# Planted Tanks > Plant Talk > Cryptocoryne Club >  Fertilization in the roots. What's the best?

## André Alcantara

Hi,

I put tropica in the soil, but my cryptos balansae doesnt grow very well. Only the bigger one give me new leaves each week, but the otheres is very slow and small.

My tank is 4 months old and I would to like to put some capsules near the root.

Any sugestion? Azoo? Tropica? Seachem?

Thank you very much.

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## Verminator

Tropica or Seachem would be my first choice personally.

As for the plant itself it does take a while to acclimatise to whatever set-up it's introduced into. So it may just be going through a dorment stage and pick up growth soon. If you separated the younger plantlets too soon then there growth can become stunted and slow, almost none existent. I've observed this with most of my crypts anyway, it may jsut be something i'm doing i'm not sure.

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## André Alcantara

Thank you Verminator,

It's a strange case, I plant this balansae around 3 years in my old planted tank, 3 different plants, but only one grows, and grows a lot the other 2 are sleeping... I don't understand, I change and put the plants in different places sometimes, but nothing happens...

(could you understand me) Sorry about my mistakes

Here you can see on the rigth side the big balansae and one small side by side. On the left more smallers...


I think I try fertilizantion using Seachen on the roots...

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## bossteck

I read that C. Balansae likes hard water, some folks insert coral chips / lime stone pieces in the substrate where the balansae are to help their growth.

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## André Alcantara

Hi bossteck,

this could be a problem, because I keep 5 Altuns in this tank, and they live in soft water. Do you believe this affect the water or only the soil?

Tks.

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## Verminator

One thing to note with crypts in general is they do not like to be moved. Once established ideally they should be left alone. I have found that with alot of mine (wendtii, green, mi oya) that when i rescape my tank and trim the roots to roughly an inch the plant is dormant for sometimes months. I rescaped my tank about 3 months ago and the crypts, aside from one or two new leaves, are yet to take hold and explode as they usually do in my tanks.

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## bossteck

I believe in this case, the soft water has a greater effect on the growth of the balansae than the soil, but I don't see any harm with inserting a couple of pieces of coral chips into the substrate near the plants. 

Check out: 
http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum...ad.php?t=36607
http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/f...ails.php?id=27

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## André Alcantara

Thank you guys,

but what exactly is coral ships or lime stone? I'm sorry.  :Opps:

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## bryan

Err.. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limestone

Coral chips are small pieces of dead coral. 

These have high PH so you could try stuffing some around the roots and it should not affect the water..

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## André Alcantara

> These have high PH so you could try stuffing some around the roots and it should not affect the water..


But...cryptocorines don't prefer acid substrates?

Anyway I put some capsules of the Seachem Florish Tabs.
I will post results soon...

Thank you.

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## RHX

You can try Ferka Rosetta. I had some good results using it.

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## André Alcantara

Thank you but I never see this product here in Brazil.

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## blue33

If you put few pieces of coral chips at the plant bed beside the plant it would not affect your water PH condition, unless you put the coral chips in the filter canister then you will have impact of your Water PH due to the constant current flow.  :Smile:

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## André Alcantara

I felows,

I was try Seachem Florish Tabs whitout effective results. Last week I introduce pieces of coral next to the roots.

I start ferilization using Tropica PLANT NUTRITION liquid.

I post results soon.

Tks.

André

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## chanck

Hi 
I had balansae for in my tank for a year and they were just surviving, not flourishing. Info from web indicate they needed hard water.
I added Seachem equilibrium to water column and they seem to be doing much better. Am not sure if it will work for you though.
BTW I have ADA substrate.
Rgds
Chee Kin

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## André Alcantara

Thanks Chee Kin,

but I keep Altuns in my tank, so I need to have to much carefull with the water parameters.

André

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## medicineman

Wonder-Gro root tabs is one good option ... he he he....  :Grin: 

The root tab, along with the range of liquid fert (macro and micro+) has been my sole and official aquascape fertilizer for years now.






You can get them from 
greenleafaquariums.com in USA
or
mizuworld.com in Singapore

50 big sized tablets, enough for months of repeated dosing.

The tablet does not dissolve as in regular salt fertilizer. It works over some period of months, disintegrating into the substrate. 
Super crypt usually. I got my wendtii growing 40+cm leaves.

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## tetroid

I use Flourish Root Tabs for micro-elements and Jobes Plant Spikes for Ferns and Palms for macro-elements. Lots of aquarists in Canada and the U.S. use Jobes spikes for root fertilization, but I don't know if they are available in Brazil. For the record, they contain macro-elements at a ratio of 16 nitrogen to 2 phosphate to 6 potassium. My crypts basically took over my tank after I started using them. My water is very soft as well - KH and GH at about 30 ppm in winter.

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## André Alcantara

Thank you for the advices,
maybe my problem is lack the nitrogen, because the Tropica doesn't use NI and PO...

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## Marcelo Senna

Hi Andr&#233;,
Could you contact me?
I'm also in Brazil, at Petr&#243;polis, and I'm also a crypt fan.

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## André Alcantara

Legal cara. Como podemos nos falar?

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