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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V3 #1442



Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 10:14:38 -0800 (PST)
>From: samm <wmaster26 at yahoo_com>
>Subject: A method of madness for the ferilized UGF plate???
>
>After posting my hypothetical setup about the
>fertilized UGF plate underneath the gravel...people
>mostly responded by telling me that this system has
>existed before and I also got responses about the RUGF
>setup.

Hi Samm, sorry if I went astray! 
I did use the CPVC grid like your suggesting with the nutrients added only
to fill the tubes(I went so far as to calculate the volume of the tubes) and
left it inactive similar to what you suggests in the plate idea of
yours...................I could pour more in as needed after a few (2)
months. I only did this for a couple of times so about 4 months. I knew the
RFUG idea worked so I went back to that at the time. I think it should be
given a better run or perhaps after a year or so.........before passing
judgement. I did not have the patience<g>! Fine tuning the system you could
get some very good results I think. But they won't be to far off from the
deep gravel bed and adding clay balls or jobes sticks into it. The different
methods might both work well with no clear winner.  

It did OK but the set up was running then I stopped the flow, I added
laterite, fertilizer 10-10-2,
and some Kent's plant supplement. The tank crashed initially but finally
bounced back after a month and a few dead fish..........since they all died
I had nothing to lose by leaving it the way it was.....sand was 2-3 mm and
about 5 inches deep.
I honestly can't say that it was a great method to stop any algae from
getting into the water column by making the nutrients unavailable deep in
the gravel....... over say.......adding clay balls or pellets to plain
gravel.
My main thing was it was a flexible system that could do both depending on
what you want. 
It would do the same thing as the plate idea of yours, but take up less
space........


I have a tank that gets lots of natural sunlight also like yours. It's 80
gallon. I have a very deep gravel bed. It's about 7 inches deep of 2-3 mm
sand and old dirty mulm. There is very very little algae. Green spot algae
on the glass is cleaned every month perhaps? No other algae is present. No
CO2 and a aquaclear 300. An old shop light was added later. Crypts are doing
good as are the fish(some F2's Psuedotropheus. zebra) and the tank gets some
balls/tablets added once every 2 months or so. Java moss has epic growth
over time. No water column fertilizer except some K2SO4 and a small amount
of iron once every 2 months at best and fish flakes. That's my experience
with the inactive plate/Tube thing. Maybe this helps with your idea some?
Regards, 
Tom Barr