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Nuke powered plasma fresnel lens directed thermo lighting system, actually ATI sunpower 8 bulb fixtures. CO2, gas tank, CO2 reactor in the sump. Wet/dry filter. 180 Gallon 180 cm x 65 x 60. ADA aqua soil, maybe 7 years old now.

Gloss and other plants respond the same way to mows. About the same time frame, but if you go several weeks, they really get foul.........whereas Starougyne stays pretty decent, but just piles on itself. Less demanding than most plants.

Pre trim: Time = 0 Time = 7 days Time= 14 days Time= 21 days A trim or two later, maybe a month? Then I did an older video in 2012 of the tank about then also.

About 3 weeks to have a decent looking lawn, but it will not be as thick and tall as what I cut. What I cut needed cut, maybe 2 months(8-10 weeks worth of growth from a cut to the bone trim)

After about 3 minutes, you can stop, it's just more of the same. A client wanted 300 plants suddenly. I'm like 1$ per plant with extras, he's like okay, sure.

I plan on doing a few more. Each tank has a very different schedule and approach to scaping, so they are all this mish mash of different styles, different methods/techniques, something I've always considered and had a strong interest in, not just one method or style. So a video with more detail...

Best to lie and keep the myth alive :-)

Well, I like to have enough space to enjoy the tanks and they are in the center of the living space, so I can do other things while hanging out with the kids and family. If you hide a tank away in some odd spot, then it's not enjoyed. Same with the Bonsai and landscaping etc. The wood pic...

Start off with the standard non limiting, then tweak from there. Fairly simple and common sense. I think most like to over complicate. While you can continue to add and do good sized water changes frequently, these are not bad things/habits for any aquarists, they might not (99% they will...

Well, it could be used on a pH controller also, so it would be independent of a KH or tap water or aquarium water interference and still be highly responsive. Basically with a good light meter and umols, a good CO2 device will round out the big 3 factors for growing weeds in aquariums. I've...

Yes. BTW, Aquarium KH has no effect on the drop cheker. That is about the only real benefit to the drop checker method. I'll have a device folks can buy in a few weeks or so that will take that benefit and the benefits of the pH meter/probe and combine them for a 60 second 99% accuracy...

Problems with the pH/KH charts: 1. The color coded ranges are not correct IME 2. Many newbies think they can add other things like peat or tannins, other acids to depress the pH, and magically obtain CO2. This is not true, to get more CO2, you have to add more CO2 gas. Simple approach to the...

Trying to get folks to test is tough, but for newer folks, the pH/KH is likely the best approach since it never under estimates the CO2 content. In may overestimate it, so many think they have more CO2 than is actually there. But NEVER the reverse. The chart brings it's own set of the newbie...

I do not even like these things. They became popular a second time in the last 4-5 years. Most target 30 ppm of CO2, but is 30 ppm optimal? So can you really tell between say a pH color of 6.4 and 6.6? Most cannot. What the difference in CO2 there? It's huge if you are at the higher, not so...

Re: Soil mineralisation/selfcycling mutually inclusive proce As is often the case for the best result, group efforts and feedback really help. EI, list of levels and dosing, Non cO2, Excel usage, light/CO2 etc, all where group efforts and continue to be so. Soil has long been overlooked, I do...

Re: Introduction to Underwater Gardening with Soil Substrate This is also supported by Cedergreen and Madsen 2001 also in Aquatic Botany. They cut the roots off to make certain the stems could not get any sediment uptake. Still, in both these studies, they ONLY considered a few limited weedy...

Re: Introduction to Underwater Gardening with Soil Substrate Try the black mangrove, it should be better for FW systems, I've seen really nice displays in Tampa FL's public aquarium using that species, grows faster etc.

Re: Introduction to Underwater Gardening with Soil Substrate I agree here also, they can be whatever you want.........I have a nicer looking non CO2 approach on my ADA tank.......and with emergent plants....you can go nuts.......with the light and also........the uptake by the plants. since...

Re: Introduction to Underwater Gardening with Soil Substrate I agree! It is much more similar(far more so) than dissimilar:) I'm 110% with you brother! I prefer helping folks in that sustainability direction. Not that popular in the USA :silent: The Land of Excess. I use this idea to...

Re: Introduction to Underwater Gardening with Soil Substrate On the APD, Steve P has a soil obsession, you might find many of the links and articles useful:0 Note, much of this is from the 1990's, old stuff but........ http://home.infinet.net/teban/ I've used peat a lot myself in the past...

Re: Introduction to Underwater Gardening with Soil Substrate Adding ferts into the sediment is a no brainer. Many balk at ADA aqua soil, but it's just rice paddy clay, we have hectares of it. In pot test I did at the lab, the ADA did the same as the Clay loam rice paddy soil with 4 weedy...

Well, not always, the nicest places I've EVER seen are from the water column mostly........ Many springs in FL, Brazil(Bonita), Pupu in NZ, San Macros river TX, USA etc.......... They are also fairly rich in CO2, 15-40ppm ranges.

BTW, since we can rule out nutrients and measure light and adjust appropriately, this leaves mostly CO2 as the main variable for growth and issues. Clive suggest using plants, algae and indirectly fish(I'm not a fan of usign them) as the "CO2 test kit". This is mostly what I have done, then...

Well, EI says nothing about test or not to test CO2, nor light. I'm no fan of the DC's, but I also do not fall for pH controllers for the same reasons with KH changes and influences on that parameter. pH meter at least have a much much higher accuracy concerning pH measure, DC's have 3...

Yes, which is why plants take up luxury nutrients, more than they need for growth at first glance for short term experiments, but if you look at the entire life cycle, they often have access to brief periods of rich nutrients, so they need to fatten up to get through the lean times of winter...

No, ADA As is not mineralized. That's why it leaches NH4 for a month or so, then the bacteria mineralize it by the end of 3-4 weeks. I use either ADA As or WC, maybe delta soil. If I want less richness, I add more sand % ratio. But with ADA AS, I add no sands etc, just straight. Some tanks use...

The Amazon soil is very poor in nutrients actually and you will not find any rooted submersed species in those regions typically thought of. There's also simply not enough light. In the springs, headwaters where there are nutrient rich clays and enough light and more stable water levels, then we...

BTW, I liken the idea of using a good enriched sediment with macro nutrients, eg, soils, worm castings, ADA AS and dosing the water column much like walking on 2 legs. As far as nutrients go, why only hop on one leg? You can do it, but it's harder going. Use sediments and the water column if...

For those not finding success with EI, you can likely rule out nutrients. Unless you have insane light and lots of dense plant growth, it's unlikely you will under shoot things. If you think/assume that excess will cause stunting, melting or any negative issues with plants, then how can you...

BTW, Gerloff's paper showed 20-30ppm to be the critical concentration for the aquatic species that he considered. Here's the paper(cited unlike most methods, curiously lacking support for the ranges of nutrients): http://www.new.aslo.org/lo/toc/vol_11/issue_4/0529.pdf If you look at the...

As a general guideline, not as waring of toxicity, EI suggest 30ppm or so, you do not want to go much beyond say 40ppm and if so, then modify the dosing routine. Tap water NO3, fish waste can add to the NO3 as well. If you are in that target range, then modify the dose accordingly. While you...

Heck, I made it simple, then folks started in about this and that. You dose often to prevent anything from running out, you do large water changes to prevent anything from building up. That's it pretty much and estimate from there. Not hard, not complex, no need for the rest, but some folks...

In standard analysis of nutrients/atoms, all percentages are as dry weights, otherwise, how could anyone compare due to variation in water status? If you have an answer that's easy to do, I'm all ears, you can make a wet to dry weight correlation, but it depends on th methods and the plant and...

I think for most aquarist, simply looking at the practical side of things and the trade offs and reducing the unknowns is perhaps a more pragmatic argument. Water changes: => easy, no chemistry required, clean the tank out, water clear, and clean. Dosing errors=> totally minimized via large...

Well observational science can still teach you a great deal, but in our cases, aquariums, we can easily manipulate thigns and test hypothesis. That's rather tough on a 200 hectare lake however. Thus we can learn and know more. But, many are too scared to do toxicity/algae test on their own...

My goal is to help folks and to deal with my own personal curiosity. I'd much rather have you learn and "feed yourselves" so to speak than to be faith based in your hobby(but thanks for the support). Much like the Socratic method. I often ask specific questions of hobbyists/the general forum...

And if you really are into liquid dosing, simple make one for micro nutrients(CMS+B) and another for the macro nutrients and dose mls to achieve whatever ppm's ranges you want. Very easy as well if you know how to use a dosing calculator. Dry dosing was suggested since many had trouble...

I think he knows more about it than I do. :mrgreen: The best renditions of EI I've ever read. Regards, Tom Barr