水草情迷

Hi all,
Take a look at the link below and really think about it. Even cheap tank and equipments can achieve good result. It's your skill and knowlege that matters!
Enjoy and be surprised by what you're going to see.

http://homepage2.nifty.com/solecism/kna ... carium.htm

where can buy 赤玉土 in HK?? I have been searching it for a while but can't find, either in flower shop or fish shop..

and is it 赤玉土 = 燒泥?

Hmmmmm......there are 2 schools of thoughts.
Among the orthodox traditionalist, Diana Walstad's "ecology of the planted aquarium" emphasized the importance of skill / knowledge & she has been skeptical about the effectiveless of high-end equipments.
Meanwile, ADA demonstrate how high-end equipments will bring peace of mind & taste to the aqualist.
Could Senna's Civic be faster than a fat rich guy's Ferrari ? Probably ....but a Ferrari always looks good.

With Walstad's method, one can grow non-so-demanding
plants (most plants fall into this category), which maybe good enough for most hobbyists. However, the high-tech method can handle the most demanding plants (of course provided u do it properly). The drawback is it costs much much more.
Choice between Civic and Ferrari? A determining factor is whether u can afford it!

I am the one who follow Walstad. I take out my filter for around 3 weeks. No CO2, no fertilizers, even no de-chlorinizer. Just fish flakes. The long needle crown and small crown still growing without any problem. The red butterfly seems OK but a bit green.

I think I am please, with my last water change for about 1 month ago, no filter, my NH3/4 and nitrite maintain zero.

But I have high nitrate and algae problem.

I can say right now I have a minimum maintenance tank. Just fish flakes and refill the evaporated water every week.

To JJK,
do u still have circulation in your tank?
Fish food is high in phosphate content. Have u measure ur
phosphate level? could this be the cause of your algae problem?
Also, how about potassium level? K is important for root growth and for disease resistant. Trace elements?

Hi Alan2002
Yes, I have a small power head for circulation.
Thanks for informing me regarding fish food and phosphate relation. Well, believe it or not, I have none of your mentioned tester. It might be a problem. Recently I reduce the light level by 15W and shorten the light hours by one hour. It "seems" improving. And some algae on big leaves are off. Therefore, I will continue to fine tune the suitable light first, and then fine tune the feeding practise. I guess I don't have ability to change two factors at once and I am sure I will screw it up. Thanks for the advise. "Report" to you guys later. Or any more suggestion, thanks in advance.
Cheers.