[Prev][Next][Index]
Flowering Aponogeton rigidifolius
I'm not sure whether to be happy or jealous, but the A.rigidifolius
in my wifes tank has just started flowering, while the one in my
tank is having difficulty keeping ahead of the red-death-hair algae.
Her tank started out as a bit of an experiment, and it's turning out
to be doing really well. Descriptions follow:
My tank -
Size: 5'x2'x2'
Lighting: 4' fluorescents (2 Phillips #84,2 Phillips #86, 2 Phillips #95)
Substrate: 4" 2-4mm gravel, home-found laterite in the bottom ~1.5"
Filtration: 2 ~130gph internal power filters, for a fair bit of current.
Fertilization: Dupla at ~1/3 recommended dosage, and DIY yeast co2.
Fish: 20 rummy noses, 2 blue gouramis, 3 ~3" clown loaches, 4
ottocinclus, 2 CAE, 1 "false siamensis", 4 small ancistrus.
Chem: Nitrates ~0, phosphates 0.1 my_kit_units, pH ~7.4.
Water Changes: ~25% fortnightly from tap.
In general the plants grow well: Temple plant is a nice reddish colour;
twisted Val reproducing happily; some kind of Rotala (sold to me as
wallichii (?), but looks more like descriptions of R. indica) also nice
and red. Hair algae (and a little thread algae) also grows well
(unfortunately we don't get SAE's in New Zealand (AFAIK)).
My wifes tank was set up about 2 1/2 months ago to see if we could
keep it free from the hair algae.
Size: 4'x18"x18" (or something)
Lighting: 1 4' fluoro (some crappy old tube) plus windows (it's
in the lounge).
Substrate: 1" potting mix, 1/2" sand, 2" 2-4mm gravel.
Filtration: ~130gph cannister filter.
Fertilization: none
Fish: 5 med discus, 5 neons, 4 small ancistrus, 3 corys.
Chem: pH ~6.4, dunno about nitrates etc, prolly low though.
Water Changes: ~20% weekly rain water + little hot water to get temp.
In setting up this tank, everything was either bleached (tank, filter,
heater etc) or boiled (substrate, wood, etc). All the plants in this
tank got the bleach treatment too. Temple plant grows happily, but not
with the reddish colouration. The Aponogeton rigidifolius has just
started flowering. Echinodoris quadricostatus is going for it like a
wild man. There is no algae in this tank (although the water has just
gone a bit green in the last few days).
In my tank, some plants just don't do well at all. When I got a few
Ech. quadricostatus just over a month ago, I put half in my tank and
half in my wifes. Mine is not-growing/not-dieing, while hers has
shot off. My guess is the pH that's making the difference, so I've
been doing largeish rainwater changes the last couple of times, but
the pH is still around 7.2 at the moment. I've been thinking of
taking the tank down and doing the big bleach thing since it seems
to have worked on the other tank (and also to reduce the risk of
reinfection of the other tank).
There. Longer than I intended though. Any comments?
Cheers,
Len.
--
Len Trigg ===================================================
Comp Sci Grad DoD#1334 trigg at cs_waikato.ac.nz
Waikato Uni GPX250 http://www.cs.waikato.ac.nz/~trigg
GCS d---(+) p c++ !l u+ e++ m* s n@ h--- f* !g w t++ r y+(*)