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Q U E S T 4/26/01 the monthly bulletin of the Madison Aquatic Gardeners Club Question: Some have asked, "Shouldn't we have some form of Steering Committee structure". We have been sort of informal in this regard. I've been getting some excellent guidance and assistance from a number in our ranks. Linda Horvath is coordinating meeting refreshments contributions, (Refreshments Coordinator). Victor Marsh maintains our web site,( Web Site Manager). Dave Stalowski has volunteered to be a counselor and right hand assistant to me in managing club affairs, (Vice Chair). Matt Hironen has assisted me, mightily in many aspects of club affairs. He has a keen analytic mind and has excellent insight into group dynamics, I regard him as our Science Advisor. So, this is our Add Hoc structure. We may not have time to discuss a formalization of the Club at the upcoming meeting. But, we could put the issue on some future agenda. Your opinions, please. NOTES 1. Technical Support (These items can be borrowed. Contact John Glaeser) System 1 Pressure Filter: a unique tank-mount pressure filter that can be use as a diatom filter (to one micron), This is ideal for polishing cloudy water and stripping out that nasty "green water". We all need something like this now and then. Pinpoint pH Monitors: Several are available. They are battery operated and have new electrodes. Should be very accurate. Great for monitoring the pH variations of your aquarium water. Particularly nice to have if you are trying to solve a pH related problem and want to make frequent tests. Pinpoint Oxygen Monitor: Battery operated. In a heavily planted aquarium with lots of fish it is good to be aware of the ppm of oxygen in the water. Check in the morning to see if you have at least 5 mg/L oxygen ( plants take in oxygen during the dark and sometimes this can pose a problem for the fish. (mg/L = ppm). Water Testing Kits: If you have questions about water conditions and want some testing, we have a complete collection of test chemistry. 2. Planted Aquaria Magazine, Issue 2 is on the Web: www.wcf.com/pam/pam2c.pdf>. Connect through your browser. It takes a little over 12 minutes to down load! This is the issue that has an article about our Club. 3. New Liquid Plant Fertilizer (Yamato Green N) 4. QUEST (Some thoughts) 5. Jin Kim 6. San Francisco Club 7. Wim 8. Birge 9. From the Web: Redox Plus Liquid - Cyanobacteria - Blue Green Algae Bluegreen algae..URL: http://www.athiel.com/lib3/redox.html At times, the amount of dissolved organic material in the aquarium's water increases to such a degree that enough nutrients are present for certain types of algae to grow. 10. From the Web: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #956. Tom always has lots to say. Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 23:10:19 -0700 > Is there any consensus on the desired mg/L of PO4? Now there's a can O' worms. If you have high PO4 or NO3 etc you'd be well off to use CO2 at higher ranges say 20-35ppm. Mine do not fall below this ever. I have both high and low lighting. Lighting seems to be semi independent of the nutrient levels but the levels get used faster is the main thing.I keep a low light tank with high CO2 and nutrients as well. I can keep my PO4 very high by most many standards. I can also keep my NO3's very high and have moderate PO4's. Both together seems to bring out Green spot algae combined with Trace elements. But I've done it without to big a problem. You can pick which nutrient, NO3, Fe, PO4, CO2 even, each has it's trade offs. So a consensus based on if you have CO2 in a good amount? Low to high, it matters far less if the CO2 is maintained at 20ppm or higher. I think 15ppm is too low. Don't care what all the Dupla poopla says about it. I think it's wrong. I've been keeping my PO4's quite high(1.0ppm or higher) in all my tanks since moving to an area that has no PO4's. Where I used to live had PO4's at 1.12ppm. I did not add any PO4's for the first few months after moving but kept the other levels the same. Not too happy with the results. Reduced plant vigor, less pearling. Some plants did very poorly. But if your algae is under control it's alright to add it. Start low and and watch. Let it go up to .2ppm then see how long it takes to go to zero. Keep adding more till you have a good residual. Test it daily till you get a feel for your tank's consumption rate. I keep mine high like my old tap. I can go higher but why? I doubt it's going to help but in interest of a "breaking point" I might sometime. So a reading from 0.1-0.2ppm for a PO4 limited tank and a more NO3 limited tank perhaps 1.0ppm. A NO3 limited tank can be tough. Good regular fish feeding seems to really help. Additions of KNO3 in light amounts works well. These would be deleted if you had say high NO3's in your tap water or smaller water changes may be in order. Tap waters make a difference also therefore. Many folks have too many fish and are not willing to try this since the fish a primary thing and the plants are secondary. But happy plants will make for happy fish IMO. Certainly a better place for the fish in an overstocked tank with so so plants. I use Mic. umbrosum as an indicator in my aquariums and Crypt lingua in my Crypt emmersed tank. Both are sensitive to lower levels of NO3. My PO4 indicator is Eichhornia diversilfolia. It's not inciliata:) That's the E diversilfolia. Try to get it to look like that without any PO4. You won't do it. Color of many red plants is intensified by low NO3 so I get good colors and You want consensus? Test it. Decide on an approach. Try one then try another. See what happens to plants and algae. That's really all I've been a doing all along. Approaches are something I really like about this hobby. So many ways to skin that cat that I'll never get bored:) Ran out of plant species awhile back, on to algae. Bacteria will get it next:) FWIW,
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