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215 Posts
Naomi,
First let me remind you of your success with erect moss, 2 leaf Hemianthus, and L. nummelaria. Your Lysimachia, which is fairly difficult, was grown with very clean lower leaves, your Hemianthus was rich green with well spaced leaf nodes and your erect moss was healthy and free of any hair algae. When I see pictures of your tanks they are always very clean looking and have good color. You are an avid aquatic gardener and continue to try new plants considered difficult by most gardeners. Hurray!
There is a simple heirachy of plant nutrients for us to consider in aquatic gardening. Each succesive nutrient is limited by availability of the previous nutrient and trouble shooting follows the same order. This heirachy is: light, carbon, nitrogen, phosphate, pottasium, calcium, magnesium and iron. Light levels are usually fixed by hardware choices and everything else follows availibility of this primary nutrient.
In your case, nutrient availability is limited by dissolved CO2 and regardless of how well you follow the estimative index your growth will always be limited by carbon. You will tend to succeed with a few species that are able to outcompete the others for this limited carbon. Those plants that succeed will do well and those that don't will languish and die. Matching species with similar nutritional needs seems to be neccesary when one gardens in lean or limited conditions. You might find that limiting your species selection could improve success rates at current CO2 enrichment levels. Basic idea is to remove the strongest competitors to give the weaker ones improved chances to succeed.
In the April-June issue of TAG there is a column titled, "Heiber and Brewer – Stranded on the List: threads of special interest from the aquatic plants digest email list" in this particular issue they summarize some DIY yeast reactor threads. They claim that problems with brewing are often central to general problems with DIY CO2. At the end of the summary they highlight Tarah Nyberg's recipe. Perhaps her recipe could improve your results.
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Jeff
First let me remind you of your success with erect moss, 2 leaf Hemianthus, and L. nummelaria. Your Lysimachia, which is fairly difficult, was grown with very clean lower leaves, your Hemianthus was rich green with well spaced leaf nodes and your erect moss was healthy and free of any hair algae. When I see pictures of your tanks they are always very clean looking and have good color. You are an avid aquatic gardener and continue to try new plants considered difficult by most gardeners. Hurray!
There is a simple heirachy of plant nutrients for us to consider in aquatic gardening. Each succesive nutrient is limited by availability of the previous nutrient and trouble shooting follows the same order. This heirachy is: light, carbon, nitrogen, phosphate, pottasium, calcium, magnesium and iron. Light levels are usually fixed by hardware choices and everything else follows availibility of this primary nutrient.
In your case, nutrient availability is limited by dissolved CO2 and regardless of how well you follow the estimative index your growth will always be limited by carbon. You will tend to succeed with a few species that are able to outcompete the others for this limited carbon. Those plants that succeed will do well and those that don't will languish and die. Matching species with similar nutritional needs seems to be neccesary when one gardens in lean or limited conditions. You might find that limiting your species selection could improve success rates at current CO2 enrichment levels. Basic idea is to remove the strongest competitors to give the weaker ones improved chances to succeed.
In the April-June issue of TAG there is a column titled, "Heiber and Brewer – Stranded on the List: threads of special interest from the aquatic plants digest email list" in this particular issue they summarize some DIY yeast reactor threads. They claim that problems with brewing are often central to general problems with DIY CO2. At the end of the summary they highlight Tarah Nyberg's recipe. Perhaps her recipe could improve your results.
___
Jeff
