[Aaron]

Howzit guys!!

I hope you folks got to the annual orchid show at the Blaisdell last weekend. The Honolulu Aquarium Society participated with over 50 aquariums, a good number of which were planted tanks. This was by far the best showing of planted community tanks I've seen since involved with the club. I have pictures and will upload them when I have time (and actually learn how to do so)

The planted tank hobby is growing here pretty fast, it seems like Gaspro cant keep their 5 lbs CO2 bottles in stock any more!

Yo 5-0, rainwater is super soft, similar to RO and distilled water. that is unless your catchment is made out of concrete or something and it stays in there for a while. you might eventually have to add Ca and Mg to your fert regimen. I'd not worry about that too much yet, see how the plants do first. If I had that kinda water, I'd go for all the Toninas, polygonums, and eriocaulons... all the cool soft water plants coming out of Brazil and argentina.

Aaron

 

[Aaron]

There are 2 stores that are worth checking out while on Oahu. Pets Plus on Ward Ave and Pets Unlimited near King and middle st. Both have excellent and knowledgable staff and have a good variety of plants and supplies. These are also the only stores that carry CO2 equipment. Pets Plus is a bit umorganized, but be sure to look hard in their plant tanks as they always have something pretty rare hidden in the mess.

Piscesgirl, ponds are hard to come by here on Oahu, most of them are brackish. There are however a lot of streams and springs that support aquatic plant life. I have found Vallisneria, a couple sp. of sagitteria, anacharis, echinodorus, Ludwigia, Gymnocoronis in and near these bodies of water, not to mention your host of invasive floaters (Salvinia, Eichornia, duckweed, azolla, water lettuce etc). We also have native sps. of Pomatogeton and Marsilea. Most interesting is that one can find "aquatic plants" where the humidity is high and there is a lot of rain. We have a nice hydrocotyle very similar to sibthorpioides growing as a weed in wet areas (it is doing well on the grounds of the federal building in Downtown Honolulu thanks to drip irrigation!!) There are also an assortment of mosses and liverworts that live in the mountains that do well submerged in the aquarium.

 

[Aaron]

Cs,
Hawaii is indeed special, but it is an island and it is the most isolated land mass on the planet so it does get old(to me). I used to live in Washington state while in college and one of the coolest things to do was to jump in the car and drive for hours. I loved to do that! I can do that in Hawaii but its not the same when you're driving in circles. On top of it, nobody carries Eco-Complete here and freight costs are ridiculous!!!!

The North Shore is breathtaking, but I'd bet if you saw it in the winter, you wouldn't believe it was the same beach. Its like a pond in the summer and a violent force of nature in the winter, some of the biggest wave on the planet? By the way, how did they find the mosses on you?

5-0 and plantdude,
Any stream, spring in the pearl city area are good candidates for aquatic plants. the outflow of Ho'omaluhia reservoir in Kaneohe is also a good place to look. I don't know about Hilo, but with all the rain there, theres bound to be something. Hey if it looks promising, take a cutting home and submerese it. Just be careful out there, LEPTOSPIROSIS!!!

 

[Aaron]

Who's Danny Fuller? Is he a surfer? I stay away from any show on TV that is supposed to be about Hawaii. It makes me mad as they usually portray a false depiction of what it is really like living here and how what we locals are really about. As for that surfer reality show, surfers don't live in the real world to begin with so what you saw on TV was probably "real". Next time you are in Hawaii during the summer, the surfing action is on the South shores like Sandy Beach and Makapuu and Diamond head. You won't see any pros though, they are all in Tavarua and Australia chasing the the winter swells.

Crushed lava rock has one fault, it is really light. In some cases, it even floats! I actually use it as a base, then cap it with Flourite. It seems to work well. What I really want to try is black sand from the Big Island. Basically crush lava rock, but tumbled nice and smooth by the ocean. I bet that would look nice. Hey Aqua 5-0, what do ya say? wanna send some black sand to Oahu? Just kidding, Pele would get mad!