Re: ADA winners

[john wheeler <jcwheel76 at yahoo_com>]

Hey Gang,

Daphne Freemen wrote:
>>After looking at some of the ADA winners, I have to
ask.  How is it possible to start up a high light tank
or even change it over to one of the Amano type tanks
that have 3-5 varieties of plants and none of them, or

virtually none of them are stems?<<

Hey Daphne..

I struggled with this one for a while as well. Look at
page 20 in NAW bk2. Then look at pg 18. Those tanks
are the same size. He uses the same amount of ferts,
light, and CO2, but the first tank has only moss, and
not alot of it. The one on pg 18 is loaded with stems
and Riccia.

How does it work?!!

I've tried it. It just works. The plant that I
associate with knocking out algae is Riccia. As long
as CO2 and macros are good, any tank with Riccia is
going to be a challenge to develop an algae problem.

I had two 10 gallon tanks going at the same time...
One that was nearly all Riccia with a couple of tall
Sagittaria, and the other all moss and Anubias. I was
curious to see what would happen if I dosed the moss
tank the same as the Riccia one. Both had identical
filters and light, and DIY CO2.

Other than the Anubias leaves growing a little larger,
nothing happened with the additional ferts. No algae,
no nothing different except a *little* more vibrant
plants. Tom Barr often hints that as long as you keep
the critical factors (eg:light, CO2, Macros, etc)
within certain parameters than you are bound for
success (sorry to paraphrase, Tom;). Amano seems to
concur, and plant selection seems to be not so
important. I'm not convinced that stem plants are any
more effective than others for nutrient
removal...especially after things get going.   

Hope this helps,
John Wheeler


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