[AGA-Member] RE: Madagascar Lace plant

["Roger Miller" <aga-member@thekrib.com>]

Caliban wrote:
> That doesn't seem to make sense to me... you are saying if I have water chemistry flying all over the place, then my plants and fish will do better?

I didn't say that at all.  I pointed that out as a difference between the marine environment and the freshwater environment.  It is one of a set of differences that can cause problems when trying to apply methods from the marine hobby to the freshwater hobby.  It isn't like the freshwater hobby is a new undertaking spun off from the marine hobby.  We have more than a century of experience with freshwater aquaria and we generally know what needs to be done without reference to some of the relatively extreme needs of the reef keepers.


> I think in an artificial environment, stable water chemistry would be better. I haven't tested it, but I would be willing to bet that the tank with more stable conditions will do better than the tank with dynamic conditions.
This may be true, but I'm not sure that the chemical stability of the water is the key factor.  When an aquarist gives a tank enough attention to stabilize the water chemistry he or she is likely to find and correct other problems at the same time.

Your supposition is an interesting one.  I think that tank stability plays an important role in controlling algae growth, but little or nothing to do with the health of fish or plants.  I also don't know that the important aspect of tank stability is absolute control on concentrations and I certainly don't see reconstituted RO/DI water as the best way to meet that end.  I also don't see that it has anything to do with the purity of the reagents.


> But from what I have gathered from the posts, the other compounds in the salts and their levels are unknown. Someone said that agricultural K2SO4 is mined and sieved, with no additional testing or purification. In my mind, I think of what happened to all the contaminated bags of Eco Complete that were shipped due to mining contaminates.
 
Eco-complete is not an agricultural grade fertilizer, so I'm not sure how well that experience translates

We are not entirely clueless about what the impurities are.  I can't speak for ag-grade chemicals because I don't use them, but for the chemicals I do use I have been able to find enough information so that I can identify the impurities.


Roger Miller

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Technique, technique, technique -- Isabella Guerin, 2001


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Read this topic online here:

http://forum.aquatic-gardeners.org/viewtopic.php?p=1532#1532

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