Re: [APD] lighting for plants

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

Hard to say what's missing. There's more to it than light
and powder ferts.

I think little good can be expected from letting duckweed
in your tank, much less neglecting it. But it's not as bad
as bladder wort in some ways. 

You might try topping your stems and planting the tops in
place of the older bases instead of leaving the older bases
there. That works for some. I thnk Tom b recommended it at
the AGA Convneitn workshop he gave last November, but I
could be wrong. I wasn't there, only saw clips of it on the
Cd.

I don't really think the "rule of thumb" is that x is the
right amount of light or that y is the right amount of wpg.
Gardeners do well lots of diff lighting levels. The higher
lighting levels give you faster paced tanks that require
more work and which are generally less tolerant. Some call
that fun; some call it work. The slower ones, some call
boring. Is there a range that makes sense? Sure that's the
"rule of thumb" but it's a pretty big thumb. ;-)

Your friend's plants can't live, much less flourish without
the basic macro nutrients. They must be getting them from
somewhere. Reserves work for a while but not indefinitely.
Fish food can be a complete substitute for adding powder
NO3 or PO4 or both but it's less precise as a dosing
method.  Slower tanks tolerate the imprecision better --
they don't get out of whack as fast or as easily as faster
paced tanks. But it can be done with fast tanks too. Got a
couple of them myself. In fact, one of them tends to get
too much NO3 unless I'm religious about the weekly water
changes.

Scott H.
--- Joey Choochootrain <hubbahubbahehe at yahoo_com> wrote:
> 
> I have a 4 ft long 40 gallon tank.  18 inches above the
> substrate is a 2 x 65w  coralife hood.  All my plants
> grow at a slow rate and are okay in terms of health and
> appearance... and my rotala rotundifolia is green colored
> (not red like in high light setups).   Now, if you do the
> math, i have 3.25 watts per gallon on my tank....however,
> stuff just doesn't grow as healthy as i know they could
> be...  i added nitrate to 10 ppm  phosphate 1 ppm 
> potassium 10 ppm  and traces and iron.... and i injected
> co2 too.... 
> 
> and another thing, if i neglect the tank and let duckweed
> cover the top, then my stem plants begin to rot at the
> bases...  
> 
> i really respect tom barr and what you have to say about
> only needed 2 watts per gallon....  but my tank compared
> to my friends tank with 192 watts over a 3 ft long 40
> gallon..he has beautiful beautiful plants growing at an
> unbelievably fast rate...he doesn't even add fertilizer
> or co2 and his plants are thicker, lusher than mine.his
> rotala is red, his ludwigia is red, and his pearlweed is
> twice the size of my pearlweed..  true, he has algae
> problems but i believe he could fix that after he adds
> his pressurized co2 and gets his ferts right.....  
> 
> the biggest difference between his and my tank is 
> lighting......
> 
> is there something i'm missing?


=====
S. Hieber

-  -   -   -   -   -   -   -
Amano Returns
to the AGA Annual Convention
Nov 12, 13 & 14, 2004 -- Crystal City, Virginia

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