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Re: Plants do NOT use NO2
- To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
- Subject: Re: Plants do NOT use NO2
- From: "T. Mathews Jr." <titus at enel_ucalgary.ca>
- Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 02:48:06 -0700
- In-Reply-To: <no.id>; from tcbiii at earthlink_net on Thu, Nov 15, 2001 at 05:53:37PM -0800
- User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5i
Hello again all!
Thank you Mr. Barr for responding to my post and clarifying the
nitrogen usage issues.
* Thus spake Thomas Barr [011116 01:50]:
> Well it does cycle you just don't see it(able to measure
> it). With the plants the cycling goes unnoticed from their
> uptake. Plant tanks will eat all the ammonium up if
> heavily planted from the start. No NO2. Too many people
> are cheap, do not get enough healthy plants when they set
> a plant tank up and think it will simply "grow in". It can
> but it is so much better to add plants than remove algae
> later. An extra few dollars spent on plants is well worth
> it when starting a tank out. Perhaps some of the best
> invested dollars in the hobby is buying enough plants.
Ok, will do. I assume I should start out with some fast
growing plants like water sprite or water wisteria. These are
relatively inexpensive, and so I can get lots.
How do you know when you can remove these starter plants and add
some slower growing ones?
> Adding the old filthy mulm from another established tank
> is one of the best ways or an old mature filter. I add old
> mulm when I set up a new tank. I vacuum out about 5-10
> gallons of gravel vacuumed water and let it settle for a
> hour then decant off the clear water saving the mulm on
> the bottom. I add this and some ground peat to very bottom
> of the gravel layer. I add SeaChem's onyx over this. I
> save a touch of the mulm and seed the filter with it. Do
> that with heavy planting from the start and you'll be very
> happy. Add algae eaters (SAE's then shrimp) after that(one
> two days).
I've vacuumed out my larger, marginally planted tank, and now
have a bucket full of mulmy water with some muck on the bottom.
Is the mulm for
- quickly cycling the tank so that I can add more fish
- quickly cycling the tank so that the NO2 is converted to NO3
- fertilizer for the plants?
Also, at this time I can't afford Onyx, and so I would like to
use Turface (a 'poor man's' flourite?) mixed with gravel. Will
what you've prescribed still work with this? I can afford peat
but had read that stuff like that or soil would make a mess when
I uproot plants. Is the peat necessary, or am I being overly
concerned about the mess?
> Hope this helps!
Indeed, it does; thanks again for all your help!
T. =8)
--
Titus Mathews Jr