Bill,
Nice pic and well growing plants!
Are you having a bare tank?
Is it CO2 injected? If yes, do you use solenoid? If yes again, what's the time on/off in relationship with light time on/off?
Hi folks,
Thanks to Wright finding this Sony DKC-FP3 on ebay for me, I've been
having lots of fun experimenting. Due to the poor pictures and write-up
of this camera, I was able to get it at it's opening bid price! I find I really
like the manual zoom capability of this camera. Here's a pic of one of
my tanks that is almost covered in watersprite and has the Anubias barteri var. Coffeefolia:
Bill
Bill,
Nice pic and well growing plants!
Are you having a bare tank?
Is it CO2 injected? If yes, do you use solenoid? If yes again, what's the time on/off in relationship with light time on/off?
Hi Freddy,
Thanks for the compliment on the pic, hope to get better at it The
tank, 10gallon uses two 13w compact fluorescents and is on 12 hours
a day. Ferts are: KNO3, KH2PO4 for macros, plus magnesium sulfate,
twice weekly and I use Tropica Master Grow and Flourish drops 3 times
a week. I use Flourish Excel: 2mls daily and 7 mls at weekly water
change, which is a liquid form of carbon. Will probably be going to DIY
CO2 on a couple tanks, shortly. In this tank I found 3 Mundemba fry but
were so fast diving under the watersprite leaves I couldn't get a pic of
them, when I do, I'll post them And yes, its a barebottom tank with
plants, moss, tied to lava rock.
Bill
Nice tank, Bill. I noticed you have Elodea densa in your tanks. I have lots of it in my tanks too and I'm using them as a replacement for the Ceratophyllum demersum (Hornwort). The C. demersum is great for keeping algae at bay but they melt easily.
I started off with a short stalk of E. densa from Ronnie but now they're everywhere. Actually, it's not a big deal to grow lots of it in a short while as this is an easy plant. Anyone can grow E. densa but the point is, how many can get it to flower?
Loh K L
Congrats, KL! I've never gotten it to bloom I, too, downsized the
hornwort for the same reason. E. densa is a bulletproof, easy plant to
grow! I sent some to Wright, hope it's doing well for him.
Bill
Ceratophyllum demersum is not critical of good light and high nutrients. Ok, it doesn't look as robust and lush, but it won't melt.
I 'quarantine' hornwort in plastic tubs (for stowaway eggs), stored in the shade and neglected, and they seem none the worse for it. What kills it, literally, is fresh tap water and they're quite sensitive to medications and salt, since the melt-downs usually occur in annual-species tank.
Kwek Leong, I'm glad the E. densa did well. It does deteriorate, turns brown and breaks apart when conditions are 'not right' but their blooms are rather nice, as you found out
Bill, I look forward to hearing more sightings of the Mundemba... that's one nice bugger! Your tank looks like a forest, as are some of mine, but is it a growing thread or what, going bare-bottom??
I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
Ronnie Lee
Besides that, I also found out recently that Hornwort dies in acidic water. In my tanks where the substrate is ADA aquasoil, they melt. That's another reason I'm switching to E. densa for covering up the tanks to prevent the fish from jumping.Originally Posted by RonWill
Bet you couldn't recall when you gave me the stalk of E. densa, Ronnie. If you like to know, it came with the bag of Chromaphyosemion splendopleure 'Moliwe' you gave me several months ago. To bad about the fish though. I expected fry when I kept them in one of the tanks under my Killifish bench. It was hard to see them as the location was dark and the tank was filled with Hornwort. So I rarely checked but when I did, I found them all to be dead.
Loh K L
If acclimatized slowly, it doesn't. Most likely yours was a new setup with fresh water.Originally Posted by timebomb
If I can't recall what I had for lunch the day before, I won't try too hard to remember when you got the plant but was it around Madan's visit to my corner?
Bill, I forgot to ask. Shoot something in macro mode with the DKC-FP3. I'd like to see the resolution and focusing ability/distance. How close can it get?
I'm back & keeping 'em fingers wet,
Ronnie Lee
My suspicion is that hornwort is not sensitive to either salt or soft, acid water. I think it is killed rather easily by an imbalance of the 4 critical electrolytes. They are essential to cell metabolism in both fish and plants.
That is, in very soft water with little potassium, calcium and magnesium, a small increase in sodium may be lethal.
In Santa Clara, where I had moderately hard water with ample electrolytes, hornwort was a weed that needed frequent reduction.
I think it died quickly in the unhealthy soft water of Modesto, when I first arrived. I quickly learned to add some Seachem "Equilibrium" and all my dying plants (even browning Java Moss) perked right up. The water was snow runoff over granite, so was alkaline with silica/silicates (pH 9-10) but <30 ppm tds. Ca and Mg were essentially zero. I may have added a bit of baking soda to preclude pH crash in the poorly buffered water.
The Sony DSC-D770 and DKC-FP3 have no separate macro mode, as such. The "manual" focus ring is a fly-by-wire type and covers an impressive range. In autofocus, I just checked the one sitting by my computer, and it goes from about 2" to 8" as closest focus (wide to tele). It is enough to have a GAR overfill the screen, anyway. Probably not good enough for eggs, but I have a set of close-up filters (1, 2 and 4 diopter) that get one really close when needed. Add a good 2X tele adapter and you have the whole range covered by superzooms.
Wright
01 760 872-3995
805 Valley West Circle
Bishop, CA 93514 USA
I would confirm Wright's suspicion. I have a bunch of hornwort in the tank where I'm treating the N. korthausae with levamisole. I had to lower the pH in the tank for the drug to work properly, so I filled it with tap water peat tea until I had pH 6.5 and KH 4. Then I lavishly, and rather sloppily, fed BBS to the fish before going to bed. the next morning the hornwort had sunk to the bottom and turned brown.
peat tea + unrinsed BBS=soft water + sodium=hornwort meltdown
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