[Aroid-l] Growing Aroids in Planted Ripariums

From: dbiggs at xantusidesign.net on 2010.01.01 at 08:56:32(20425) Michael, There is some evaporation from my setups that have open tops, but it is not so difficult to manage. The little 20-gallon setup with the Spathiphyllum and Alocasia probably only evaporates a liter or so of water per week. The much larger 120-gallon tank, on the other hand, probably loses 15 liters per week to evaporation. It is easy to replace this lost water because I perform water changes once or twice each week for every tank for the sake of maintaing favorable conditions for the fish and plants. +More I keep an almost completely closed top on the 55-gallon setup that I have planted with Cryptocoryne, Anubias and emergent aquatic ferns because those plants require high humidity. There is very little evaporation from that tank. We have very hard tapwater here, so I mix conditioned tapwater with RO in a 1:1 ratio. I draw the water for changes the day before use and let it sit in an open 5-gallon plastic pail so that gas concentration and temperature can stabilize at closer to the values in the fish tanks. I also use small amounts of a (inexpensive) commercial aquarium water dechlorinator to ensure that chlorine is removed, although some chlorine also evaporates from the open pail. Really I just use the same standard methods for water changes that are already widely used by aquarium enthusiasts. I do add some fertilizers to the water column and to the planter cups to maintain plant health and growth. Specific fertilization methods depend upon the requirements of the specific plant variety and the conditions in the aquarium. Cheers, Devin _______________________________________________ Aroid-L mailing list Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

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