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RE: [APD] Re: "Barr method"



Tom,

I'm guessing I missed this, but is there a particular brand of fert or
perhaps "home brew" that you favor?

Thanks for all your input!

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: aquatic-plants-bounces at actwin_com
[mailto:aquatic-plants-bounces at actwin_com] On Behalf Of Thomas Barr
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 12:31 AM
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com
Subject: [APD] Re: "Barr method"




>>Message: 9
Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 13:32:48 -0800
From: "William M. Cwirla" <wcwirla at verizon_net>
Subject: [APD] Re: "Barr Method" Principles
To: aquatic-plants at actwin_com

Tom, would you be willing to jot down the basics of the "Barr method"?  
I know you've probably done this before, and it probably can be gleaned 
from your prior posts, but it's good for these ongoing discussions to 
occasionally summarize things for the benefit of those who may have 
dropped in late on the conversation.  I've tried to locate a definitive 
e-mail on the search engine, but can't quite find what I'm looking for. 
  So, if you could Tom, on behalf of all of us low maintenance hobby 
types who want lush plants, crystal clear water, little to no algae, 
without turning our tanks into some sort of junior high science fair 
project, tell us the basic principles of the "Barr Method" we've been 
kicking around here.  You needn't run it through a spell checker or 
grammar checker.  ;-)  Just the basics.

Thanks.

Bill>>

In a nut shell: 
Dose nutrients 2-4x a week to prevent anything from running out, do
weekly 50% water changes to prevent anything from building up. CO2 and
light are all that's left but ........ too many folks have too much
light and not enough CO2.

It's not my method, it's just something that makes sense and is easy to
do, requires no test kits for the nutrients. So it's really a "lower"
mainteance routine already. If you need less maintenance than this, try
less light. Around 1.5/w gallon, you dose once a week, have high CO2 and
less pruning, very easy to grow most anything at a nice moderate pace.

And........if that is still not good enough..... and you are living the
life of a Hobo, try non CO2 without low light.

Not sure which of these are my methods really.......the so called method
works well on the CO2 set ups. Once a week water change and dosing seems
awful easy.

But people want lots of light and low maintenance...........hohum. Some
need to learn the hard way. Thing is, they then go with more CO2 and
nutrient routines to keep pace with all the light, then complain about
it:-)

The dosing amounts are similar in the lower light tank, but the
frequency of dosing is less. So instaed of 1/4 teaspoon pr 20 gal 3-4x a
week at 5w/gal, you do 1/4 teaspoon after water change once a week.

It helps more to have fish to help your plants get through till the next
dose if you are forgetful about dosing, but folks often don't feed their
fish also.

The fish/waste factor helps more for lower light tanks and can ease the
frequency of dosing at low light+ CO2. The CO2 allows you to grow any
plant species nicely.

So there's a few things.

There will be stuff for newbies on TheBarrReport.com also. 
We scientist call it the "Executive summary" which will accompany each
chapter/article. Plain language.

Regards, 
Tom Barr

















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