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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V6 #83



>Date: Thu, 13 Mar 2003 13:38:01 +0100
>From: "Daniel Larsson" <defdac at hotmail_com>
>Subject: Re: Photorespiration revisited

> Don Matakis  wrote:
>> Don't stop now! This is getting very interesting. 

>I agree! This is the most interesting post in a loooong time.
>When I had a large carpet of Riccia my aquarium was totally
>algae-free - now when I have slowgrowing species I'm having
>trouble with BBA, BGA, Fuzz- and Cladorophora.

>So on to my question: Which fastgrower besides Riccia is
>the best at producing oxygen?
> Daniel Larsson

Slow growing species such as? Density of plant mass and lighting/nutrients/CO2 will all be factors, not just slow vs fast growing species.

Crypts are often called slow growing, I find them to grow a nice clip once established.

Main thing is how much O2 is produced by the plants. How you get there seems to be far less the issue. I've had nothing but slow growers etc, no algae etc, but it is easier to have a tank establish well with fast growers that produce high DO levels.

I often add a 50-75% slow grower mix. This means less or easier pruning etc. And the faster growers I tend toi keep in easy to prune areas in the tank. This allows the aquascape to be maintained with minimal work and still have the benefits of the fast growers.

But driving the CO2/light/nutrient and plant mass issue to the full maximum extent will help any tank regardless of the plant types/species. More O2, the better.

More O2 is different than adding H2O2. They inhibit algae(and plants to some extent) for different reasons. One(O2) effects the Rubisco carbon fixing enzyme causing PR wasting P glycoloate and consuming CO2 and evolving O2 and the other effects the Mn water evolving/splitting enzyme destoying/denaturing the main enzyme that feeds electrons into PS II from the LHC.
 
Regards, 
Tom Barr