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QUEST 7/14/02: the monthly bulletin of the Madison Aquatic Gardeners NEWS: How about contributing to the newsletter sometime? All of us can benefit from anecdotal accounts, questions and information from the WEB. http://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/ > The place to see results of the 2001 AGA International Aquascaping Contest. John entered the Birge Tank. Certainly, it was not a contender for an award, but we were included in the showcase. "If only I had 8 to 10 more hours to fine-tune the design". Aquatic Plants Mailing List http://www.actwin.com/fish/aquatic-plants/index.php> where you access messages of the Aquatic Plants Digest, all the way back to 1995. Neat place to follow planted aquaria conversations. Tom Barr from the San Francisco Bay Area is a frequent contributor. This wordy fellow with a seeming encyclopedic knowledge of the subject, has an experimental attitude and loves sharing his thoughts. Bookmark this site.
Phosphate (P2O5) boosts plant growth! A hot topic these days: Phosphate as part of a balanced nutrient routine. Johannsen's sells a 4 pound bag of granular Phosphate for $2.99. One tablespoon per 600 ml of RO water makes a potent juice. 0.5 ml of this, added to 20 gallons water yields a reading of 2.5 mg/L phosphate (good level). Plants perk up. I went around to all my tanks and gave them a squirt. 24 hours later, I could hardly believe the Elodea growth tip increased one inch. Bacopa, the same. I'll bring samples of the juice for those wanting to give it a try. TEST KITS: It sure is nice having reliable, inexpensive kits to test for Phosphate, Iron, and Nitrate. Thanks to diligent searching and testing by Gordon Hartmann, we have positive testimonials on a testing system from Seachem called MultiTest. We will have these kits on display at the meeting. I'll see if Aquatic Specialties can carry this line. Seachem FLOURISH, the comprehensive plant supplement with iron is now on the shelf at Aquatic Specialties. This is a very concentrated formula.1 ml added to 20 gallons of water = 0.24 mg/L.(good level). There are other fine liquid aquarium plant fertilizers, but I think Flourish beats them on price because it is concentrated. Smaller bottle / less shipping weight? Iron/Ferrous Gluconate is not chelated and releases quickly. Most other brands use chelated iron, which release at a slower rate. NITROGEN fertilizer is a must for heavily planted aquaria. Kent Pro-Plant is a good source. If you don't mind spending time mixing a home brew, there is: Potassium Nitrate (Stump Remover) from Johannsen's. One tablespoon of granular to 300 ml of water is a fine ratio. 10 ml of this, added to 20 gallons of water = 20 mg/L. (good result). CALCINED CLAY (Turface and Diamond Pro) Update. Some hobbyists around the country are trying out this soil amendment as substrate material. Gordon Hartmann uses it and I've been trying it as well, combining it with different proportions of soil and aquarium gravel. Calcined Clay has a high CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity). The aggregate pulls out certain nutrients from the water and binds them. When roots touch these sites, they take up nutrients. The German company, Aqualine GMBH, has a substrate additive called Terralit, a sustained action fertilizer depot containing the mineral zeolite, which attracts and holds nutrients. I'm guessing they inoculated zeolite with nutrients, making it a nutrient depot. During six months of observing my 20 gallon planted tank with a substrate of 1/3 soil on the bottom and 2/3 Turface on top, I wasn't happy. I dosed ample liquid nutrients, but some plants didn't do well, especially the ones with fine textured, soft leaves. I figured the nutrients were sucked into the substrate before these plants could get what they needed, through the leaves. I made a test. In a gallon milk jug containing 3 cups of Diamond Pro and water, I added nutrients to achieve these levels: Iron = 0.55 mg/L, Nitrogen = 20 mg/L, Phosphate = 5 mg/L. The next day: Iron = 0.17 mg/L, N = 20 mg/L, P = 0.0 mg/L. During the next two days the iron went down to 0.09 mg/L and the nitrogen remained at 20 mg/L. Conclusion: two of the three main plant nutrients disappeared out of the water column. BIRGE HALL UPDATE: A year ago, January 20 we installed the155 gallon planted aquarium in the atrium. With every weekly maintenance visit, a surprise of change would greet me and I'd pause and wonder at the dynamic workings of this little aquascape, this pocket park. Battles with algae, rapid invasive spreading of Limnophia at the expense of the rest of the plant tank mates, flower buds of the Barclaya longifolia (Orchid Lily) being eaten by the bristle nosed catfish Ancistrus, the failure to maintain an Aponogeton Lace plant represent some of the challenges. I'd sure like to try the Aponogeton Lace plant again. Had I done the research, I'd realize this plant needs cooler water. I'm beginning to lower the water temperature to about 72F from 81F. I'll need to change the distilled water / tap water ratio from 50/50, to something like 3 parts distilled and 1 part tap. Lace plants don't like lime. Our tap is full of it. The star of the tank today is Hydrotriche hottoniiflora, originally from Madagascar. Hard to keep, they say. But it has taken off like a rocket, straight up and floating on the surface. It has a straight stem, slightly swollen nodes about every inch, that produce opposite, needle-shaped leaves of about 2". It has a stately presence. I had a hard time locating this plant and finally Neil Frank was kind enough to provide one. Neil is an aquatic plant hobbyist with many years of leadership with the Aquatic Gardeners Association. Another AGA contact, Paul Krombholz provided me a stem, also. I spend time in the Botany Department greenhouse, where we set up six 20 gallon aquariums with aquatic plants. We have CO2 distributed to each tank via a 6 point distribution valve attached to a bottle of compressed gas. One of these tanks has a couple of robust Lace plants. One has leaves almost 18" long and 3" wide. Generous feeding with iron complex, nitrogen, Phosphate, CO2, along with cool temperature and very low conductivity water (1 part tap and 9 parts distilled) and a current provided by a Duetto , make these plants happy. The other neat plant down there is Ceratopteris pteridioides, a floating water sprite, apparently rare. It took me nine months to locate one. The marketplace couldn't provide it. Fortunately Gary Long had some and sent one. Gary is an enthusiastic hobbyist who is an active member of the Aquatic Gardeners Association. The plant arrived late October. Since then I observed it with fascination. When it arrived, it had somewhat flat, blunt-lobed, floating fronds supported by four inch long cigar shaped, spongy floatation tubes from which descended a bulky, fine textured root cluster. What a dandy specimen. It was about the size of a large hand. After several weeks, the plant began to sprout sturdy, vertical, wide branching, lattice like fronds, quite different in appearance to the blunt shapes, from which they emerged. On the outer edges of this new growth, many small, broad, bright green, flat, oval shapes started to appear, providing a hint of things to come. After a couple of weeks the lattice structures began to weaken and flop down to rest on the water surface, there to continue decaying as the juveniles began to grow, developing shape, size and roots. Now they are well on their way to becoming blunt-lobed free floaters. What a cycle! Baensch Aquarium Atlas # 1, page 139 has a good picture of this plant. I'll bring the book. PAM, Planted Aquaria Magazine will be missed. It folded. Not enough subscriptions to break even, entrepreneur Dave Gomberg says. Our club had a three copy subscription. I'm sure a number of us enjoyed this magazine. Wim and Ingrid van Drongelen, former club members came around Aquatic Specialties last months and shared impressions of last year's AGA Conference held at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, TN. As you can imagine, having Takashi Amano there was quite the thing. Wim gave a presentation at the meeting, as well. 2001 AGA Conference: I understand Eric Olson is producing a CD-ROM documenting the events. When it comes out, I'll get a copy for our library. AGA management is reticent to let out a video tape. With 6 hours of material, this can be expensive and they think, if people have access to a tape, they won't be motivated to attend the conferences. Though I made a request for a tape for the club, I might withdraw the request, simply to honor their position. We will see. E-mail note from Keith Strade: I'm sorry that I missed the last meeting. I have been busy dealing with my new job painting the big trucks out in Deerfield. Also, I'm looking into relocating out that way, this leaves me very little free time. I do intend to make the next meeting. until then, take care. Keith Madison Aquatic Gardeners T-Shirts are available in medium, large and X large. Pick up your free memento. Keith, one is reserved for you.
I'm looking forward to seeing you, come January 14ŠŠŠJohn
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