Easy Root Tab Capsules

[Dr. Fish]

I added the easy root tabs to my aquarium for the first time yesterday. I tried to get them to the bottom of the substrate as directed. However, this morning I see what I believe to be the partially-dissolve capsules coming out of the substrate in a few places (see the white blobs in the pic). Is this normal? Do I need to remove these? Should I be worried? Thanks!

[lefty o]

first time or two they seem to be a pain to get under the gravel, but youll get it. they are a gelatin cap, and will not harm anything, so you dont have to remove them unless they visually bother you.

[Dr. Fish]

56 minutes ago, lefty o said:

first time or two they seem to be a pain to get under the gravel, but youll get it. they are a gelatin cap, and will not harm anything, so you dont have to remove them unless they visually bother you.

Ok, thanks!

[Brandy]

Also if my substrate is shallow I just drop a rock on top of them--my corys will dig an inch or more to get at the capsule which they want to eat.

[Beccs410]

On 5/20/2021 at 12:51 PM, Diving Aquarist said:

What I've done with the gel-caps of root tabs before putting in in the water, is puncture the 'top' side of one of the caps, and gently pinch some air out of the capsule underwater. I plant mine in pretty shallow sand, so they tend to float quickly. I don't know if that works with your capsules.

I second this approach and I use the Easy Root Tabs. I usually use a thumb tack or something similar, poke a little hole in the top and then grab them with angled planting tweezers and shove them all the way down to the bottom of the tank with the tweezers at a 45 degree angle. I'll kind of wiggle the tweezers out and away slowly and that usually works. It took me some practice to get them to stay, but once I got into a groove planting them, it became easier. My corys dig quite a bit, too, so I always shove them as deep as I can get them. Never thought to squeeze some air out under water...I'll have to try that next time!

[stahl]

I struggled to get the easy tabs deep into my substrate with tweezers. I found that a simple pet pill gun that one would use to feed a pill to a cat or dog did the trick perfectly. It is basically a plastic syringe with a nozzle sized for gel capsules. 

With the pill gun, I was able to get the capsules all the way down into the bottom of 2"+ of Eco-complete substrate really quickly. Found a two-pack of the of them from a famous web store for $7.

Edited May 25, 2021 by stahl

[Dirtydave]

I punch a hole in as others have said but never pinched the air out.They always stay submerged. Got that tip from lizzie at the co-op and have repeated it countless times even on one of her vids when she forgot to mention it😉

[cory gang]

I learned this tip from Irene's video, and what you do is insert the the capsule at a 45° angle. I'm too lazy to punch holes in them. 😜

Edited May 25, 2021 by cory gang

[stahl]

If you want a longer device to keep your arm from getting wet, you can graduate to a balling gun... same as a pet pill gun but longer and meant for livestock like sheep, goats, & cows. Lots of different options for not much money (much less than the ADA one posted in a different thread).

[Fresh]

I'm glad I came across this thread as I'm about to use root tabs for the first time myself. I easily have 2+ inches of sand as I used 40lbs for 27g so I wonder if they will float through that?

[ChemBob]

There is also a DIY piller thread in the forum. I built that And love it. 

[lefty o]

12 hours ago, Fresh said:

I'm glad I came across this thread as I'm about to use root tabs for the first time myself. I easily have 2+ inches of sand as I used 40lbs for 27g so I wonder if they will float through that?

shove them down to the bottom, and they should stay put.

[Fresh]

11 hours ago, lefty o said:

shove them down to the bottom, and they should stay put.

Will do.