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Re: Re: Re: Barley Sraw Revisited



Chuck,

>With such a strong effect on algae, is there any possiblity that it would
>inhibit growth of higher plants as well?   

The authors (N.C. Everall and D.R. Lees) published another paper earlier
(The use of Barley-Straw To Control General and Blue-green Algal Growth in
Derbyshire Reservoir, Wat. Res. Vol 30, No. 2, pp269-276, 1996) and, as
part of the study, assessed the impact of barley straw on both submerged
and emergent macrophytes. They concluded that there were no lost of higher
plant area cover that is attributed to the compounds leached by decomposing
barley straw. However, they did revealed that barley straw do leach some
compounds that are known to be toxic to plants.
What I want to know from those people who allowed barley straw to rot in
their aquarium is:

1) Does it also significantly leach tannins into the water?
2) How are the plants growing when subjected to rotting barley straw?
3) Does anyone share the same observations as Dwight?

If lignin is really the key to all this, shouldn't we see the same effect
from wood (e.g. Driftwood?) or any other plant material that contains lignin? 
The author cited someone else's experiment on oak leaves... anyone game
enough to try?

To Ashley,
The author suggested 25g/m^3 to produce a significant control of algae,
i.e. 25g/ 264 USgallons? Did I calculate correctly?


CK