Thanks, Ken. Sounds like there are some rather complex interactions at
work. I tend to grow plants that like my tanks. I'm starting to tinker a
little with plant-friendly setups. I have a 29 with a canister filter and
calcareaous sand (I think. It came from the beach south of San Fransisco.
I packed it in bags in my luggage. About 50 lb per bag. Felt sorry for
the poor lady at the ticket counter!) (Yes, I'm a sand theif!) and three
flourescent tubes of different types. Higher output types. The plants are
growing like crazy and the mollies and killies are going to town. But
plant succession is the problem. Duck weed has totally covered the surface
and blocks most of the light. Underneath that the water sprite has taken
on forest proportions and I don't know which of the other plant species are
surviving. To make it really ugly, I have piles of that silky, black brush
algae all over the bottom. It's a sight. An interesting experiment,
though. I'm trying a couple other tanks with a UGF on half and just gravel
on the other half. One is failing, apparently because the sharpfin
chubsuckers are nibbling the plants down to nubs. The other is just
getting started. Plan to keep a colony of Priapella intermedia in that
one. It's a 30 long. Right now it has one Vitalight reptile tube on it.
Mark
Columbus Ohio USA <))><
mbinkley_at_columbus.rr.com
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