(Victor M. Martinez) wrote in message ...
wrote:
Adding Excel _is_ adding a carbon source. That's not a non CO2 tank.

It is a carbon source, but it's not CO2. IIRC, it's some sort of sugar
molecule. Instructions are to use it daily, but I use it once a week.
It *is* a non-CO2 tank.

Yea, I should stuck with the carbon source all the way, it is not a
non carbon enriched tank and perhaps only about 1/3 the week at most.
Then it's a non carbon enriched tank.

I don't fertilize my non CO2/carbon tank at all including traces etc.
I also don't do water changes, I only top off the tank and do a
cleaning once every 3-6 months.

Come to think of it, the tank doesn't even have a light so it's a non
artificial light, non CO2/carbon source tank. Sits in the window.

Regards,
Tom Barr

What I love about usenet newsgroups is that you can ask a question and
then read the discussion.

william kossack wrote:

After running a 65 gallon free water planted tank for a year I got tired
of buying plants and decided that maybe my 40 watt florecent light was
not enough light to keep amazon swords growing (unfortunately most local
stores sell large numbers of sword plants and not much else). When we
would buy new plants they would live but not really grow and we would
eventually have to replace them as the leaves got chewed up.

I upgraded my lights to a pair of 55 watt florecent lights from
ahsupply.com and bam! Everything was covered with algae. I also started
using a mineral supplement someones recommendation. I live in Denver
and I think they implied the need for more iron than the local tap water
would provide.

I'd been doing normal water changes and I did not think my nitrate was
too high but I decided to increase to daily water changes to get the
nitrate down further (it started at about 20 ppm and its now about 5ppm
and falling).

The amount of algae is less but it is still present. All of the old
plants took a real hit from the algae. I had some long filiments along
all the edges of the plants. It looked almost red in color. However
that stuff is gone as well as the leaves that it was groing on.

I've introduced algae eating shrimp, a few different smaller algae
eaters and even an apple snail (my clown loaches gobble up anything
smaller than an apple snail).

However most of the plants have a green covering of fuzzy algae and some
new plants look like they are getting it also.

Should I continue with the water changes? How low should I bring the
nitrates down? Or should I take other measures to get my display tank
back in line?

LeighMo wrote:
But didn't you say your tank was 125 gallons or something like that?

110.

However, I agree that CO2 isn't necessary. My 2.2 wpg 29 gallon tank is so

And that's my point. When people go and say, oh, you can't grow swords without
high light and CO2 or you need CO2 to get lush tanks... that's nonsense.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

And that's my point. When people go and say, oh, you can't grow swords
without
high light and CO2 or you need CO2 to get lush tanks... that's nonsense.

Agreed. Swords are generally very undemanding plants.

The plants that really need high light and CO2 are those "lawn plants" Amano
made so popular. Because they are so short, they're very far away from the
lights. Plus, they're usually in the front of the tank, and most people put
the lights at the back of the tank.


Leigh

http://www.fortunecity.com/lavender/halloween/881/