The Krib
Plants
Plant People
George Booth
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The Krib
Plants
Plant People
George Booth
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From: booth-at-hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (George Booth) Subject: [F][PLANTS][$$$][WORDY] SST Update Date: 18 Feb 92 23:13:01 GMTThe Super Show tank has been set up and operating for 4 months. The following is an update on how the hardware is working and how the plants are responding. Since I consider the tank arrangement and plants mature at this point, this is the last posting about the SST. I will, of course, continue to post "Key Learnings" (as our marketing folks are wont to say) about this tank and our other tanks.
Sorry for the length, but that's the way I am.
The only drawback is glare from the suspended metal halide light. You can't actually see the bulbs, just the bright white reflector inside the fixture. To counter it, I wear a baseball cap when I sit in front of the tank. I might look into making a smoked plexiglass border around the edge of the fixture, just large enough to block the glare. I would only do this to preserve my self-esteem, since a certain spouse claims I look nerdy in a baseball cap and giggles when she sees me in it.
We did experience infant mortality with one of the two bulbs at about 3 months. Hamilton warranties them for a year, so it was replaced "free of charge". Of course, we had to pay shipping to return the old bulb (so they could verify it was broken) and to send the new bulb to us, but I guess you can't consider that a "charge". Funny how it cost $2.40 for me to ship it to them, but it costs $7.90 for them to ship it to me. Must be a California export tax or something.
When we put the new bulb in, we compared its lux value against the older bulb and tracked its brightness over time with our Turbo Lux Meter and Bun Warmer. The initial loss was quite dramatic - I'll post more details at a later date.
I was going to post the lux values for the tank, but my memory has failed me. I think we have around 15,000 lux at the surface under the bulbs and from 1000 to 4000 lux at the gravel. I'll check this and also post more details. Anyway, the plants seem to like it :-)
My hypothesis about the coils not keeping the tank warm enough at night is that they do not provide enough heat to quickly raise the water temperature. The MH lights will heat the water to about 82.5 F after they are on all day. This causes the temperature controller to turn off the coils sometime before the lights go off. When the coils are off for a while, the gravel will loose heat to the water and the glass bottom of the tank. Once the coils come back on, they slowly reheat the glass and gravel, but it takes so long that the temperature of the water continues to fall for awhile, then very slowly comes back to the correct level. The controller does not compensate for this large delay or lag. Maybe the new microprocessor controlled version does, but we'll never know (to much $$$ :-).
Nitrates in this tank are less than 3 ppm (less than 0.75 ppm N * 4.4). The 100g tank runs 8-12 ppm with the equivalent bioload, the same trickle filter (with generic bioballs) but with an Eheim 2217 that doesn't get cleaned as much as it should. Since the trickle filter pads are the only mechanical filtration, we need to change the prefilter pad about twice a week and the drip plate pad about once a week. We are actually changing less water in the SST than in the other two tanks (100 liters versus 150 liters) and are getting lower nitrates. We are planning on removing the Eheim from the 100g tank for a while to see if long term detritus decay is causing the higher nitrates.
Plant List for the 90 gallon Super Show Tank
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.Ns .Lr Lr Lr Lr . Hs . .Hp Hp . . Hz Hz .
. Ns. Lr Lr Lr . Hs Hs . As . Hp Hp. Ab . Hz Hz Hz.
. Ns . Lr Lr Lr . Hs . .Hp Hp . . . . Hz Hz Hz.
. Ns . Lr Lr Lr . . . . . As . Hp Hp. . Hz Hz .
. Ns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ac . . ..
. . . . . . rr . . . . . . . .
. Lp . Al . Eo .rrrr. Aa Aa . . . . Bm Bm . .
. Lp . . . rr . . . . . Bm Bm . Ak .
. Lp . Al . Eo . . Aa Aa . . rr. . . .. .
. Lp . . . . An . . Bl .rrrr. . . .
. . . Al . . . . . . . Aa . .rrr . Bl . Hv .
. A? . . An An . Aa . . . . Hv .
......................................................................
As Ammannia senegalensis Eo Echinodorus osiris
Ab Anubias barcon Hz Heteranthera zosterifolia
Ac Anubias coffeeafolia (floating) Hydrocotyle verticillata
Al Anubias lanceolata Hv Hydrocotyle vulgaris
Ak Anubias kumbaensis Hp Hygrophila polysperma
An Anubias nana Hs Hygrophila salicifolia
A? Anubias sp. Lp Ludwigia palustris
Aa Armoracea aquatica Lr Ludwigia repens
Bm Bacopa monniera Ns Nomaphila siamensis
Bl Barclaya longifolia rr rocks
Since the last update, we have slightly rearranged the tank and
removed a few plants that didn't like the conditions or didn't
contribute to the overall aesthetic. The E. cordifolius was too big
and distracting; it would do better as a centerpiece in a less densely
planted tank. The various crypts did not seem to like "warm roots"
and weren't really needed anyway. The lotus bulb was in the same
category - it's now in the 100g tank. The Rotala macrantha was also
removed since it detracted from the A. senegalensis (same color and
general appearance, just smaller). The new arrangement still provides
the same feeling as the last one, but looks much less busy and more
integrated (i.e., the plants seem to complement each other better).
The Echinodorus osiris has become a monster and is definitely the centerpiece of the tank (although placed correctly off-center to follow the "Golden Rule"). It is still producing about 1 new leaf per week, but the new leaves are now 4" wide, 8" long and are on 12" petioles (for the dimensionally challenged, the top of the leaf is at the water surface in a 24" deep tank). The new leaves are a deep burgundy color that gradually changes to a dark green over time.
We finally got some Barclaya longifolia bulbs and have had them for about 2 months. One is sort of a dud and has produced about 8-10 smallish, 2" long green leaves. The other is another story. It started very slowly and after 3 weeks or so produced a couple of leaves about 1"x6" that looked just like the pictures. Since then, it has decided it likes us and currently has at least 20 1"x10" leaves with two or three new leaves per week. The leaves are on short petioles, unlike pictures in the Rataj book (due to the bight lighting, no doubt). There are 6 flower stalks at this time, ranging from an 18" stalk with a flower blooming on the surface of the water to a 9", 6", 2", 1" and a 1/2" stalk just starting out. This plant is very impressive. What started out as a little 3/8" diameter bulb now has a golf ball size rhizome. I *like* it.
The Ammania senegalensis grows fairly fast but only slowly forms new branches that we can replant. We now have two stems with some new shots starting on the second stem. This also is an impressive plant. It looks a lot like Rotala macrantha, but scaled up about three or four times. It has a 1/4" dia. stem with thin, 3-4" red-orange leaves growing opposed every 1/2" along the stem.
The Armoracea aquatica has divided into 6 or 7 plants and makes a beautiful green carpet about 2" high in the middle of the tank. It is being used to visually separate the E. osiris and B. longifolia and provide a forground for the A. senegalensis. This is an outstanding foreground plant if you can find it, gorgeous emerald green with fountain shaped leaves growing out of a small base. They don't cover the gravel like E. tenellus, so scavenegers and other fish can still get to food lodged underneath them.
The Heteranthera zosterifolia has taken on the characteristics of a weed. We need to cut about 2/3 of the mass away every two weeks or it will over take the tank. That's OK, though, since the local fish shop buys the excess from us and it seems to die for everyone else so there is a constant demand :-) And when it's properly trimmed, the bright green rosettes are an exceptional background.
We have not experienced any algae plagues in this tank. We do have a wonderful variety of non-plague type algae, but it is easy to keep under control.
The various algae eaters keep the short little hair algae trimmed back, so that is no problem. Medimum and long hair algae can be found among some of the plants, but is easily removed with a toothbrush by winding it up like spaghetti. A word of warning: Karla objected to the taste of the algae in the strongest possible terms, so I wouldn't recommend using your SO's toothbrush.
Just like our other tanks, older leaves, especially Anubias, collect red brush algae (small, grey-black tufts). Since the plants grow very fast, we simply remove any leaves so affected.
This tank has produced a tough strain of "green dot" algae, probably due to the high light intensity. Our other tanks will get little green dots on the front glass, er, plastic, that takes a lot of rubbing to remove. In this tank, it grows in slightly larger patches on older leaves of some of the plants like the Anubias, Amoracea and the E. osiris. It doesn't seem to be a problem unless you look real close and believe that there should not be any algae. I think that algae is a natural result of a healthy plant tank, so *I* don't have a problem.
At this point, we consider the plants in the tank mature and the arrangement pretty much stabilized. Now it's time to sit back and enjoy our efforts and perfrom the bi-weekly harvests.
Note: I don't know how to identify dwarf cichlids, so you'll have to bear with my fish store nomenclature for the rams described below.
Of the 16 rams we purchased, 5 are still around. We originally had 4 "gold" rams and 6 "butterfly" rams from the usual stock that is typically found laying on the bottom of fish store tanks (you know, the long-finned mutants that are so genetically hosed that they don't survice long?). We found some with normal finnage, but all have gone the way of the dinosaur. The last one we saw alive looked like a swimming head. We would have put it out of its misery, but it is impossible to catch fish in a densely planted tank, so we have to let nature take its nasty course.
Shortly after buying the initial 10, we found 6 more "wild" rams at a local store that weren't quite as colorful and had a more oval shape than the first rams. Of those 6, 5 are still alive and kicking. These may be geneticaly closer to a true wild ram, since they actually act like cichlids and not some kind of French Poodle that only eats "Gourmet Doggie Woggie Filet Mignon" in a can. They eat anything offered. They watch for us and wiggle for food. They have gotten much more colorful and appear to be courting. There is 1 large dominant fish, a couple of smaller fish that have staked out territory under the A. lanceolota, and two left-overs. They could be spawning, but we'll probably never know. I would attempt to classify them as males and females based on the observed behavior, but I just went through "Gender Diversity Sensitivity Training" and I don't want the Gender Police all over me.
Mr. and Mrs. and Mr. and Mrs. Pearl Gourami are doing fine and getting beautiful coloration. We thought the natual color of the MH lights would not show them up as well as typical aquarium lights, but we were wrong. We were also wrong about them being "upper half of the tank" fish - they are where ever the food is! It's been a while since we last had Pearls, so I guess we forgot.
Of the 12 otocinclus we bought, we have only seen at two the same time recently. Either they hide well or they have been sucked into the skimmer box. Since I have actually found two or three slowly dissolving in the skimmer box, I favor the later hypothesis.
Of the six Corydora trilineata we purchsed, I have seen four at once recently, so they are probably still around. Also, the E. siamensis (Siammese Algae Eater) is still happily grazing algae bits off the various plants.
I don't think that expensive technology is required to grow plants (I can hear more than a few heads nodding out there). If you see the video, you will realize that the 85 gallon Rainbowfish tank has the most impressive vegatation and it is very low tech except for CO2; it even has an UGF!
The cost of the SST was worth it to us because (1) we had the money available to do it and (B) we now have a range of technologies with which to experiment. We may find that, long term, the technology DOES make a difference; we are seeing very low nitrates in the tank for an as yet undetermined reason. We may find that the technology allows a tank to "work" for a much longer period of time between teardowns. But, that will take years to tell.
And, best of all, we will not be second guessing ourselves forever, sayng "If only we had tried heating coils".
There are many experiments yet to be run. Can we grow B. longifolia in the 100g tank (no heating coils) if we have good stock? We will probably have good stock very soon, based the rate the thing is producing flowers. Are canister filters "nitrate generators" just like UGFs, if for no other reason than people won't clean then every week? And on and on.
I now pass the "killer tank" baton to the next enthustiast.
Be lucky,
George
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This page was last updated 21 February 1999 | ||