Well I must comment on the aquatic plant statements that you have made, because I definitely think that you are wrong on several points. Many professional aquascapers would also agree, including Amano.Mustafa wrote:That's a fallacious assumption. Most *undisturbed* aquatic habitats out there have negligible amounts of nitrate or phosphate. You would not be able to measure anything at all with the usual hobby test kits. That does not mean that shrimp cannot take much higher amounts of nitrates and phosphates than what naturally occurs in their habitats.wood wrote: Dosing ferts properly will not harm your shrimp at all. Think about it, there is plenty of nutrients in their natural habitats.
-Ryan
Also, this fallacious assumption is based on the fact that many plants kept in the hobby won't grow well, or at all, without additional fertilization and CO2 additions. What people don't know, or tend to forget, is that many of these difficult plants grow emersed in their natural habitats. They are basically bog/swamp plants. They get plenty of nutrients from the soil (as they grow on land most of the year and the nutrients don't get washed away as in aquatic habitats) and their CO2 comes from the air...and there is plenty of it. CO2 levels in water are always much, much lower than in the air as water cannot possibly dissolve as much CO2 as the air can hold.
Now...when people try to permanently "drown"
these plants, the plants don't like it one bit, unless you make their aquatic habitat as close to their normal, non-aquatic land habitat as possible...i.e. give them CO2 and "drown" them with nutrients and hope that those nutrients find their way to the roots.
*Real* aquatic plants likc Elodea sp. and Najas sp., for example, don't have such problems.
In any case, I don't want to go off-topic here (and please, let's not turn this into a plant discussion), but the point is what's stated already in the first sentence of this post. It's never a good idea to make blanket statements, and present them as facts, without making sure that they are actually correct. So, let's all be careful about such things when posting in the future.
First off the statement that "many of these difficult plants grow emersed in their natural habitats" is completely false. They are able to grow emersed, yes, but their sole purpose is to grow submersed. Growing emersed is a method for these plants to also flower/seed. I am only using Amano as an example because he has a lot of credibility. Look at most of the difficult plants that Amano grows, all of them grow along the surface, underwater, when they reach the top of the water. They do not penetrate the surface. Ask most aquascapers and they will tell you that the difficult plants will grow along the surface if not trimmed.
Second, "They get plenty of nutrients from the soil (as they grow on land most of the year and the nutrients don't get washed away as in aquatic habitats) and their CO2 comes from the air...and there is plenty of it. CO2 levels in water are always much, much lower than in the air as water cannot possibly dissolve as much CO2 as the air can hold." This is once again completely false. Difficult aquatic plants require nutrients in the water column in order to prosper. Look at Amano's dosing regimens and that will prove it to you. Aquasoil is the best substrate out there, but it alone will not help you one bit. Soil alone will not do it for you at all. In fact the roots themselves will not grow well without proper dosing. I don't know where you get this "washed away" theory. The source of the minerals and nutrients are always in the water they do not get "washed away" in nature, the source of the water already contains the nutrients. It is not like doing a water change in an aquarium. CO2 is very plentiful in the water that these plants live in. Plants do not grow emersed in order to capture CO2, that is a total myth. As a matter of fact CO2 in the atmosphere naturally dissolves into water. Look up global warming and coral reef bleaching. Also look up increasing ph levels in the ocean due to global warming and the effect on crustaceans' thinning shells.
"Now...when people try to permanently "drown" Wink these plants, the plants don't like it one bit, unless you make their aquatic habitat as close to their normal, non-aquatic land habitat as possible...i.e. give them CO2 and "drown" them with nutrients and hope that those nutrients find their way to the roots." The reason why I dose enough ferts for my 10 gallon as recommended for a 30 gallon is completely related to the amount of plants and nutrient uptake. That is why there is the Estimative Index for dosing ferts, as well as other dosing calculators to figure out exactly what your plants are consuming and to increase dosing as recommended. Plants must have CO2 in order to grow, some plants more, other plants require less. Since aquascapers are dealing with an artificial environment we have to mimic the natural habitat but injecting CO2. Tap water does not contain the CO2 required.
Sorry to go off topic Mustafa, but there are a lot of people on here that could be misinformed and wonder why their planted tanks are not doing well. Please don't ban me, this was not an attempt to correct you, just properly inform others who may read this thread while attempting to do a planted tank.
-Ryan
I put a very small amount of peat in the tank to bring down the ph. It is in fact Fluval Peat, meant of course for the fluval canisters. 
