use the sticks anymore.

I put some off brand fertilizer sticks in the sand in my planted 20g about 4 months ago, I have only done a "hover" cleaning on that tank since, and have never had an algea problem in that tank.

So how do you determine if it's safe for the fish or not? Someone mentioned Urea? Are there any other ingredients to look for?

I use them ( the tomato sticks) in my water lily pots in the Koi pond in the summer. I push them down in the pot far enough so the fish can't nibble on them . Have beautiful Lillie's and no died fish.

This sounds really interesting. I had always wanted to try root tabs but the cost for 10 of them I just couldn't do it. I mean that plants grow fine without them but I have a few that I think would do well with an extra shot to the roots.

Is there any brand that seems to be more safe. I suppose if you stuck the stick in deep enough it wouldn't leech to much in the water just have to be mindful of them while cleaning.

i have used them before with great results, but when i rescaped alge appeared for a while.