RE: [AGA-Member] Possibilities of Sozo Haishoku

["Phil Edwards" <biotypical@hotmail.com>]

> And my question is how important and dominant CEC is in our CO2 enriched 
> production farms.

That's a great question and one I've been thinking about a lot lately 
myself.  In non-aquarium/aquatic horticulture CEC is vital to keeping 
mineral nutrients in the soil and accessable to plants' roots.  Without it 
the minerals would leach out and be inacessable to the root systems of most 
plants.

In enclosed aquatic systems CEC in theory is only useful for sequestering 
minerals such as Iron and Phosphate to avoid precipitation as insoluble 
mineral salts.  Since we are able to suppliment regularly and with 
relatively high precision precipitation of H2PO2- and Fe2+ precipitation 
isn't that big a deal except for possible toxicity issues.

Overall I would argue that CEC is a generally useless trait in artificially 
supplimented aquaria.  We increase the levels of mineral nutrients in the 
water column so much that we're basically hydroponic farmers growing plants 
in a coarse gravel substrate.  Some of the most beautiful amateur aquariums 
I've ever seen have used quartzite sand and/or granite chick grit as their 
substrate.  Neither of those provide any useful traits to the aquarium other 
than a high surface area for roots to grow in and a good general hydraulic 
conductivity for water passage.

Good porousity, hydraulic conductivity, resistance to compation, and high 
surface area are much more important traits than CEC.  This is especially 
true in systems with water column supplimentation only and/or systems with a 
high percentage of plants that are effective at foliar uptake.  A 
high-light, modern stemplant tank is a good example of this type.

Regards,
Phil


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