Quest

2003:
7/13/03
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

Q U E S T  Newsletter of the Madison Aquatic Gardeners Club, 10/3/02 From: John Glaeser 233-5182

MEETING CALENDAR: October 24, Thursday November 21, Thursday January… To be announced

Science House,1645 Linden Drive on the UW Campus. (good parking) 6:30 – 7:00 Check in and chat with friends, have a snack, check out the library and exhibits 7:00 – 9:00 Presentations, Q&A, plant exchange

REVIEW OF 9/26/02 MEETING

Attending were Andy Diss, John Glaeser, Tom Givnish, Brian Gressley, Linda Horvath, Dave Reese, Dave Stalowski, Dave Watson. Special welcome to guests Greg McNaughton and Alexandra Minn.

This was the big aquarium plant growing experiment set-up event. Eight 5 1/2 gallon tanks were positioned on tables. Each tank had a one gallon bucket substrata and a group of Ludwigia and Echinodorus tennelus plants. Prior to the meeting the plants were damp weighed so the half a dozen Ludwigia and the ten or so shoots of tennelus had the same species weight of plant material for each tank. Containers of pre-mixed soft water (1 part tap and 7 parts RO) and straight tap water were close at hand.

With substrate, water and plants in the tanks, they were arranged on a table in the corner of the Science House room:

Row (A) Tanks with cool/white bulbs: 1.Hard water with fine gravel, 2.Hard water with fine gravel on top of a soil / gravel base, 3.Soft water with fine gravel, 4.Soft water with fine gravel on top of soil / gravel base. Row (B) Tanks with wide spectrum Plant & Aquarium bulbs: 5.Hard water with fine gravel, 6.Hard water with fine gravel on top of a soil / gravel base, 7.Soft water with fine gravel, 8.Soft water with fine gravel on top of soil / gravel base. This is a “two level three factor experiment”. We see this experiment running for at least two months. I’ll be keeping a log book, adding fertilizer, making water tests. We will review the project at the October and November meeting. Since we are not meeting in December, we might as well let the project go on to the January meeting. It will be fun seeing if and how the variables have an effect on plant performance. Don’t be surprised if our observations open up a plethora of questions begging to be answered via new array of experiments. Thanks to Dave Stalowski who suggested the idea and donated the robust tennelus plants, the substrate gravel, 6 gallons of RO water and generous $ donation. Mark Adams and Linda Horvath rounded up the light fixtures and two tanks, Gordon Hartmann obtained the light bulbs and the “Club development fund” provided the rest. Special thanks to the committee for valuable planning ideas. This is all for now. The next QUEST will have more news about Q&A items that came up during the September meeting……………….John