Review on 🐠 ThriveCaps - Aquarium Root Tab/Caps - NA Premium Root Caps 60 Count (1g Each) by Mari Reyes

Was looking for an alternative to Seachem root tablets as they release calcium into the water when dissolved and increase water hardness (GH). After researching I decided to try these tablets as to my knowledge they do not contain any calcium. I've added the recommended amount to 3 of my tanks: 2 established tanks and 1 new one. They are quite difficult to bury in the substrate when the reservoir is filled with water (as was the case with the two installed reservoirs I added) and almost all of them would float to the surface no matter what, with different species by tweezers or fingers. try to bury them as deep as possible. The gelatin shell starts to melt fairly quickly, so you don't have much time before the powdered enzymes inside spread everywhere. I had no problem burying them in the new plant's substrate as I added them before filling the tank with water and didn't surface again after that. However, they caused a massive ammonia spike in all of my tanks. I was able to do it in one of the tanks installed with a water change as it is extremely planted and most plants are emergent and have unlimited access to CO2. No issues with the new setup either, it still worked on a livestock-free bike. But my second planted tank didn't have enough plant material or CO2 access to deal with huge spikes in ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, even with frequent large water changes I lost a few fish and had to relocate everyone else to one of my tanks. Quarantine tanks (luckily I had looped one). I would not recommend these root tabs. They may be suitable for new installations, but they are impractical and not suitable for existing livestock tanks. Not for the average hobbyist I'm afraid, you definitely need a very heavy dense plant mass and a CO2 injection system for it to work in an established tank (if you can handle the painful process of burying it). I returned them.