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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #338



<after a long period of
<good growth there is a general decline in plant growth, using something like
<jobe's sticks or home-made clay balls is a lot easier than a complete tear
<down and re-set.

Jobe's plant sticks?  My LFS (the same one selling aluminum plants) sells a
product called Plantabbs from Aquarium Products for $1.39, while Jobe's plant
food spikes cost $2.99 at our discount chain.  Fertilizers are rated by three
numbers, total guaranteed nitrogen-total phosphate-total potash

Jobe's: 13-4-5.
Plantabbs: 11-15-20.
 
We already have an ammoniacal nitrogen source as well as a nitrate nitrogen
source in the nitrifying bacteria right? So the latter numbers are more
important.  The biggie to me is that Jobes contains Chlorine also.  While not
significant, .2%, I prefer the plantabbs in cost and safety.  Any good
suggestions for a iron intensive fertilizer?  I am using Tetra's liquid right
now, but I want something else.

>At the risk of sounding harsh, what about your responsibility to know your
plants and/or >research them before buying when you're unsure?   Why does all
the responsibility lie with >the LFS and not with you - the person laying out
their cash?  Perhaps running to your >reference books is a more appropriate
solution than running to the legal system.  Caveat >emptor

In reality most aquarists, I would venture to say significantly all, enjoy the
hobby on a spectator level.  How many engage in basic research of plant
propagation, water quality trials, or scientific attempts to document breeding
conditions for "unbreedable fish". This is not a hobby populated with
innovators or thinkers.  Witness the ramblings of the interested afraid to try
DIY CO2 for fear of the unknown and a lack of the stamp of packaged corporate
authority.  It's is, generally speaking the same people trying the same
things.  There is nothing wrong with this, the onus of basic research or
species conservation does not fall on the aquarist, nor should it.  He/she is
nothing more often than someone who wants to cultivate a challenging
Aponogeton madagascariensis as the trophy of their tanks.  Discriminate the
difference between someone who "knows" some trite bit of aquaculture trivia
and can regurgitate it back in all it's buzzword glory.  Retailers in this
economic system ARE regulated by volumes of commercial code concerning how
they may approach marketing and labeling of consumer items.  Somewhere in that
quagmire LFS' can be held responsible even to the extent of $1.99.  Taking
pride in the ability to distinguish between an aquatic and a terrestrial or
bog plant is absurd.  Take that pride right down to your LFS and make a
contribution to the next aquaticist, save him the frustration of this plant
dying and what may turn him off from this hobby.  Who knows maybe he might
even have something to contribute more than the smug satisfaction of plant
identification, maybe he is someone with something to contribute to the
aquatic knowledge base.

signed someone who has two dwarf african frogs in his tank in ignorance