[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
re: Algae challenge (kind of long)
I think maybe Arthur misunderstood my intentions, I do
not disagree with the folks who like to be
"scientists" with their tanks. In fact, my tank is not
as nice as those. I do have to get into my tank at
least every two weeks, otherwise no light gets to the
bottom. I have 3 96 watt CFs over a 125. I keep 3
giant ottos, 2 Sturisoma sp. (not identifiable by any
pictures I have been able to find), and countless
ghost shrimp. I do not have any algae problems, and I
do not keep "a couple of swords and a couple of
crypts". I think I can contribute this to keeping
things simple and not messing with "chemical soup". I
suspect that many new comers to this hobby are treated
to a bad experience because they think they are
delving in depth into how to do a "high tech" tank
with all the latest witches' brews(in reality they
scratch the surface). They add plant spikes, clay
balls, micronutrients, macronutrients, laterite,
heating cables, carbon dioxide canisters, metal
halides, compact flourescents, difusers, reactors,
bubblers, counters, dosers, drippers, grazers, and
then a healthy dose of PMDD which they (hopefully
correctly) mixed up themselves to save some money HA
HA (j/k). THey sit back to enjoy the beauty and get
treated to a green soup or if they are lucky a green
wig that would do medusa proud. What happened they
ask? Or they throw it all in the garage sale. If they
stay with it then they must take a crash course in
biochemistry as they sort out metabolic pathways of
plants and nitrogen chemistry, when what should have
happend in the first place is they should have gotten
a healthy dose of reality and realized that you guys
are great because you took years to learn the ART of
balancing all the complexities of what you do. They
would have been much better served with a DIY CO2 and
a shoplight over some flourite, with a little of brand
x liquid fertilizer. This is not to say that all
people should start so simple, but I almost wish it
was mandatory that people can't get all the gizmos
right at the beginning. Sometimes free enterprise
mucks things up. If what makes the big guys great (and
I really do not see why many of the people on this
list are not considered equal or greater than Ammano,
he just happens to be a great photgrapher so can show
off easier ;-)), is not in fact SCIENCE. Science is a
tool used by these artists, if it was science that
made these tanks great, then there would be a recipe
that anyone could follow with guaranteed results. Just
add x grams of this and x grams of that per liter of
water and put this plant x cm from the fron and y
centimeters from the side...etc, etc. It does not work
that way. If it did I doubt any of us would do it :-)
Scott
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get personalized email addresses from Yahoo! Mail
http://personal.mail.yahoo.com/