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Q U E S T 5/31/01 the monthly bulletin of the Madison Aquatic Gardeners Club 18 at the last meeting, including Anne Holsen from Milwaukee. Anne is a friend of Jack Atteberry and Melissa Klemes. Now there is an idea. Bring a friend! We had so much stuff going on. Didn't have time to continue with our viewing of the AGA Conference Video. Next meeting, for sure. 1. Mark Adams surprised us with an absolutely engaging exhibit: Small aquarium featuring an oxygenating, bubbling Riccia fluitan lawn, in the style of the master,Takashi Amano. I think we have our own "master in the making". Mark finds the Ammo images inspiring. Using a high intensity halogen desk lamp, fertilizing with Miracle-Gro, and using straight tap water, he achieved an amazing little habitat. I wonder if the group of guppies in there sense how lucky they are! No algae? With the fertilizer being high in Phosphate, one would expect algae. Phosphate provokes algae, is the anecdotal wisdom. In this case, I suspect the high intensity of light is sufficient to speed up, higher plant metabolism. Nutrients are used up so fast, algae don't have a chance. I'm guessing the light intensity in the larger tank is considerably less, than in the small one. Thus, the difference in results. The more light, the faster plants pick up nutrients. Less light, slower nutrients uptake. This would be an open invitation for algae. In a tank with moderate light level, a good fish load and heavy feeding, phosphate is a problem. Liquid plant fertilizers for planted aquariums don't include Phosphate, for this reason. Frequent water changes can address the problem. There is a commercial product out there called "Phos-Zorb". Haven't tried it. Mark, thank you! 2. Follow up question: Tom said he heard Dolomite absorbs Phosphate. He wonders if there is a downside to adding Dolomite into a planted aquria. I don't know. First reaction: We are sitting on one big slab of Dolomite Ca Mg (CO3)2, in this part of the State. This accounts for our hard, alkaline water. Many aquarium plants struggle to do well, in very hard water, some suspect. Adding Dolomite to Madison water? We need an aqua chemist and a big chalk board, to show us what happens here. Anyone know of someone on the campus who could help us with one? Pursuing this thread a bit more: The plant, Acharis , Syn.: Elodea densa, prefers hard water, and given an opportunity, it could strip so much carbon from the alkalinity component of water (bicarbonate), that KH could be reduced to nothing! Hey folks, this is off the wall. But, what about trying a phosphate rich nutrient. Add dolomite to get rid of excess phosphate. Use Acharis to reduce the hardness? 3. If you didn't catch Jan Hoffman's presentation on cultivating white worms, we have some extra technical information sheets you can pick up. For those who took home some of the starter cultures, let Jan know how they worked out. I suspect some might have not had a cool enough place to keep the culture thriving. But, if one gets the hang of it, white worms are mighty nutritious morsels, And, tasty too. Just ask any fish! ThanksŠ.. Jan. Nice preparation. 4. In his second presentation, Jan shared a good idea. He calls it, "Getting to know your M.A.G. Member". He distributed a form designed to garner basic information about who we are, what we do, and how we are experiencing planted aquariums. At some point, an aquarium photo or two, as an attachment would be nice. Give it some thought. Contact Jan Hoffman, 835-7508 [email protected] 4694 Holm Rd, Oregon 53575 5. Gordon Hartman gave us a report on how his aquarium looked, after he returned from a two week business trip to Romania. Gordon is gaining the reputation among us, as having an uncanny knack with aquarium plants. He uses straight tap water. His substrate is Diamond-Pro, a baked clay soil amendment in the Turface family. His Ludwigia is the best I have ever seen. He realized his green plants weren't all that hot, because of a lack of nitrogen. He added nitrogen and everything perked up. When he got back from his trip, he was floored. His plants had bulked out to create a wall to wall jungle! If you missed the last meeting, ask him to tell you about it. 6. David Reese is suggesting a picnic, centered around the gathering of Wisconsin waterway plants. I'm guessing this will happen sometime between our regular meetings, like a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Water temperatures are warmer as we approach late summer. Anyone know of good places to find plants? Tom mentioned Fish Lake. Ideas to David Reese 246-0281, chopin@it is.com 2210 Calypso Rd. Mdsn 53704. Thanks Dave. If we find some plants that can be kept year round in aquariums, this would be information worth sharing. Grade school classrooms? 7. Mention "green water" to Nate Polnaszek. He knows a little about it. And, he shared with us the struggles he had clearing his tank of this plague. Not knowing how it got started and not fully understanding how it went away must be frustrating. Anyone up to searching the Web? Perhaps, if Nate has time, he can get together some references, on this type of algae. Interested in helping with a search? Check with Nate Polnaszek 260-0547 [email protected] 429 W. Wilson St. Mdsn 53703 8. Through time, we are getting into questions about algae, nutrition, substrates, lighting and other planted aquaria issues. Would be nice to begin placing these materials into folders. 9. Tom Givnish urged us to hike up Bascom Hill to Birge Hall. In the atrium, you will find this150 gallon planted aquarium. As most of you know, Tom is Professor of Botany and the Institute for Environmental Studies at the UW, and is also a Visiting Professor at the University of Hawaii. Tom and I got this project launched this past January. I'm the caretaker for this, ever changing aquascape. Tom and Botany Department artists created an attractive aquatic plants instructional exhibit, near the aquarium. Real nice. We are in the process of taking photographs of the aquarium and intend to enter the AGA International Planted Aquarium Competition. 10. Check these out: http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/ (Interested in entering the AGA Planted Aquarium contest?) http://209.208.139.244/aqua_home/vchan/Amano_Gallery/AmanoGallery.htm (new collection of Amano aquarium photographs). Sit back and enjoy!
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