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Kassleman Plant Book



I called Krieger Publishing (407-724-9542) this morning to order the
English translation of Kassleman's aquarium plant book only to find that
the English edition is not yet available. It is under contract for
translation.  They suggested I call back in a few months.

On another subject, someone recently asked about K+ levels in our
planted aquariums.  Dr. Dave suggested 5 ppm as a target a few months
ago.  I had access for a few months to an ion meter which reads K+.  It
worked well with reference solutions (from Hach) and the readings also
held up when I added regular aquarium stuff such as epsom salts, Kent RO
right, sodium bicarbonate, RO/DI water, etc to reference mixtures.  So I
had a fair degree of confidence in the thing.  I ran as high as 30 ppm
K+ in my tank without any noticeable effect.  No algae outbreaks or
other oddities.  I gradually reduced the K+ levels to about 10 ppm
before I had to give the meter back.  I add a half teaspoon or so of
K2SO4 to my 125 gal. each week after a 30% - 40% water change without
any noticeable problems.

On yet another subject, I've recently switched back to San Francisco tap
water from RO/DI.  I jumped to the conclusion that my tap water was bad
too quickly (and my LFS was selling me RO/DI water for $.29 a gallon!).
The detailed report available from my water company shows that SF water
is quite pure and contains almost no nitrates and phosphates.  My
question is this:  I'm using SeaChem's dechlorinator (Amquel?) and was
wondering whether this product would adversely affect the trace elements
in Tropica or PMDD.  Does anyone know?  Leo, if you're still monitoring
this list, could you comment on the issue?

Regards, Steve Dixon