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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #391



Winter temps in C japonica's home range drop down towards freezing. I know 
as I live in it's home range. A common predator of Yamato ebi is the Funa or 
common wild goldfish (gin buna or kin buna) (silver & gold)
>
>I have 8+ caridina japonica (yamato numa-ebi or amano shrimp) in a heated 
>20
>gal planted tank and have not had any problems with them harassing fish -
>they are too small, docile and prefer algae, fish food and detritus to 
>fish.
>I couldn't comment on an unheated tank with goldfish. I would expect that
>once the goldfish got to a certain size that the shrimp would be open
>targets just because they will fit into the fishes mouth.
>
>As far as controlling BBA, I wouldn't count on it. My shrimp tend to stay
>away from it in favor of other types of algae and uneaten fish food.
>
>At first I started out with the idea that snails, shrimp, fish, etc. could
>be used to control algae and that is all I would need to do and I would 
>have
>a clean tank. While they do a great job they are not foolproof (IMO) and
>that controlling the amount and types of nutrients, etc. is an essential
>element to keeping algae under control along with the natural algae eaters.
>I have a 60 gal tank with one Chinese algae eater, a small plecostoma, 6
>yellow labidichromis chiclids and three anubias barteria and I find that
>when I get algae blooms it is because I fed the tank too much or didn't
>change the water regularly. I also have a 10 gal with plastic plants and 4
>chiclids and I am able to keep algae in check by adequate filtration, water
>changes and modest feeding.
>
>I would definitely stay away from chemicals to treat the algae (at least 
>the
>kind that is introduced into the tank with the fish), none of them have 
>ever
>worked for me. There are a number of approaches using bleach, H202 and 
>other
>things that might help. Please do your research before attempting any of
>these methods though, since you only want to kill the algae and not
>everything in your tank. :-)
>
>I don't believe that anyone is going to come up with a single, silver 
>bullet
>for algae, I think you should look at a combination of approaches. The Krib
>has alot of "ideas" on how to control algae, I would look there for more
>suggestions.
>
>Jerry
>
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 07:21:30 -0400 (EDT)
> > From: June Oshiro <idlewild at rci_rutgers.edu>
> > Subject: Goldfish and shrimp intrxns?
> >
> > Greetings,
> >
> > I had a word in my original post which caused it to be routed to the
> > approval person, and since I haven't yet seen my post appear, I am 
>editing
> > and resending.  Apologies if you are reading this twice.
> >
> > I have two fantails (goldfish) in a 20 g tank with no plants (just 
>plastic
> > ones which look terrible).  I tried having crypts in there earlier this
> > year, but the crypts let out some kind of metabolite which 
>*dramatically*
> > induces BBA growth - there was no BBA until I introduced plants, just 
>some
> > brown and green algae that would stick to the glass and was easily 
>removed
> > during water changes.
> >
> > I'd like to put plants in the tank - just some low maintenance, quick
> > growing plants that can proliferate faster than the fish will eat them.
> > However, I do have algae hangups and hate the way BBA chokes the life 
>out
> > of plants; I'd like to put something in the tank that will eradicate 
>BBA.
> > Specifically, I was wondering about algae eating shrimp.
> >
> > Goldfish, as you probably know, are somewhat slow and clumsy swimmers - 
>it
> > is generally recommended that they not be mixed with other fish, or even
> > other variations of goldfish.  They are definitely nervous around other
> > faster swimming fish - I did try having SAE in the tank with them for a
> > few days, but it didn't work out.  The gfish are about 2-3 inches long -
> > with beautiful flowing tails exceeding their body length.
> >
> > Uncle Ned (of Fish Factory fame) thinks that the shrimp will be eaten in
> > fairly short order by the goldfish.
> >
> > If that doesn't occur:
> > Do shrimp like unheated freshwater tanks?
> > Will shrimp disturb/snap at the fantails?
> > Are there other goldfish-compatible algae eaters?
> >
> > Thanks in advance, and apologies for being long-winded,
> > - -j.
> >
> >
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Thu, 06 Jul 2000 17:30:29 -0500
>From: Lobos <lobos0331 at yahoo_com>
>Subject: re: heating cables & plant growth
>
>George,
>
>Is it possible to revitalize an older substrate by periodically adding
>laterite fertilizer balls or Jobe's sticks to the substrate, instead of
>using substrate heating cables?  In theory the addition of fertilizer to
>the substrate should provide a new supply of nutrients to the substrate,
>which as far as I understand is the mode of action of heating cables.
>Of course this is in theory.
>
>Lobos
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 17:37:05 -0500
>From: "Jon Wilson" <jwilson at knology_net>
>Subject: RE: Pumps
>
> > From: George Booth <booth at lvld_agilent.com>
> > We now use Quiet One pumps exclusively. We have three that
> > have been running
> > between 5 and 10 years with no problems. They are dead
> > silent, unlike other more
> > popular brands of pumps, such as Iwaki. The pump is direct
> > drive (I believe)
> > hence may heat the water a little bit if that is a concern.
>
>Just to add another data point....
>
>I've been running Hydrothrusters for roughly 9 years. My oldest one is 
>about
>6 years old now, I have one going on 4. 2 others burned up in around 3 
>years
>each, but it was mostly due to me not lubricating (and cleaning the dust 
>out
>of) them every 6 months. I tried a Quiet One, but found it was heating the
>water more than I could deal with. Quiet Ones are a little quieter than
>Hydrothruster QVs. I've heard Iwaki's (and that was their problem:)
>
>The best Hydrothruster was the QVE model that I can't seem to find anymore.
>0.7a draw and smaller fan blades made it run nearly silent, although the
>pair on my mom's tank had a couple speeds that would put out a high pitch
>whine. I still have 2 of them running on my 225 gallon.
>
>Jon Wilson
>http://www.knology.net/~jwilson/plants.htm
>
>------------------------------
>
>Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2000 18:48:22 -0500
>From: "James Purchase" <jpurch at interlog_com>
>Subject: alternative heating devices
>
>George wrote:
>"Earle Hamilton (used to be (still is?) on this list) built such a system
>using
>PVC and he had great success with it. He had a long article in AFM some 
>yers
>ago
>describing the system and how to build it. I think he ran the water through
>a
>closed PVC pipe system and used a heater and pump to source water at 95 F. 
>I
>believe he reported great long term results."
>
>I corresponded with Earle about his article a few years ago and 
>subsequently
>built a device similar to his. In my case, I used copper tubing rather than
>PVC, covering it with several layers of 2 part epoxy to prevent toxicity
>(the epoxy worked - I was never able to measue any increase in Copper in 
>the
>tank using a LaMotte test kit and conductivity tests indicated that there
>was no area of exposed copper in contact with the water in the tank). I
>figured that the copper would be a better conductor of heat than the PVC in
>Earle's original design.
>
>I used this device for about 2 years. I was able to measure a definate heat
>gradient within the substrate bed and the substrate was warmer than the
>water column - check the archives, I'm sure that I posted about this a few
>years ago. It DID require a very powerful pump to push even a small flow of
>water thru the many twists and turns of the manifold. I think I measured
>something like a 90% loss due to friction of the water against the tubing 
>as
>it moved thru so many 90 degree turns. So it was expensive to operate.
>
>I never noticed any increase in "stability" due to the heated substrate. I
>did notice extreme problems with all KINDS of nuisance algae - but I
>attributed that to my overly rich substrate - I think that the heating
>manifold might have made things worse by causing excess nutrients contained
>in the gravel bed to be carried out into the water column. In the Dupla
>scheme of things, the only thing in the substrate is a small quantity of
>laterite.
>
>I recently replaced the copper manifold with a 200W AZOO cable and replaced
>the gravel to fall in line with standard Dupla methodology. It being summer
>and me being without an a/c, the new heating cable hasn't been "on" much 
>yet
>so I can't comment on any differences - except that this current setup has
>NO nuisance algae. Of course, my definition of nusiance and what others 
>find
>objectionable might differ - the front glass does need to be cleaned off
>every few weeks. But the plants don't have algae growing on them. (moderate
>to low fish load and very ligh
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