I use a piece of 10mm (About 3/8 inch) ply under all my tanks, then a sheet
of 3-5mm high density foam rubber then the tank.

I use a few heavy rocks in some of my tanks and the way I see it if I drop
one of these in a tank without the ply it will go straight through, with the
ply the worst should be a crack rather than a sudden catastrophic failure!


"Abraham Evangelista" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 17 Sep 2006 17:37:15 +0000 (UTC),
(Richard Sexton) wrote:

In article ,
Abraham Evangelista wrote:
On Wed, 13 Sep 2006 20:32:46 +0000 (UTC),
(Richard Sexton) wrote:
In article ,
Abraham Evangelista wrote:
http://www.sonnani.com/aquaria/unkno...nt_1_small.jpg

This is a Potamogeton species. Very, cosmopolitan this genus s
occurs everywhere except the poles and has mores epcies in it than any
other aquatic plant genus.

Woohoo! Got a weed! Actually, the more I look at it, the more I like
it. The contrast between the nice green leaves and the almost red
stem makes it attractive when compared to all the straight green
plants currently in the tank. (Anacharis, Hornwort, Bladderwort, M

Barr has convinced me that red in plants is from poor nitrogen - in
the lack of sifficient N they made red pigments not green and he does
seem to be right about that.

I'm still sorting through the wealth of information available on his
site. Subscribed when I picked up my ferts from Greg Watson. I
wonder, does this rule apply to plants that are "supposed" to be red?
I have some bronze and red Crypt. wendetti, and some "Red Hygro" that
turns a nice deep red where it gets light at the top of the tank.

The growth below was nice and red too, but now it's nice and back, as
in red algae, owing to a lack of light. The new shoots coming out
from the bottom of the stand are coming out bright green, so I wonder
if it's not a question of light.

While I have no direct experience with
this plant (other than killing some of its cousins) don't be surpeised
if in grows in as green, not red, stemmage wise.

Along those same lines, I have some of that Potamogeton in a 2 gallon
"nano" hex I'm working on. The stems are looking more brownish now,
instead of red. In addition, the Cabomba which entered the tank with
deep red stems is now showing stems as bright green as the fronds. A
piece of "Red hygro" I have growing in the nano is also still red. I'm
doing Seachem's flourish ferts, including excel. FWIW, the piece of
hornwort I stuck in this tank has doubled in size over the last week,
and no longer shows the brown/black algae coating that it shows in
the 55 gallon, so perhaps the excel is doing the job, or perhaps I'm
getting my fert routine right in the hex.

I'm having a slight resurgence of the black and brown algae in the 55
that I thought I had licked when I went onto the EI method. I'm
currently using Greg Watson's premix PMDD+CSM, 1 tsp every other day.
(1 part KNO3, 1 part K2SO3, 1 part MgSO4, and 1 part CSM w/ boron
mix.)

At the end of a 2 day period, I'm showing no measurable nitrates, and
even after adding the mix, I only show 5ppm. I even feed rather
heavily, three times a day, and the tank is far from lightly stocked.
To make a long story short, I'm thinking that the nitrate levels shown
indicate that you're correct, and that I am indeed nitrogen limited in
this tank.

My current gameplan is:

1) Spread out my water changes. I was doing 50% once a week. I'll
add another day on the end, and see if this doesn't help with the
concentrations a little.

2) Stop vaccuming the gravel. I HAD nitrates, till I vacuumed during
the last water change. I've added malasyian trumpet snails to deal
with substrate compaction issues, so I think at this point, I'll just
let the mulm collect. I really only vacuumed for asthetic reasons,
and frankly, mulm is less unatractive than algae, so given the choice
between the two, I'll pick the mulm.

3) Adjust dosing of PMDD mix till I can sustain a level of 5ppm
nitrates over night. This is the lowest level the test kit I own can
measure, and if it measures at all, it means that the plants were
unable to utilize it all, meaning I should no longer be nitrogen
limited. The whole point of EI is to ensure that everything is in a
slight excess, correct? If I'm not showing nitrates, then they're not
in excess, ergo, it's time to up the dosing.

Am I on the right track here?


Good luck acclimating it to "tropical"
temperatures and non-dormancy in winter. I've never had any luck. It
grows around here, too.

Hasn't died yet. In fact, the bit that I had in the CO2/EI grow out
tank has put on nearly an inch. Sadly, that tank also cracked on me
tonight, so everything that was growing out is now sitting in a
bucket. :-(

Bummer. How did it crack?

I had it on a sheet of styrofoam, on top of a wire shelf. The shelf
is rated to support the weight of the tank, but of course, wires
weren't the best choice for a surface on which to place a tank. I had
the styrofoam there to spead the weight across the wires, but from the
looks of the crack, it seems that the tank weight compressed the
sytrofoam more where the frame was, until the foam was eventually
pressing back up on the bottom glass, causing the crack.

Are you just going to silicone a sheet of glass over
it or replace the tank.

I'm not sure it's economical to bother replacing the tank. Having a
piece of glass cut for the bottom is gonna cost me for the
glasscutter's labor, and for the glass. A replacement 10 gallon is
only $10 USD here, so it might end up cheaper for me to just buy
another tank, and save this one for sides/spares. Maybe I can use it
as a terrarium.

From personal experience plants don't last long in buckets
at all. They look ok from the top but when you take them out you might
find the
only thing left if the part that looks good on the top.

I had been growing out cuttings, and some less than spectacular
specimins from the LFS in that tank, both to trade for credit at the
LFS, and to have enough plants to fill out a 30 gallon I was intending
to set up. (The 30 was intended to house some refugee platys from the
summer pond.)

The crack in the grow out has accelerated my plans. Friday saw me set
up the stand, take the tank out of storage, fill it with substrate, (2
inches plain kitty litter, 1 inch of play sand, Jobes fert sticks
every so often) and water. A filter borrowed from the 55 gallon
(Which I had been intending to use anyway) and a packet of bio-spira
provided a rapid start cycle, and the plants went in saturday
afternoon, and the fish saturday evening. So far, no ammonia, no
nitrates, despite the dozen or so adult platies, multiple dozens of
guppy fry (I hadn't managed to get all the feeders out of the pond
before they bred!) and the three fat corys. With luck, biospiral will
live up to its claims, and the numbers will still look good tommorrow.

I had intended to use the growout tank with EI and intense lighting,
so I wouldn't have to do the same on the 30. Looks like I'll just
have to do EI on the 30 too, till I get enough plant matter
established to avoid the algal blooms.


http://www.sonnani.com/aquaria/unkno...nt_2_small.jpg

Fontinalis. "a cool water plant" the books all say. Neat stuff.

That's not good... The growout tank wasn't heated, but a 10 gallon
indoors with a powerhead and some intense lighting kept it pretty
toasty. I suppose this means it isn't gonna care for the tropical
tank eh? A shame... it seemed quite attractive!

Wellllll, it manages ok at lower light. So an unheated tank with a small
fluorescent would keep it alive.

Again, the bit I've got in the hex is showing growth. It's not
spectacular like the hornwort, but to be fair, I've never met a moss
that grew rapidly. There's some in the 55 too, but I can't check its
progress since it's hidden behind more hornwort.

I suppose this means I need less hornwort. :-)

Good luck with both. I've love to hear they survived and look forward to
pictures of them growing madly.

Well I've been keeping tabs on both plants, I'll give it a few more
days and then we can compare to see how it responds in EI, Seachem,
and unaided conditions.
--
"Oh no! look over there! How did a Chupacabra get into the house? Quick!
Hide all the goats!" - Lisa, Girl's Bravo, English Dub
Abraham Evangelista