# Osmocote question



## Sammich (Feb 19, 2021)

Hi there! I'm pretty new to planted tanks - I've been randomly adding plants to my betta tank for about 8 months & just decided to do a proper scape. 

I wondered if anyone has advice about using osmocote? 

A plant seller included some homemade osmocote tabs with my plants. I assume they would be way too much for my 5g so I took one apart and sprinkled the osmocote 1 little ball every 2-3" before covering with several inches of large gravel capped with fine gravel substrate. Is that too much fertilizer? If it's okay, approx how long do I wait before dosing the water column or adding root tabs/more osmocote? A month? 

The tank is moderately planted, I think with lots of fast growing stems. There's even a line of pennywort behind the driftwood that is currently not visible.

Any info would be much appreciated!


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## Juanco (Mar 23, 2021)

Have the same question, I put some osmocote inside the 00 gel capsules and placed them under my amazon swords, some anubias, dwarf sag, and hygrophila polysperma. I'm dosing the water with macros, micros and lower my light intensity, I was getting some algae. 

The water looks kinda weird because I changed my substrate to sandblasting sand. Now I need to know when would be the best time to add more osmocote...


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## Sammich (Feb 19, 2021)

Juanco said:


> Have the same question, I put some osmocote inside the 00 gel capsules and placed them under my amazon swords, some anubias, dwarf sag, and hygrophila polysperma. I'm dosing the water with macros, micros and lower my light intensity, I was getting some algae.
> 
> The water looks kinda weird because I changed my substrate to sandblasting sand. Now I need to know when would be the best time to add more osmocote...


Interesting. I ended up choosing not to dose the water column for a while and ramped up the lighting slowly over the course of a couple weeks while doing weekly small water changes. After that, I added a few shrimp (like 4) and an assassin snail. Waited another week or so then added in the betta (about a month after set up). It's been about 6-7 weeks since initial build now - I had a decent amount of plant growth and no algae. On a whim did a half dose of an Aqueon all-in-one liquid fertilizer last week & will probably do the same each week. 

I'm not brave enough to dig into the substrate to check on what the osmocote looks like now soooo...I tossed a single little piece of osmocote into a jar of water with some extra java moss to see how long it took to disappear and so far it looks the exact same after four weeks. 

I'm guessing that I won't be adding additional osmocote for at least another 2 months.


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## Juanco (Mar 23, 2021)

Sammich said:


> Interesting. I ended up choosing not to dose the water column for a while and ramped up the lighting slowly over the course of a couple weeks while doing weekly small water changes. After that, I added a few shrimp (like 4) and an assassin snail. Waited another week or so then added in the betta (about a month after set up). It's been about 6-7 weeks since initial build now - I had a decent amount of plant growth and no algae. On a whim did a half dose of an Aqueon all-in-one liquid fertilizer last week & will probably do the same each week.
> 
> I'm not brave enough to dig into the substrate to check on what the osmocote looks like now soooo...I tossed a single little piece of osmocote into a jar of water with some extra java moss to see how long it took to disappear and so far it looks the exact same after four weeks.
> 
> I'm guessing that I won't be adding additional osmocote for at least another 2 months.


That's good to know well I won't be disturbing that substrate for now I don't want to hand pick the osmocote all over the tank. I guess I'll wait and see the progress I'll be posting it. Thanks


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## slipfinger (May 11, 2016)

Osomocote balls do not disappear and if they do they take a long long time. 

Tip for you guys, instead of adding the individual balls into the gel cap and then adding the gel cap to the substrate, actually use your tweezers and add just a couple of the individual balls under and around each plant every 3 months or so. This way you have more control over the amount you are adding. Just remember a little goes a long way.


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## Sammich (Feb 19, 2021)

slipfinger said:


> Osomocote balls do not disappear and if they do they take a long long time.
> 
> Tip for you guys, instead of adding the individual balls into the gel cap and then adding the gel cap to the substrate, actually use your tweezers and add just a couple of the individual balls under and around each plant every 3 months or so. This way you have more control over the amount you are adding. Just remember a little goes a long way.


Thank you very much for your response! I won't add any additional osmocote until May/June and continue dosing liquid fertilizer lightly.


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