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Re: [APD] Miracle
so please share with us how this miracle happens. Sure would save me a
lot of money on ferts, CO2, etc.
rich green
milton ma
Rich, I never told him to not to dose his tank. Well, I did say don't
fertilize in his initial planting. I think that's a good move and I say
from experience. It's best to plant and let everything calm down for a
week or two. Dosing then just puts extra "stuff" in the water column and
if the plants are trying to reroot rather than producing leaves,
something has to consume the extra nutrients (algae). Over the years
I've been high maintenance (CO2, PMDD, substrate tabs, high lighting,
etc.) down to low tech (1 W/gal, no added ferts, Fluorite only). I've
come to the conclusion (my $0.02) from doing this almost 20 years, I
like the low tech methods the best, or maybe low tech with a little high
tech sprinkled in. I don't have the time, patience, or money for
maintaining my 4 aquariums as high tech superworlds. I keep them from
2.5 W/gal to 1 W/gal and growing crypts in any of them is easy as pie.
I've given away (or thrown to the compost bin) buckets of crypts (all
varieties, nothing rare) over the years (plus all types of other common
aquarium plants). I do have Fluorite in all my tanks and it the oldest
tank of Fluorite is going on 15 years old - the youngest is about 8
years. One would have to surmise a tank that old has a lot of nutrients
in the substrate. From seeing the roots of my plants, I can tell you
there is plenty of nutritions to go around. I do 25%-40% water changes
about every 3 months. I do wipe the inner glass down once a month or 6
weeks. There is little green algae on the glass, but I do like a
crystal-clear window into my aquatic worlds, so I'm kind of ADD about
that. I can honestly say every 3 months I have to trim and cull plants
to give my fish room to swim. If I go 4-6 months, it's too much. I don't
keep all those high-light plants like I use to, but I will throw some in
from time to time. I use city water that is 1 degree hardness and 1
degree alkalinity. I use calcium chloride, magnesium sulfate, and
potassium chloride to get my numbers into the 6-10 ppm, 4-6 ppm, and
25-30 ppm ranges, respectively. I also use a very small pinch of baking
soda to keep the pH stable (Kh ~ 2). That's it! Over the years I've
found a formula that works for me. I like my variety of plants. I like
that they grow moderately and with little intervention. And I like that
the tanks allow me to perform maintenance on my schedule rather than be
driven by their needs. I like having/breeding fish and letting the
plants play second fiddle if I so desire.
BTW, speaking of ADD - I'm a chemist in a production lab and have been
my entire professional life (20+ years). We test everything, so I'm
given the opportunity to test every water parameter one would ever want.
And, I did do this for many years, to the point of almost making my
hobby a burden. I had to have the water column read exactly 0.1 ppm Fe.
I had to have my minerals within certain ranges. I have to have my
nitrate read 5-8 ppm. I had to have my phosphate right around 0.1 ppm. I
had to have my CO2 around 25 ppm. This was a lot of work and while my
plants did well, they almost did too well. I began feeling more like a
plant nursery than an aquarium hobbyist. I can't tell you the last time
I checked water parameters, probably 4-5 years. I know if I do my
quarterly water changes, feed sparingly, don't vacuum the gravel, and
let nature work out the issues, everything is going to look fine. And it
has. I guess that is miracle enough.
Also, if there is any need for this, I did some research late 1999 and
wrote an article for Dave Gomberg's Planted Aquarium. It was published
in one of his magazines. See I told you I had ADD. ;-)
http://home.infinet.net/teban/jamie.htm
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