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Hi all, I'm afraid not. I'd probably go down that route as well. cheers Darrel

Hi all, No I haven't, I was going to say that "Dero digitata" are really difficult to <"get hold of in the UK">. I've got an offer of some from Germany, but it looks like that may have been superseded. Once the lab. is back together I might invest in some. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I've had some <"emoticon smiley issues as well">. "3" : N will be nitrogen, the "3" : P maybe phosphorus (P) <"but it may be P2O5">, and the "1" might be K but it might be K2O. You would need another nitrogen source to get the 3:3:1 ratio, so either ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) or...

Hi all, That would be my guess. I used to use a mix of tap water and rain water for mine. Yes, you can just leave it. It is all fairly inert after it has been through the snails. When you start a new culture I'd actually transfer a bit of mulm to the new vessel. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It is usual to have snails in the culture <"to act as tank janitors">. Hard is fine. cheers Darrel

Hi all, It is a <"trace element mix">, a mix of the elements plants only need in <"very small amounts">. Most people will use a very small amount of a molybdenum (Mo) or boron (B) containing compound and it just isn't worth buying even the smallest container of boric acid (H3BO3) etc., it would...

Hi all, We had a house swap in the Swabian Alps, about ten years ago, near <"Blaubeuren">. A lot of the karst rivers there were really clear and plant rich. cheers Darrel

Hi all, When I moved to Bath the Kennet and Avon canal wasn't fully re-open, and the Widcombe lock flight still wasn't in use. The water (there wasn't a lot) was crystal clear, and there was an amazing growth of White Water Lilies. <"By 1990"> the K&A canal was fully restored (Caen Hill was...

Hi all, There is actually some work in the UK on restoring lakes to diverse, macrophyte rich, mesotrophic conditions. This is for the <"Norfolk Broads">. In Europe they've been a lot more pro-active, and have even managed to clean up Lake Constance ("<"Bodensee">"). cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd agree that a lot of water is naturally opaque, but there are plenty of different aquatic habitat types with clear water and vegetation mosaics. Even now that is true and if you went <"back 200 years"> that number would increase exponentially. Where I live, in the UK, we still have...

Hi all, That is a question that we can't really answer, we are into a shades of grey world, it is a similar question to <"do probiotics in yogurt etc work?">. The only way to find out would be to be run a DNA scan looking for COMAMMOX bacterial and Ammonia Oxidising Archaeal (AOA) genes. My...

Hi all, We don't know exactly how "Prime" works, because Seachem won't tell you, but Kordon's "Amquel" has a patent and I would be very surprised if the mode of action wasn't similar. If you go to the "Removing Chloramine From Water: Chemical Reducing Agents" section of <"Chloramine and the...

Hi all, You can use bicarbonate of soda (NaHCO3), but you need to buy the bromothymol blue pH indicator. I haven't used them, but "kitchen-chemistry" on Ebay sell bromothymol blue pH indicator. <"This one">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, The workings for a DIY 4dKH NaHCO3 based solution are in this thread <"Question on my DIY 4dKH...">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Peat should be fine, it is only the <"really white sphagnum peat"> from the top layers of peat bogs (ombrotrophic mires) that reduces alkalinity and pH. It is a lot easier to add solutes to water than it is to take them away (have a look at the link to <"Apistogramma Forum"> thread for...

Hi all, Camallanus infection is real problem in SE Asian bred Apistogramma. I've not used eSHa NDX, but I used "Harka verm" (levamisole HCl) successfully, and it didn't re-appear. I didn't break the tank down, but I removed the fish for a couple of months. I'm not sure about the Anubias...

Hi all, They will still gain nutrients (and potentially CO2) indirectly from the soil. The clay minerals and humus in the soil will have cation (CEC) & anion (AEC) exchange capacity, which means that ions will be exchanged into the water column from the "piggy bank" in the soil. Ion exchange is...

Hi all, Julian where do you live? 50ppm NO3 is the EU limit, but it was breached sometimes in arable agricultural areas in the UK, it shouldn't happen now. The details for the UK are here: <"DWI annual report">. Is the reading from your water company? or is it with a kit? cheers Darrel

Ed you may have just <"become a millionaire">. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'm a bit dubious about this. When I started keeping fish "aged water" was regarded as having all sorts of beneficial properties, and fish like Discus were impossible to keep. As soon as people started changing a lot more water Discus etc became a lot more keepable. A lot of the drinking...

Hi all, Jordi it is the ratio of Ca:Mg and Ca:K that leads to problems with uptake, but it is true that if you have high levels of all the cations these problems are lessened. Plants that are adapted to calcareous conditions can take up the other cations even if the soil is entirely saturated...

Hi all, Yes. Yes. cheers Darrel

Hi all, I'd definitely keep on dosing the magnesium sulphate (MgSO4.7H2O), one of the effects of having lots of calcium ions (Ca++) is that it interferes with uptake of Mg++ and K+ ions by the plant. Other chelators are better at high pH levels, but I wouldn't worrry too much. Have a look...

Hi all, The easiest way is to use the calculator at "James' Planted Tank" <James' Planted Tank - Dosing Calculator>. If you need to do the maths it is quite simple. In this post <Help me calculate my ppm, please ? | UK Aquatic Plant Society>. cheers Darrel

Hi all, Yes that is half of it, the other half is that the water is more fully oxygenated and oxygen is a base, so that also causes the pH to rise. Pretty much as soon as the light is on the plant becomes a net oxygen exporter. If you think about the conditions for a lot of plants, they are...

Hi all, I'm pretty sure it is a dKH buffering effect in the graph, but without knowing the dKH you can't really interpret the pH. My experiences on other forums has shown me that unfortunately pH is a much more complex measurement than a lot of people realise. cheers Darrel

Hi all, My suspicion would be that there wasn't any added CO2. Yes definitely will, the depression of pH is caused by the continually added CO2 driving the carbonate ~ CO2 equilibrium towards the CO2 side. You can thing of it a bit like a "Bouncy Castle" connected to an air compressor, if you...

Hi all, Could be either no CO2, or the level of CO2 added during the photo-period is lower than the amount used by the plants. The graph just illustrates the changing levels of CO2 (the pH reduction is caused by the small proportion of dissolved CO2 that forms carbonic acid - H2CO3) and...