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Re: Surface XTractor
DIONIGI MALADORNO "rnisd0::mrgate::a1::maladord"@rnisd0.DNET.roche.com
wrote:
>I did not know that plants produce floating film and scum. Can anyone
>explain in simple terms how that happens? I have mixed floating plants
>(duckweed, frogbite and Pistia: did I spell them right?)in my 180 gal. tank,
>in addition to a good number of submersed plants (mostly swords, Cabomba and
>Crinum). I normally have little or no floating film despite a medium fish
>load (no surface extractor) and I thought that the root system of the
>floating plants absorbed it in some way. Does this make sense?
I've noticed the same thing, if I have at least half the surface of
the water covered with floating plants it stays crystal clear. I don't
have an explanation why that happens, though, maybe somebody else
knows anything about this? This surface scum is very frustrating. I've
read that breaking the surface film with an outside power filter makes
it go away, I've been filtering my heavily planted 10 gal for about 2
mos now with an Aquaclear mini which for the 1st mo was on full flow
(before I started adding CO2) and and I haven't noticed any
improvement. The Dennerle book says it's caused by iron consuming
bacteria which indicates that there is enough iron in the water and
that it dissapeares on it's own after a short while ?! Did anybody
notice this to happen ?
Didi Soichin
didi at wwnet_com <---I just changed my internet provider, the old
Westland, MI, USA address will still work for 2 more wks