Re: [APD] Temperate plants for outdoor tank?

[Vaughn Hopkins <hoppycalif at yahoo_com>]

I'm assuming that this tank gets good, indirect sunlight, so would be 
classified as a high light intensity tank.  If that's correct I suspect 
  your plants suffer from lack of CO2, so the problem to solve is  how 
to provide it in a weatherproof way.  If your tank is on a stand or 
cabinet with an enclosed bottom why couldn't you make that area 
weatherproof and use normal pressurized CO2?  Then you would still  
have a problem keeping the bubble rate constant, since the CO2 bottle 
temperature would vary a lot, and that varies the regulator inlet 
pressure.  But, that is solvable with a two stage regulator.  Am I on 
track here???

Vaughn H.

On Tuesday, March 28, 2006, at 02:06 PM, Elaine T wrote:

> Hi.  I usually lurk here but I thought you could help me out.  I have 
> an
> outdoor 38 gallon glass tank.  I live in zone 10 so it never freezes.
> In fact, the lowest the lowest water temperature this winter was 52F.
> It sometimes warms up to 90F at midday in the summertime, but 85F is
> more typical.
>
> So far, E. uruguayensis thrives and S. subulata (dwarf and normal 
> sized)
> does reasonably well.  I also have an E. cordifolius that has survived,
> but it only grows floating leaves.   Water lettuce and water hyacinth
> stay small but grow quickly when the water is above 70F.  Hornwort and
> anacharis survive, but grow poorly - the anacharis tends to bleach.
> Complete failures (even when the water was 70-80F) include water 
> sprite,
> H. polysperma, Myriophyllum aquaticum, Vallisneria americana, java 
> moss,
> and R. indica.  They bleached and fell apart, perhaps from light shock.
>
> My water is moderately hard.  Substrate is mostly 2-3 mm clay with some
> Flourite and fine gravel.  Fish are mollies, flagfish, white clouds,
> bluefin killies, and dojo loaches.  I fertilize with Plantex CSM+B,
> potassium nitrate, potassium phosphate, and NPK substrate spikes for 
> the
> swords.  Calcium and magnesium come for free in my water.  No carbon.
> CO2 equipment is not weatherproof and Excel kills anacharis.  There is
> gentle water movement from a small pond pump and homemade matte filter.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions for more submerged plants I can try?
> I'd like to get all of the substrate planted, remove the anacharis and
> use Excel, and rely less on water hyacinth for plant mass.  The tank
> also has a hair algae problem which I'm hoping will improve with a lot
> more submersed plants.  (EI fertilization helps, but the nutrient
> requirements of the tank seem to change a lot.)
>
> Sorry for the long post, but I figure too much information is better
> than too little.  Thanks in advance for any ideas.
>
> --Elaine T
>
>

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