[Prev][Next][Index]
Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V1 #222
Snail eratication.
How do I get rid of snails in my tank that are eating my plants?
Ken in Colorado.
At 03:39 PM 1/30/96 -0500, you wrote:
>
>
>
>Aquatic Plants Digest Tuesday, 30 January 1996 Volume 01 : Number 222
>
>In this issue:
>
> Gravel... To wash or not to wash?
> Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V1 #220
> Plant Wash
> CO2 & white goo on airstone
> Re: White goo on airstone
> Re: CO2 control with FROG & needle valve
> driftwood
> Disinfecting Plants
>
>See the end of the digest for information on subscribing to the
>Aquatic Plants mailing list and on how to retrieve back issues.
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>From: svr at eecs_umich.edu (Steve Robertson)
>Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 09:28:43 -0500
>Subject: Gravel... To wash or not to wash?
>
>Hi y'all. I've been lurking here for a few weeks, and have learned a lot.
>Thanks for all of the info.
>
>Right now, I'm in the process of setting up a 29 gallon planted tank. It's
>going to be a pretty low budget operation, so I don't expect the greatest
>of results, but I would like to do the best I can with what I've got. My
>first question deals with the gravel.
>
>I went to a local quarry the other day and picked up about 50 pounds of
>what they call "bird's eye gravel." It's about 2-4mm in size and is nicely
>colored. It is also extremely dirty, so I began to wash the gravel bit by
>bit so I could put it in my tank. As I rinsed, I noticed that the water
>obtained a nice reddish brown hue as it washed down the drain. At first, I
>was pleased at myself for doing such a good job of washing the gravel, but
>after awhile it began to occur to me that the nice reddish color was an
>indication that the silt mixed in with the gravel must have some level of
>iron in it.
>
>So I was wondering what some opinions might be as to whether or not it
>would be beneficial to put some unwashed gravel at the bottom of the tank
>and then cover that with washed gravel. Would the iron in the gravel be
>worth saving? I'm guessing it's probably not chelated, but how would I
>know?
>
>Right now, I intend to set up some DIY cables as well as use a commercial
>substrate additive, and I will probably also try out some vermiculite.
>Maybe it would be good to mix the vermiculite with the unwashed gravel?
>
>Thanks in advance for any input.
>
>Steve
>
>In Ann Arbor, Michigan, where it's..... what else? Cloudy and cold.
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>From: Roger Sieloff ISDH <sieloff at ideanet_doe.state.in.us>
>Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 08:25:46 -0600 (EST)
>Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V1 #220
>
>On Mon, 29 Jan 1996 Aquatic-Plants-Owner at actwin_com wrote:
>
>> A tragedy...
>>
>> My roomate had an urge to help me out this weekend by topping off my tanks
>
>> water he put in a couple gallons of 50X African Violet fertilizer in each
>
> Sort of reminds me of al old Monty Python skit, "feeding your goldfish"
>One of the cast takes a big plate of food and dumps it directly into the
>tank. I believe they got quite a lot of flack from the local fish clubs
>, but then again the cast and crew were a bit twisted...
>
> At any rate, I suggest a 50% water change as soon as possible.
>You can probably get away with water straight from the tap, since all the
>fish have died. If you use a power filter, the nitrogen fixing bacteria
>ought to clean up the excess nitrate in a couple weeks, but the residual
>phosphate is going to cause quite an algal bloom. Things will eventually
>balance themselves out again. In a few weeks, try re-introducing
>something like guppies into the tank. If they survive a week, you can
>then try Angles or Discus. One other thing you might want to try is a
>100% roommate change....
>
> Roger L. Sieloff
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>From: "David W. Parkin" <dwparkin at mmm_com>
>Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 08:50:48 -0600
>Subject: Plant Wash
>
>I need the recipe of a good general plant wash. I need a good method to
>wash / treat some java moss that has pond snails in it.
>
>Some on my tanks have snails and some don't. I'm not trying to get rid of
>the snails in the tank, just on specific plants I want to transfer to a
>none snail tank.
>
>DWP
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>From: Bob Woolley <macaw at tiac_net>
>Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 10:28:17 -0500
>Subject: CO2 & white goo on airstone
>
>I'm injecting the CO2 from my yeast bottle into the bottom of one of
>those small plastic spring water bottles. the airstone is epoxied
>into the bottom and water enters through holes around the perimeter.
>the top is attached to a small power head. Seems to do the job-CO2
>level is high and plants are taling off.
>I noticed that some white jelly-like goo grows on the airstone after
>a while. Anyone know what it is. Harmful or harmless?
>- --
>"A Bad Day Fishing Is Better Than A Good Day At Work"
>10: Macaw at tiac_net
>20: bob_woolley at fishmailserver_neuro.mssm.edu
>30: robert_s_woolley at ffn_mhv.net
>Web Page: http://www.tiac.net/users/macaw
>
>------------------------------
>
>From: College of Technology Computer Lab <tech-lab at tech_uh.edu>
>Date: Sun, 21 Jan 1996 00:19:30 -0800
>Subject: Re: White goo on airstone
>
>> I'm injecting the CO2 from my yeast bottle into the bottom of one of
>> those small plastic spring water bottles. the airstone is epoxied
>> into the bottom and water enters through holes around the perimeter.
>> the top is attached to a small power head. Seems to do the job-CO2
>> level is high and plants are taling off.
>> I noticed that some white jelly-like goo grows on the airstone after
>> a while. Anyone know what it is. Harmful or harmless?
>
>I have come to find that if you fill the bottle containing the the yeast
>mixture too full and shake it occasionally, some of the mixture is bound
>to make its way slowly down to the airstone and collect. I noticed this
>same occurrence repeatedly till I started filling just barely over half
>way.
>
>At any rate, the goo never seemed to affect the chemistry of the water,
>but I was paranoid so I filled the 2-liters less.
>
>Tyson Lee
>tyson at phoenix_net
>http://tyson.cet.net/~tyson
>
>
>
>
>------------------------------
>
>From: Stephen.Pushak at saudan_HAC.COM
>Date: Tue, 30 Jan 96 10:51:39 PST
>Subject: Re: CO2 control with FROG & needle valve
>
>> >It simply seems to me that the pressure and flow are highly correlated.
>
>True.
>
>> >The package that the FROG came with states it is preset at 22SCFH.
>> >Hence, the regulator will try to keep the flow constant.
>
>Not quite accurate. For a given pressure drop, the flow will be constant
>ie. at 800 psi the flow is 22 cubic feet per hour. Reduce the pressure
>drop by restricting the flow downstream.
>
>> try tank+FROG+gauge+needle-valve in that order
>> and close the needle valve. The gauge will rise to 800PSI or so.
>
>Also true (just not a good idea).
>
>Don't use the needle valve to shut-off flow; instead use the valve on
>the CO2 bottle. Needle valves aren't designed for on/off operation and
>you can damage the valve seat by trying to do it. This makes them
>non-linear flow restrictors and trickier or impossible to adjust right.
>
>Flow through a needle valve or orifice (as in FROG) is correlated to
>the pressure drop across the device. I don't have my old text books handy
>so I don't have the formulae but I can make some generalizations.
>(for those who really care, the manufacturer should be able to provide
>pressure/flow graphs for each device)
>
>The pressure at the outlet of the needle valve is fixed at ambient room
>pressure (i.e. zero relative to ambient). The pressure at the inlet of
>the FROG is also nearly constant (at a given temperature) until the liquid
>CO2 in the tank is used up. Assume this to be ~800psi at 20C.
>
>As long as there is flow through the needle valve & FROG, the sum of the
>pressure drops across the two restrictions is exactly equal to the
>total pressure difference, 800 psi. Assuming that the two devices have
>close to the same pressure/flow constant (an engineering value which
>approximates reality) the pressure in the middle will be ~400psi. The
>problem with a single needle valve alone is that its too sensitive to
>adjust to get the proper bubble rate. With two devices with a similar
>pressure drop, you have halved the sensitivity of the needle valve.
>
>I suspect (but don't know for sure) that in the tank+FROG+gauge+
>needle-valve configuration (properly adjusted), most of the pressure
>drop should be across the FROG. This will give the needle valve a nice
>smooth control and is exactly what we want.
>
>Could somebody try the following? Connect two needle valves (with
>proper rating) as follows: tank+valve1+valve2 -> aquarium.
>With valve2 fully open, adjust valve1 to the approximate bubble rate
>needed (or a little bit more). Then use valve2 to do the fine tuning.
>My bet is this will be approximately as good as a FROG+valve.
>
>Steve
>
>------------------------------
>
>From: "Jennifer Orme Van Buskirk" <J.VanBuskirk at m_cc.utah.edu>
>Date: Wed, 24 Jan 1996 18:35:15 +0000
>Subject: driftwood
>
>say it ain't so! could my driftwood be buffering my pH? after
>placing a handful of gravel in some R.O. water, the pH went to 7.6,
>not even co2 could lower it.
>
>i am planning to replace the gravel with a substrate that will not
>buffer my pH basic. but before I tear my aquarium down, i decided to
>test everything in the aquarium (ie, gravel, rocks, & driftwood).
>
>the various rocks I have didn't cause pure R.O. water to change it's
>pH, but the driftwood did. it went right to 7.4. could this be? i
>got the idea that a decaying piece of driftwood would produce more
>acidic conditions. what up?
>
>matt van buskirk - in blah, blah, blah, where it's blah degrees
>
>------------------------------
>
>From: Bob Woolley <macaw at tiac_net>
>Date: Tue, 30 Jan 1996 14:43:56 -0500
>Subject: Disinfecting Plants
>
>I do not want to transfer infectious agents to my plant/discus tank.
>What chemicals are good for which bugs and in waht conc.?
>- --
>"A Bad Day Fishing Is Better Than A Good Day At Work"
>10: Macaw at tiac_net
>20: bob_woolley at fishmailserver_neuro.mssm.edu
>30: robert_s_woolley at ffn_mhv.net
>Web Page: http://www.tiac.net/users/macaw
>
>------------------------------
>
>End of Aquatic Plants Digest V1 #222
>************************************
>
>To unsubscribe to aquatic-plants, send the command:
> unsubscribe aquatic-plants
>in the body of a message to "Majordomo at ActWin_com". Archives are
>available on the web at http://www.actwin.com/fish/aquatic-plants
>or via FTP to ftp.actwin.com in /pub/aquaria/aquatic-plants.
>
>
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ken Gruber | SoftShell International, Developers
ken at softshell_com | of ChemWindow, state-of-the-art
Box 141, 306 E. Orchard Ave | chemistry drawing software
Hotchkiss, CO USA |
970/872-3874 |
---------------------------------------------------------------------