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Aluminum, Triton lamps and Living Water Vital
> From: Dirk
> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 10:24:43 -0600
> Subject: Aluminum
>
> Does anyone know of any reason, for the sake of fish or plants, why
> aluminum should not be kept in contact with aquarium water?
There is no known positive role for aluminum in biology. There are
suspected negative roles. Therefore, I see no reason to have it in
contact with aquarium water. I don't have problems with anodized
aluminum reflectors, or other incendental contact. I would not put a
piece of bare aluminum in my aquarium, though. There is no reason to do so.
> From: "Mark Shelton" <mark_shelton at pobox_tbe.com>
> Date: 1 Feb 1997 12:40:48 -0600
> Subject: Fluorescent Tubes Specs
> I went down to the local fish shop with the intention of purchasing a 40
> watt Triton bulb. As is usual, the package was lacking any of the
> specifications we aquaria types need to compare bulbs. The package did however
> get my attention when I saw the price of $46 OUCH!
That is way too much money for an aquarium lamp. You will be better off
with an industry standard triphosphor lamp. I doubt that freshwater
tanks need such a high color temperature light source.
> From: krombhol at felix_teclink.net (Paul Krombholz)
> Date: Sat, 1 Feb 1997 14:38:22 -0500
> Subject: Re: Living Water Vital
> Pat Bowerman wrote Jan 30:
> >"According to our laboratory, apart from the chelated calcium base, CV
> >also has calculated portions of brewer's yeast, dextrose, glucose,
> >acetate to insure the proper enzymes (already exist in nature or our
> >aquariums) to kick in. Although the CV is not a fertilizer, it feeds
> >microscopic organisms so that they become more active, especially in the
> >photosynthetic type of organisms."
> >Would it be too far fetched to infer that Living Water Vital might
> >contain many of these same ingredients? And if so, what are
> >"photosynthetic types of organisms" ? What would be the effects of
> >adding the above mixture (save the chelated calcium) to our planted
> >aquariums
> Ah! the smell of baloney is getting stronger.
Maybe.
> The stuff has some sugar and
> some calcium! The sugar will stimulate the growth of some bacteria, but,
> so what? What good does it do to put sugar in your tank?
It makes some carbon dioxide when bacteria use it.
> The only thing that will
> feed photosynthetic organisms is mineral nutrients. Photosynthetic
> organisms are plants and algae.
That isn't true in marine systems, and I suspect that it isn't true in
freshwater systems, either. Most photosynthetic organisms are quite
competent to pull glucose out of the water. The question is whether or
not that does a bit of good. And whether or not the target organisms get
it before the bacteria.
Gluconate is a potential iron chelant. As is fructose, actually. There
is more to the product than just chelated calcium. For all I know, it
does have some positive effect on freshwater systems. I have not done
the experiments to prove otherwise. However, I don't think that
freshwater tanks are generally short of dissolved organic compounds, nor
potential iron chelants, so I do have some reason to doubt its efficacy on
that basis.
Craig