Hello from Thailand!
I've gotten several emails from people on this list,
off-list... so I just wanted to let you know that if I'm
slow in responding, it's because I'm on holiday and really
shouldn't be at the net cafe (my co-travelers are giving me
evil eyes). But the air conditioning is so nice, and it's
about 101 outside! :-p
But the issue of K blocking Ca uptake comes up here and
there on the net... and often is administered as a real
potential problem by reputable/respected hobbyists. In
general these are people just trying to lend a hand.
However I think there's a lot of misinformation that gets
dredged up from the past and re-inserted into the growing
pool of information and experience surrounding aquaplants.
It's important to do lots of research and ask lots of
questions from other people, plus corroborate this gained
information with your own experiences, to really come to
some sort of legit, albeit anecdotal conclusion in your own
mind.
In the end, we all want to help each other to succeed. But,
always think for yourself as well and you'll be ahead of
the game. Most rewarding for me has been the study group
meetings, where people bring up alternate methods and
ideas... which in many cases I had never considered. There
are so many "right" ways to do things; and there are a lot
of great strides being made right now in aquatic plants.
This is an excellent time to be growing these critters. :)
Well, I see the heat has made me oddly chatty. Time to
apply more sunblock.
Kor hai chok dee,
Erik Leung
e-aquaria.com
On Sun, 20 Apr 2003 21:43:00 -0400
Thomas Barr <tcb-@earthlink.net>; wrote:
| | | | Have you had a plant deficiency meeting before? That
|
is the current
| | problem I am having, it would be nice to see what kind
|
of problems
| | others have faced with specific plants. Attached is a
|
journal I've been
| | keeping to figure out my fertilizer regiment, using
|
Rotola Indica as an
| | indicator. At first the plant was very white so I
|
started dosing Iron
| | and more phosphate and the condition improved. Now I
|
am stuck with
| | crooked leaves, which is a calcium problem, but my GH
|
is 12 and KH is 6.
| | Maybe high light tanks go through that much calcium?
|
Or I was reading
| | elsewhere that it could be that I am dosing too much K
|
that is
| | interfering with the calcium.
Greg
|
I think rather than looking for deficiencies, try
removing the water that's
there and of unknown composition and replace with tap
water and all the
needed nutrients for the make up water.
Then you know the plant has access to the nutrients.
See an issue, take care of it. You can have a battery of
Lamott test kits
and try your darndest to do a controlled set up for a
certain type of
deficiency but they are tough to do right. I know of none
done on aquatic
plants really.
By keeping up on this routine(adding nutrients
regularly), you never have a
deficiency(or an excess since you do large weekly water
changes). It's when
you slack off, you get algae and poor plant growth.
You can forget Ca issues, I've had tap water with over
600ppm of Ca and no
plant issues. Well except perhaps 2 plants that tend to
give folks with soft
water issues anyway. But it was not due to K/Ca.
You are not even close to this level. As far as using up
some 100-200ppm of
Ca in a week? Nope.........
On a note that's started to chaff my hide:
I kept hearing some fool out there that seems to like to
promote this K
inhibition of Ca or vice versus.
Well, I've had tanks with lots of K and very little
Ca(like I do now). I've
had tanks with high Ca and high K and I've had tanks with
low K and low Ca.
And the moderate levels in between.
Now if this fool can show me that this occurs in
practical aquariums, I'll
eat a handful of pennywort. Because it doesn't.
I know what I see.
That interaction might occur in terrestrial plants where
pH issues and
extremely concentrated amounts of Ca etc can come into
play.
Ca/K gates at the cell level in plants is something else
also. I think
someone got confused and did not see if what they said
applies to planted
aquariums.
Because if they did, they would not be saying this.
Another person blaming
bad plant growth on the wrong parameter. Someday we will
see less of this as
more folks become aware and learn about aquatic plant
keeping.
Makes me want to slap these people with a mullet:-)
Whack!
Greg, this is not directed at you personally:-) Just
don't want you(and many
others) worrying about things that don't matter.
Regards,
Tom Barr
|
|
|
 |
er-@e-aquaria.com
