[APD] RE: barley straw

["Thomas Barr" <tcbiii at earthlink_net>]

 >From what I've read the pond folks have good success with barley straw.

So have folks that added enough plants to begin with.
Same thing with planted tanks and natural lakes. 
Gin clear water.

> Perhaps its high in carbon and low in protein (nitrogen) and thus
> stimulates aquatic plant growth or perhaps it stimulates the rotifer
> populations. I've heard it works well for infusoria cultures.

Yep.
Rotifers do well also.

> We have to be careful because pond dynamics are different from aquaria.

Sort of.
Still got plants, algae, critters, light and nutrients.
If you add one plant to a 55 gallon tank, is that planted?
Pond folks generally don't add nearly enough plants then complain about
algae.
Ponds with high plant density and growth don't have algae.
Same for planted tanks, the tanks with dense good plant growth don't have
algae.
Same for natural lakes that are shallow with lots of plants, no algae.
There are differwences with each water body, but there are still many of
the same things going on and very similar traits each one possesses.

> Tom:
> > "It's things like Duckweed, bladderwort, Riccia that piss me off real
> bad."
> LOL! For me these are fairly easy to control because they can be removed
> by hand.

If you have emergent growth, Riccia, Moss, anything that these can
entangle, you will cuss trying to remove them all.

> I can grow plants to beat stink but I simply don't have spare hours to
> spend pruning and picking out huge clumps of filament algae or leaves
> covered with Oedogonium on a weekly basis. I'm going to give your method
> a fair shot on my new tank. I have the CO2 cranked up on all my tanks;
> right now they are probably P limited.

Less light, then high CO2/nutrients is the best way to go and have good
plant growth and less algae.
This observation was confirmed again today on a large tank that a
mainteance company I work with. 

Folks will be much better off dealing with limiting light rather than
limiting nutrients. 
This allows for the most wiggle room.
But folks are too hopped up on high light means "I can grow red plants" or
"red plants *need* the high light" or such and "such and such plant needs
high light".

> Perhaps we should add to the list for fighting algae:
>
> 5) keep illumination at the appropriate level (not too strong, not too
> weak; tuned for the needs of the species in the tank)

Yep, 
But then we don't need no straw, we got live, not dead rotting
plants(Barely Straw).

Tom Barr
>
> Steve P



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