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2003: 2002: 2001: 2000:
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Q U E S T 10/24/00 the monthly bulletin of the Madison Aquatic Gardeners Summary of the 9/28/00 meeting: Thank you Annie and Larry for having us over. What a splendid time it was! Attending were Mark Adams, Linda Horvath, Bob Gilbertson, Tom Givnish, John Glaeser, Scott Gordon, Matt Hirvonen, John Hobbins, Jan Hoffman, Victor Marsh, Melissa Maurer, Nate Polnaszek, Joel Redman, David Reese, Wayne Rayfield, Dave Stalowski, Jim Stich, Keith Strade, Elizabeth Evans, Craig Uselman Annie Stuart. Attentive observers included Larry Stuart and Ben Hobbins. A number couldn't make it for this one. Hope to see you next time: Louie Blaser, Kristi Brueggen, Pat Cannon, Theodore Casper, Sara Olmstad. Mike Clayton Andrea Diss, Wim van Drongelen, Ingrid van Drongelen, Lee Rzentkowski, Mark Sievers, Cindy Schlough, Mark Subramanian, Rebecca Grossberg, Susan West and Jim West. What an event! At around 6:30, as the sunny, 64 degree day began to merge into dusk, guests began to arrive at the portal of Annie's Bed and Breakfast. As they stepped in, they were greeted with the sight of a stunningly beautiful 150 gallon planted aquaria and also could not help but notice the tempting aroma of something really special being taken out of the oven. Soon clusters of folks were scrutinizing Annie's aquascape, while others slid open the glass patio door for a stroll through the garden. At around 7 or so, we continued our conversations while filing through the kitchen to pick up a bountiful plate of lasagna, salad, garlic bread and later on, a delicious portion of an apple kuchen topped with ice cream. WOW! A few went outside at a picnic table. Since it was dusk, most stayed inside and grouped informally, here and there in spaces near the kitchen and next to aquarium in the master dining room. An hour later we headed upstairs to the living room to begin the meeting. Having been a group now for 3/4 of a year, it was time to pause, evaluate and look to the future. Here are some of our observations: 7. Club Dues. We agreed to have an annual membership fee of $10. This would begin in January 2001. Guests attending meetings for the first time would have three free meetings. This would give them a little time to decide about signing on. Mark Adams remarked that each meeting was easily worth the annual fee. That was a generous sentiment. Out of respect for students on a budget among us, I think it is appropriate to have a modest fee. Some of us may wish to give more. This can be an individual decision. Additional contributions to the club coffer will help us expand the lending library of publications and water test kits. If we ever accumulate a huge surplus in this treasure chest, the club can take a field trip to visit Amano's store in Japan. Membership fees and our development grant will allow us to continue acquiring new member handout materials consisting of Diana Walstad's book, Tropica Aquarium Plant Book and issues of Planted Aquaria Magazine. Having us all be familiar with these resources, provides a common experience. I think good resource materials encourage us to explore together, the planted aquaria challenge. 2. Handout Materials: Through the months we have generated a load of materials relating to meeting presentations, and of information sheets on a variety of aquarium hobby topics. I'm going to catalog these into folders and then distribute an index. For members who have missed some meetings, this will make it easy to get their hands on some of some of these titles. 3. Membership Roster Information: I'm going to refresh our membership list. This includes e-mail, phone and mailing addresses. Everyone at the meeting agreed it is OK share this list within the group. We will hand this out at the next meeting. 4. Q&A: Jim Stich suggested we make a Q&A forum a regular feature of each meeting. If a person has questions relating to any phase of aquaria ecosystem, chances are some in the group will have an opinion. If we don't have a ready answer, some of us can do a search. 5. Information Search: Also, Jim Stich saw the value of using internet and 800 number technical information sources to gain more concise understanding of aquarium related products in the market place. Individuals or a small team can do some searching and provide periodic reports. These could be shared at the meetings and be placed in the club archive. 6. Info Treads a. Lighting - One of our past presentations was on lighting strategies for aquariums. A number of details in this communication could be explored in more detail. Questions about T8's, power compacts, color temperature, spectrum, economics and effectiveness are a few sub threads. Look for mini-reports to come. b. Live Foods - The club's umbrella is broad enough to include discussions on all aspects of the freshwater aquarium ecosystem experience. Matt Hirvonen is a skilled breeder of Killifish and has valuable practical skills working with live food. A while back, Matt gave me some daphnia. I'm intending to keep a culture going during winter. I'm also trying to grow brine shrimp to maturity. Both would be great treats for fish. I'd like to play around with a simple system for growing these creatures, something any of us could try. Look for a future presentation by Matt and John on live food cultures. For this meeting, I brought in a portion of daphnia to give Annie's fish a treat. A number of folks showed real interest and asked, "What is it?" But, the fish got the most excited! c. Algae - This topic always shows up. We really need some answers about those hard, dark, black spots on the Anubia leaves! Matt Hirvonen says, Pat Cannon proposed an idea about using the type of algae that occur in aquaria to diagnose particular problems. So, an imbalance of one sort would stimulate growth of one algae family, but not another family. Pat attributes this idea to Paul Loiselle, the cichlid book author. Sort of a biological litmus test? Definitely, something to explore! d. Limiting Factors - Understanding the health of aquarium plants in relation to limiting factors, can be a useful skill. e. In vitro technology. What would it take for some of us to be successful with tissue culture? Sounds like a great presentation, sometime. 8. Hotline - A number of us might be open to answer specific aquarium related questions. Joel Redman specializes in Angelfish. Matt Hirvonen knows a great deal about Killifish and live food. I have a collection of water tests that can help understand some of our aquarium frustrations. It would be nice to identify areas of expertise that exist in our group. Sometimes a good conversation can do wonders. 8. Aquarium Profiles: I just got a 3.34 megapixel digital camera and a printer that puts out 2880 DPI. I'd like taking pictures of membership aquariums. These would become part of a single sheet profiles. Associated with the photo would be a top view line drawing of the space architecture: the placement of plants, driftwood and rocks. The document would include information on lighting, substrate, fertilization, water hardness, plus anecdotal accounts about the aquarium. As these documents get created, they could be distributed to the membership as a way of sharing our aquaria experiences with each other. 9. The Club Web Site Victor Marsh indicated we have registered with a number of web sites. Now, it is possible that folks surfing the web might stumble into our site! Wouldn't be nice to have our Aquarium Profiles out there, to share with other hobbyist? 10. Mini-Report from Nate Polnaszek. We saw a beautiful photo of Nate's fully planted aquarium. He had me over to test for iron, because he suspected an iron deficiency. He has intense power compact lights on his 70 gallons. I'm guessing he has18000 lumens. This will provoke fast plant growth and quick depletion of nutrients. We found very low iron and nitrogen. The other nutrients might well have been low, as well. Nate is going to document any changes that might happen with his plants, as he introduces an optimum amount of nutrients during the coming months. He is using a Hagen iron test to check iron content in the water column before and after each dosing. Look for a report and some digital pictures. 11. Mark Adams fielded a great question during our Q&A session: If one were to have a richly fertilized substrate, is it possible that testing the water column for iron would indicate little evidence of iron? Assuming an abundance of iron in the soil, could some plants fail because of iron toxicity, because of too much exposure to iron at the root level? My speculative answer: "yes". Some background: Recently, Mark made a new setup using a good measure of topsoil. Apparently, some of his plants aren't doing as well as expected. The CEC (cation Exchange Capacity) of many soils with some clay content, may bind the nutrients, so they don't dissolve out into the water column, to any great extent. If the substrate has a lot of heavy soil, the weight of the water could compact the soil to the point that aerobic bacteria cultures become less and anaerobic cultures increase. Anaerobic bacteria will reduce the nutrients from an oxide form, and this increases the amount of nutrients available to the plant roots. Some plants, like cryptocorynes could become iron saturated and develop what is known as cryptocoyne rot disease. Note: When I use soil in a substrate, it is introduced sparingly. The bottom two inches is a 50/50 mix of soil and Turface. Turface is a porous, baked clay soil amendment that looks like course gravel. It has a CEC of about 29, which is good. This is a mixture that should not compress appreciably and will allow a variety of bacteria to live throughout the substrate. For a discussion on substrate, check out the article on substrate, in the Summer 2000 Planted Aquaria Magazine. The question of plant fertilization though the roots and the leaves is a fascinating subject. This will be a thread to follow for some time. Please contribute your understanding in this area. 12. CONLUSION: It is important to review our experience. Being in harmony with the expectations of the membership is key to continuing a momentum. Folks want to come together, to learn more about planted aquaria ecosystems. We look forward to exchanging ideas informally, and to enjoy structured presentations. Many of us have demanding commitments as students, teachers, professionals and hard working craftsmen. And some like me, have been launched into a new orbit, called retirement! Not all of us can make every meeting. Some are not in a position to put together presentations. However, each of us can add a measure of knowledge and enthusiasm. This is important. Keep up the good work. What a bunch!
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