[APD] Re: Re: CO2 + marine plants

[Timchiro at aol_com]

In a message dated 12/7/2003 11:44:59 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
aquatic-plants-request at actwin_com writes:
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 22:28:13 -0800 (PST)
From: Thomas  Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net>
Subject: [APD] Re: CO2 + marine plants
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com


Message: 6
Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 22:01:06 EST
From: Timchiro at aol_com
Subject: [APD] Re: Marine Planted Tank
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com

"The Marine plant fest sounds 
like a very interesting trip to say the least, but being from the Northeast, 
it 
still becomes an expensive endeavor."

Heck you want to go only for collecting the plants:)??
Gee, I figured snorkeling coral reefs on some nice sunny island sounded 
pretty good too:)
I suppose there are worse things to do, the plants are just icing on the 
cake. 
Even if you don't collect/take a single plant, it's still pretty fun.
Point well taken Tom. Maybe I can convince my wife we need a family vacation. 
;-)



"Some species have been tuff to even 
keep alive, never mind propagated them. I have found that CO2 additions 
greatly 
improves plant growth."

What levels of CO2 are you using? I've thought about it but I'd like not to 
use it if I can, but it might work well, Chara, snail shells etc respond well 
to high CO2 levels even with all the CaCO3 present in them. 

With all the aragonite substrate, not dosing Kalk/CaCl2 and just roasting the 
tank with enough CO2 to dissolve that without going overboard might be nice, 
I'm leary of one's tank being the mild Kalk reactor. But I guess is should 
work if you keep tabs on the pH.
I haven't narrowed down the CO2 levels I use. I know it is very very little. 
Basically I use a DIY yeast reactor on one of my smaller FW planted tanks. I 
change the reactor about every 7-10 days and use the old reactor on my marine 
system. I had some minor pH swings using this method, so I discontinued its 
use. When I stopped, I noticed slower plant growth. For fun I resumed this 
method, and noticed better plant growth in both the appearance of the plants, and 
speed of growth. This is very unspecified, but a general observation just the 
same.

I was told by the curator at the local museum that you wouldn't get aragonite 
substrate to "roast" unless the pH dropped below neutral. He runs his Ca 
reactor at pH 6.6. Maybe there is a way to test to see if it will disassociate at 
a pH greater than 7. Interesting thought.

Do you have any thoughts on Fe additions? Kent makes a product with chelated 
Fe, as well as K, Mn, Mo and Zn. Interestingly enough, I was under the 
impression that FW algae could utilize K. Possibly SW macro's and the like benefit 
from K additions. I know Seachems reef plus also contains Fe.


Regards,

Tim

I glue animals to rocks
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