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A method of madness for the ferilized UGF plate???
After posting my hypothetical setup about the
fertilized UGF plate underneath the gravel...people
mostly responded by telling me that this system has
existed before and I also got responses about the RUGF
setup.
Firstly, (other than Mr. Busko who still has some
water flow into the plate) I have yet to see this
system implicated with the UGF plate (without any RUGF
component) and the closest that I have seen is by
David W. Webb (at
http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/People/Webb/ ) [and
thanks for that tip off Gordon!) Although this system
is fairly similar to what I had in mind...it isn't
quite the same because he still has water flowing
underneath the plate (I will elaborate on why I am
trying to avoid this bellow..)
Secondly, I got many responses about RUGFs. I realize
that this system is well established with good results
from people all over...but I don't beleive it would
work in my situation (also see bellow...)
Although I certainly appreciate the responses that I
got (always something to be learned...) I am not
getting the answers that I was looking for...and this
is my own fault for not phrasing my thoughts
correctly...here is my method to this maddness ;-)
In the apartment where I live, my 55Gal tank has to go
in the balcony [don't worry about the weight
thing...it has weathered through many earthquakes
too ;-] and this is VERY VERY unfortunate because the
tank will receive plently of light. It receives
indirect sunlight in the winter months (from behind a
neigboring building) and direct sunlight all day
during the summer time!!! :-O
(unfortunately, its either the balcony...or "NO TANK"
says the landlord :-((((
While the RUGF (and similar "water flowing inderneath
the substrate is a well established technique...that
wouldn't work for me because the nutrients are quite
easily flowing in the water column in such a setup,
and in such light, I will be growing an algae farm!
Hence my own "revision" of this system for there to be
_NO_WATER_FLOW_THROUGH_THE_SUBSTRATE_ so as to lock
the nutrients in the substrate as much as possible
(and what better place than all the way at the bottom
of the substrate underneath a UGF plate)...but of
course this can't be without its DRAWBACKS...WHICH IS
WHAT I WAS TRYING TO GET FEEDBACK ON from the wise
people of the list! I was wondering if this would
create a nice reservior of nutrients along with a nice
anarobic reductive environment for nutrient up take
(specially things like Iron)...or whether it could go
as far as complete root rot down there...(I guess what
I am trying to get at is the fine line between a
beneficial anarobic area loaded with nutrients...and a
dead zone that would cause root rot and other nasties
{and is the water flow underneath the gravel
ABSOLUTELY NECCESSARY inorder to avoid this?}...)
>>here is what I posted before for reference if you've
already erased it<<
I was thinking that if one
(me!) were to setup an inactive UGF plate underneath
the substrate and FERTILIZE it
purposefully it by means of some pvc pipes (refer to
diagram bellow...) would
it not create a nice reservor of nutrients to nourish
the plants and be quite beneficial???
this setup would have the following benefits:
* a reservior of mulm and other nutrints including
Iron which would be readily accessible down there with
the anarobic/reductive atmosphere and the high CEC of
mulm
*the plate is prety much sealed off from the water
column thus severly limiting the possibility of a
"leak" (depending on your substrate...) more so than
simply putting the tablets in the substrate
*in the long run...the pvc pipes could also be "run in
reverse" to remove excess mulm from underneath the
plate which would lead to longer life for the aquarium
before it has to be broken down...
any other benefits that people can think of???
benefit/drawback:
the anarobic conditions which would be present under
the plate can be both beneficial and
detrimental...don't anarobic conditions lead to a
reductive environment which would certainly be good
interms of Iron absorption (preventing oxidation until
the Iron can be absorbed by the plants). Also could
this anarobic area become a dead zone and lead to the
rotting of the roots??? I think this anarobic
situation is a gray area in terms of benefit VS
drawback...could people elaborate/shed
some light on this ???
[side view..NOT to scale..]
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ ------>>> the substrate...
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
|------------------ ---->>>the UGF plate starts here
|
| ________________
| |
| | O O O O ------>>Holes in a PVC pipe to
| |________________ deliver the FERTILIZER
| and things like iron
|
|__________________ bottom of tank...
thanks,
samm in Los Angeles where its windy today!
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