# Jobe's disasters???



## rickwaines (Jan 2, 2011)

Anyone have any Jobe plant tab disasters to share?


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

i've heard of a few from people who never stop rearranging their stem plants. I've only had success with them personally, and i typically don't recommend using them under stems.


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## rickwaines (Jan 2, 2011)

i can see how under stem plants they might be tricky


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

If you tend to rescape, it's better not to use substrate ferts. I like to vacuum my substrates a bit and stopped using even the aquarium specific ones because some of them messes up the water column a bit. Terrestrial ones would really mess up your water column really badly. Column dosing would be more suitable then.


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

If you have a lot of fish waste, you don't need jobes stick. Use aquarium pharm root tabs to give the plants extra K and trace 

Look at Jobes stick as a substitute for dirty gravel/substrate bed. To get rid of the jobes stick in the gravel, use a gravel vac to pull the piece out and clean the surrounding area. There is less chance of ammonia leeching into the water column.

That being said, if you disturbed a dirty gravel bed, you are creating a whole lot of problems for the fish anyways. Jobes stick is just a dirty bed concentrated into a small area.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

EDGE said:


> Look at Jobes stick as a substitute for dirty gravel/substrate bed.


 In other words, keep some big plecos and you're good to go!


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## rickwaines (Jan 2, 2011)

2wheelsx2 said:


> In other words, keep some big plecos and you're good to go!


interesting. Are you saying that if I have some big ol pleco's, which I am planning on having that they will clean up any problems the jobe's might produce? The spike can be ingested by them at no peril?

I have perhaps not understood.

Rick


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## EDGE (Aug 24, 2010)

He was referring to my post when I said "Look at Jobes stick as a substitute for dirty gravel/substrate bed." bascially, pleco are poop factory and they will provide enough nutrients for the plants without using jobes stick.


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## rickwaines (Jan 2, 2011)

EDGE said:


> He was referring to my post when I said "Look at Jobes stick as a substitute for dirty gravel/substrate bed." bascially, pleco are poop factory and they will provide enough nutrients for the plants without using jobes stick.


check, that makes much more sense.


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## 2wheelsx2 (Apr 21, 2010)

Yep, big plecos are the best poop makers there are. That's why I can cut the column dosing back in my pleco tanks.


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## neven (May 15, 2010)

plecos are indeed a poop factory. But as for the spikes, they are mostly nitrogen (fish poop substitute). I prefer to keep my tanks properly stocked and the substrate lightly vaccumed (never deep vaccuumed), and i lightly feed my fish (every 3 days), so i need to add the ferts for the plants.

EI dosing is by far the best way to fertilize your fish tank, but there are some species of plants (heavy root feeders) that need either a rich substrate or a nutrient tab of some sort. I personally prefer an innert substrate with tabs (as deep as possible) where they're needed and EI dosing to cover the rest of the plants. I've never really had a GDA outbreak, or green water, or cyano outbreak in my tanks, except when i had my first 10 gallon and added bog plants from petcetera and used a 13W incandescent bulb.

Now what could benefit from these tabs? Many crypts, bulb plants like lotus, Swords, etc. So the need of the spikes or tabs entirely depend on what you plan to do with the tank and the lighting level. Even with this said though, the plants will still be fine without root tabbing if you EI dose, but they won't look as lush if your substrate is innert. Also root tabbing helps keep roots under the plants rather than invading the rest of the tank (lotus roots in my tank can be seen on the opposite end of the footprint....)


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