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Quest
2003:
7/08/03
6/21/03
6/13/03
5/19/03
5/06/03
4/20/03
3/25/03
3/23/03
2/18/03
1/5/03
2002:
11/11/02
10/11/02
10/03/02
9/1/02
8/10/02
7/14/02
7/2/02
6/4/02
4/6/02
3/14/02
2001:
6/28/01
5/31/01
4/26/01
3/29/01
2000:
11/30/00
10/24/00
9/28/00
8/21/00
7/27/00
6/22/00
5/25/00
4/20/00
3/10/00
2/24/00
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Q U E S T 7/27/00
Monthly bulletin of the Madison Aquatic Gardeners
Summary of the 6/22/00 meeting:
Attending were Mark Adams, Linda Horvath, Bill Benz, Tim Brown, Val
Walasek, Pat Cannon, Wim Van Drongelen, Ingrid Van Dongelen, John
Glaeser, Matt Hirvonen, Jan Hoffman, Melissa Maurer, Joel Redman,
Mark Sievers, Cindy Schlough, Keith Strade, Mark Subramanian and
Rebecca Grossberg. Special welcome to new member Nate Polnaszek.
John's apartment worked out well. It was compact but comfortable,
which seemed to promote a buzz of animated small group conversations.
One nice feature in having meetings in a home setting is the
flexibility to run a little later beyond 9 if things drift this way.
Five planted aquariums in the living room and a 55 gallon in the
basement provided lots of show and tell opportunities. Two small
tanks had some of Matt Hirvonen's Killifish. One 20 gallon aquarium
displayed eight different cryptocoryne plants.
Thank you, Melissa Maurer for a fine presentation focusing on
Cryptocorynes. She talked about those varieties suitable for
Madison's hard water. For those who missed it, we have copies of her
paper including watercolor illustrations of the different plants
reviewed. Or, check the end of this post for the text of her
presentation.
Note: I gathered some native Wisconsin aquatic plants in a stream at
Mukwonago, Wisconsin. The Wisconsin Area Killifish Organization had
its annual picnic and Killifish and Darter fish netting expedition
there on Sunday, July 9. Matt invited me for the affair. I found a
half a dozen interesting aquatic plants at the site. I need to
confirm their names. Off the cuff, some look like wide leaved
Sagittaria or Vallisneria americana / Jungle Val. There is some kind
of hair grass, looking like Eleocharis vivipara. One plant commonly
called "cabbage" is an Aponogeton. Another looks very much like
Myriophyllum scabratum. Another certainly appears to be Elodea
canadensis. And one very hardy looking trailing grass is something I
have never seen. Does it look nice in an aquarium!
Note: If you are not already hooked on The Aquatic Plants Digest,
consider becoming familiar with the fascinating threads that develop
here. The barley straw commentaries have flourished recently.
Example:
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 14:53:25 -0600 (MDT)
From: George Booth
Subject: Re: algae, H2O2, SOD, et al.
Karla had a slow morning, so she wrote up a few more thoughts
regarding the H2O2 and barley straw discussion.
I won't even *try* to translate this into something common folk like me
can understand, other than to note that SOD stands for "superoxide
dismutase".
Karla sez:
You realize it has been 9 years since I did this stuff . . .
Superoxide is O2 with a full negative charge and an extra electron so it
is deisgnated as O2- with a dot above the -.
There are other oxygen free radicals such as hydroxyl radical (.OH).
Damage from free radicals is the current rage in anti-aging vitamins and
supplements to fight free radicals - vit C, vit E, selenium. People feel
that by protecting from free radicals they will protect organs from aging.
-
sidelight
There are some prokaryotes that do not have SOD available and thus are
susceptible to damage by superoxide, e.g. fungus. That is what allows
your white blood cell respiratory burst to produce superoxide, hydrogen
peroxide and ultimately HOCl to kill off infectious agents and not hurt you too
badly. We have catalase and SOD to protect us from hydrogen peroxide
and superoxide but the white blood cells do eventually succomb and form the
pus that is evident in infection.
Since the rotting of the straw prevents algae from developing, but
doesn't affect the growth of fish or higher plants, I figured that algae must
lack the protective mechanisms against oxyradicals such as catalase and SOD
found in higher organisms. Since I don't know plant physiology, I do not know
what enzymes algae may have for defending against oxyradicals.
If you want to start some more chatting you might bring up the subject
of reactive nitrogen species which have been shown to cause damage to
cells. In fact recently nitric oxide has been shown to cause some of the
biological effects that were originally credited to oxyradicals. Rotting straw
could certainly generate some of those from nitrogenous waste.
Karla Booth in Ft. Collins, Colorado ([email protected])
http://www.frii.com/~booth/AquaticConcepts
Note: Another thread developing is on lighting. Example:
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 17:00:57 -0700
From: Merrill
Subject: Re: More on Blue light
Hi, Ivo...
Unless I misunderstood, blue light (400 - 500 nm) is essential and used
by corals. I have kept corals alive under just blue light for 5 months.
However, freshwater aquatic plants do not utilize it and will die.
Micro algae in saltwater aquariums will die under just blue light.
Merrill Cohen
> > Not quite so. I converted the curves published at
> > http://www.aquabotanic.com/paper2-6.html from their standard 1m depth to a
> > "typical" aquarium depth of 16". For pure water, absorption at the blue end
> > (400-500 nm) is effectively zero. But for all other cases: pure water at the
> > red end (600-700 nm), and water with a reasonable amount of organics,
> > absorption is in the range 20-50%. Significant IMO. Of course, this should
> > affect mostly low lying plants. Stem plants and large swords for instance,
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