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Home method for strong plant growth



There's a lot of plant science, and there are just pure facts. I was 
faced with that fact some time ago, visiting a home of an older aquarist 
here in Warsaw, Poland.

This gentleman (Stefan is his name, which is Steven, so I'll call him 
that for the purpose of this post) has been supplying many LFSs with 
large, beautiful, water-grown Echinodorus cordifolius (lately switched to 
crypts), all from his 600 liter tank in his home (water-grown). He has 
been supplying a couple of adult plants every 2-3 days, so the growth was 
phenomenal.

How did he do it?

The interesting thing is... he never used CO2, he uses pure, washed sand 
(about 2-3 cm deep!) as the substrate, and he uses only two 20W Phillips 
fluorescent bulbs (you know, the modern lightbulb that you screw in but 
20W gives you as much light as a normal 100W will) for his 180cm by 60cm 
by 60cm tank (deep!). This seems like impossible. However, here's what he 
does to stimulate the growth. I would like to know what do you think 
about this. Oh, I might mention that his tank is always full of fish, now 
he has about 100 guppies, 50 mollies, 50 C. aeneus and 8 Ancistrus 
dolichopterus in that tank, and they strive, grow fast and breed all the 
time (especially the corys).

Here's the magical method.

During the spring and summer, he goes off to open fields in the country 
and collets various grass leaves and any other small plant leaves. They 
must be fresh and clean. When he comes home he puts them in a jar full of 
tap water and lets them sit there for weeks. After a couple of weeks he 
filters the water so that the plant leaves are left behind, and using a 
simple medical (sorry forgot the name - the thing which the nurse uses to 
give you a shot - not the needle but what's attached to it ;) "injector?" 
and a piece of rubber hose he injects some of the water directly under 
the plant roots. This 'rotten water' stays there, as the sand prevents is 
from mixing too much with the tank water.

This is the only thing he does, and he can supply multiple shops with 
plants.

Any comments?


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