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Old 18-08-2006, 04:52 PM posted to rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants
Pete[_2_] Pete[_2_] is offline
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First recorded activity by GardenBanter: Jul 2006
Posts: 16
Default PMDD, Plantex CSM+B, Greg Watson et al..

Thanks Tom - See you at the Barr Report forum where I became a
subscriber a few days ago!!

Best wishes
Pete

On 15 Aug 2006 12:46:08 -0700, wrote:

Pete , most of what you see is due to CO2.
Carbon is 40-45% of the plant biomass, limiting it really slows things
down.
Getting the nutrients right is actually very easy and requires little
testing.

CO2 is all that is left and should always be carefully considered when
the plant growth slows down for anyb reason or algae appears.

95% of all algae related issues twend to be CO2, not enough.
Simply adding a tad more and then observing thereafter works well.
Be careful and do this slowly, do not be liberal with this step wise
increase.
Folks have killed their fish by gassing them.

Having some surface ripples is good IME/IMO.
Do not go so far trying to conserve CO2, you can always add more and
this will allow you to add plenty and still ahve decent O2 levels for
fish.
The rest is really just pruning, cleaning, water changes etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr

www.BarrReport.com





Pete wrote:
On Fri, 4 Aug 2006 01:23:39 +0000 (UTC), (Richard
Sexton) wrote:

In article .com,
wrote:
Unlike your suggestion, I also do not need to do any water changes at
all. I add water for evaporation loss only and this goes on for 6-12
months before I do a good pruning and need to clean up and do a water
change. Fish health is excellent. No algae at all. Stays that way.

I subscribe to Tom's particular brand of heresy also. And it does indeed
work very well. No CO2, Add replacement water when it evaporates, and
add ferts (I only dose 2x a week) and the result is unbelievable.

Who knew defying 100 years of established aquarium lore and literature
was the right answer?


I've kept tropicals for 30+yrs. My current tank 54 x 18 x 24 was setup
20 yrs ago.
No CO2, 3 x 36X flouro's eheim 2217 filter, UGF's.
I used to do a 1/3 water change about once every 3 months, clean the
filter a couple of times a year and that was about it.

I bought a mixed selection of plants, most died, but those that liked
the conditions flourished, maintenence was almost non-existent and
the tank looked good if not spectacular.
These conditions lasted for nearly 20yrs, then the tank was hit by
'old tank syndrome' which led me to where I am today. And I have to
say that even though it's been expensive and quite a lot of work
(installing MH lights, removing UGF's, replacing gravel, adding
wet/dry filter, CO2), the early signs of using CO2 and Tom's EI
routine ar very impressive - even though I only switched the CO2 on on
1 Aug, cabomba and vallis have gone crazy, and the more demanding
plants that were previously just algae-hosts have got new leaves -
many thanks Tom!!

Best wishes
Pete