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Re: H2S problem




Pierluigi e Simone Vicini wrote, Monday, March 9:

>....I had to take down my gravel laterite tank in these days and I saw that the
>Anubias' roots where totally black and decaying 1 inch deep in the
>substrate.  Is this the cause of H2S?
>
>How come that I had this problem? Reading the article in the TAG issue I
>couldn't find anything wrong with what I did.
>I used 3mm gravel less than two inches deep, 15g tank with 3watts gallon of
>light, water temp at 80, no fertilizer except for KNO3 and Pflanzengold 7
>(Dennerle)
>
>Can anybody tell me what I did wrong?
>
>Anyway my anubias was growing fast but not very healthy, with that I mean
>that its leaves were very easily attacked by algae........


Anubias is one of the few aquatic plant genera whose roots are not well
adapted for anaerobic soil.  The air channels in Anubias roots are very
small.  Anubias seems to do fine in almost pure gravel with only a very
small amount of soil or laterite at the bottom.  Anubias barteri and all
its varieties have roots that stick to rocks in the same manner that the
specialized rootlets of ivy cling to walls.   Kasselmann says that  Anubias
barteri varieties grow where there is running water and that the plants are
attached to stones or large pebbles.

I don't think that algae growing on Anubias leaves is necessarily a sign of
poor health.  I don't think that the health of the plant plays much of a
role in determining whether or not algae can attach.


Paul Krombholz, in warm, windy central Mississippi.