On 30 Mar 2006 19:05:59 -0800, "default"
wrote:


Mister Gardener wrote:
snip...

If you have any pointers, feel free to
send me that direction. The response to the daily two flourish
products is already quite visible. 55 G, mostly swords, vals and
crypts. Soft and acid.

-- Mister Gardener

Glad to help if I can. By far, I'm no botanologist (that's a word
-now-) but I have had some success in between the challenging periods.
Balance is the key. When you have X amount of light, you'll then do
best when you supply enough carbon, potassium, nitrogen, and traces
(amounts in that order roughly) so none of them are limited.

My goal was to "prune pails of weeds" on a weekly basis like I'd read
some posters did. I got to that point and it was very satisfying. One
day I'm going to branch out and try some specific species for certain
aquascape ideas I'd like to try. But today, I'm still happy seeing how
fast I can grow a tankfull. The fish love it.

steve

I read labels a lot. I'm fooling with the Flourish line right now, and
I can see what the Excel and the everyday blends are doing, and I'd
like a little more potassium, but am balking at buying yet another
Flourish solution just to get potassium. I've been to the beard algae
and back, about a month ago. I found it was growing on my plants in a
perfectly straight line across the upper third of the tank. I
discovered that in the late afternoon, the sun was shining through a
window across the room directly along that line of algae. I snipped
and cut and did some heavy pruning, and curtained the window, and
there has been no return of algae. Whew, just in time. It was after
that when I began dosing heavily with the flourish ferts, and some of
the swords that I pruned all the way back to just 2 inches tall are
producing new leaves daily. A stand of Ludwigia which usually gets
bare at the bottom few inches and needs to be topped off and the tops
replanted every couple of months is sending out new leaves right at
gravel level - the leaves appear to be coming from the nodes where I
usually just see new roots waving in the water. So I am at a point of,
how much further can I take this, should I hold tight with what I'm
doing for a couple of months and re-evaluate then, or do I continue to
flirt with algae and pollution. I wish I could get a percentage or
some measurement on the amount of potassium nitrate in this stump away
stuff - it's in powder form - so tempting to try a little . . . then a
little more . . . I use liquid seaweed extensively in my outdoor
garden, as well as adding dead seaweed to my compost piles. I know
that seaweed is high in potassium and traces, but I know there is also
a little nitrogen and phosphorus in there as well. Not ready to try
it. Yet. Maybe in a small experimental plant tank one of these days.

-- Mister Gardener