I think I remember reading this somewhere but aren't there some plants that aren't compatible with one another? Like when there are two of the plants in the tank, they will try to snuff the other out or prevent the other one from reproducing? If so, what plants are incompatible with another? Thanks
plant incompatibility
- Thread starter zzyzx85
- Start date
I have never heard of anykind of chemical warfare between aquatic plants. Some may grow faster and crowd others out, but that's about it.
According to my reading, most of the more aggressively allelopathic plants are in the Lily family. By and large, it is not a worry as most Lily species are too big for planted aquariums.
I too have heard of Vals not doing well in the presence of other plants - Sag, Crypts... though I suspect an excess of Excel is more likely the culprit in at least some of these cases.
There's a whole chapter on the subject in:
Ecology of the Planted Aquarium...
Author: Diana L. Walstad
Publisher: Echinodorus Pub
ISBN-10: 0967377315
ISBN-13: 9780967377315
Publication Year: 2003
I would encourage ANYONE interested in doing a planted aquarium, even if not going "El Natural" (NPT) - to read this book.
I too have heard of Vals not doing well in the presence of other plants - Sag, Crypts... though I suspect an excess of Excel is more likely the culprit in at least some of these cases.
There's a whole chapter on the subject in:
Ecology of the Planted Aquarium...
Author: Diana L. Walstad
Publisher: Echinodorus Pub
ISBN-10: 0967377315
ISBN-13: 9780967377315
Publication Year: 2003
I would encourage ANYONE interested in doing a planted aquarium, even if not going "El Natural" (NPT) - to read this book.
tanker
Josh Holloway--Be mine!!!
I have lots of Val and dwarf sag with my jungle of crypts. They all grow and re-produce rapidly. I think you are right. Excel DOES melt vals (this is from experience) in heavy doses, but does not melt crypts and sag.
There a quite a few plants (as noted on plantgeek.net) that have melting issues with Excel. Vals and anacharis are best noted. I can imagine that fast-growing plants might out-compete slower-growing ones for nutrients. However, plants usually only fight against organisms that want to eat them.
I've never once seen this occur in nay planted tank, with 300 plus species grown to a high level, I think I'd seen it if it was really real and wide spread...........
Terrestrial plants it has been shown, it's never once been shown to occur in any natural aquatic system to date.
And that's the real test and thing folks need to address.
All the talk Diana does is nice speculation, but it's very easy to disprove and test for in aquariums as well as look up research that is applicable to the real world in aquariums.
Ground extract of plants at high concentrations is hardly like the situations we have in our aquariums.
A very simple test to disprove that allelopathy in algae or plant-plant interactions: add some Activated carbon and change every week or two.
You should not see any effect when you add the AC, if you think allelopathy controls algae, then adding AC should cause an algal bloom, but we have never once seen this, so I have to conclude based on the research that's applied, as well as relative simple experiments any aquarist can do, that this does not occur.
You can speculate, but the book offered nothing that shows it does in fact occur in our tanks with live living plants no matter what anyone might want to say about it.
Information is not knowledge.........
Regards,
Tom Barr
Terrestrial plants it has been shown, it's never once been shown to occur in any natural aquatic system to date.
And that's the real test and thing folks need to address.
All the talk Diana does is nice speculation, but it's very easy to disprove and test for in aquariums as well as look up research that is applicable to the real world in aquariums.
Ground extract of plants at high concentrations is hardly like the situations we have in our aquariums.
A very simple test to disprove that allelopathy in algae or plant-plant interactions: add some Activated carbon and change every week or two.
You should not see any effect when you add the AC, if you think allelopathy controls algae, then adding AC should cause an algal bloom, but we have never once seen this, so I have to conclude based on the research that's applied, as well as relative simple experiments any aquarist can do, that this does not occur.
You can speculate, but the book offered nothing that shows it does in fact occur in our tanks with live living plants no matter what anyone might want to say about it.
Information is not knowledge.........
Regards,
Tom Barr