Inert substrates would perform poorly obviously because they have no source of N or P.
So ........why would I do that?
I'm comparing sediments here, not sediments + water column.
Cedergreen and Madsen, 2001, did a good paper on that topic that was pretty air tight from a science perspective. They used both to see which was significant.
With several plant species, they showed as long as the nutrient demands, under non limiting conditions where met, it did not matter for 4 species.
The location did not matter, although cutting the roots off cause no change in plant growth, thus one could conclude that roots provide little use to plants in nutrient rich water columns, something I've suggested for many years even though many claim that sediments are "preferred". Now that was 4 species, and for most aquatic plants, this is true, however, some species might have different preferences.
I've never seen an obligate root feeder, but there are obligate water column feeders. In some cases a mix of both results in the best solution for some species.
That is not surprising either.
I've done enough water column only comparisons already.
ADA vs regular chemicals like KNO3 are no mystery.
So just the sediment intereactions alone are of concern for the test.
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See post 4-5 for the process he used.
My very hard hard water tank
here's one going back 15 years:
older client tank
There's some ideas both large and small, soft and hard.
James and George both detailed out the process for them, you might find that useful.
Most that have issues with EI tend to not keep up with things, dosing in particular more than water changes..........
I know,
I get lazy as much as the next person, ands I know what things should look like if you stay on top of things.
We tend to do methods that are easiest for our habits often times.
George has a lower light tank that shows EI does well there, but I also said he does not need that much nutrients either.
A grain of salt, rather than "required" or rigid absolution is applied.
EI was pretty popular and still is, but folks here have not used it to the same degree in scaping namely due to most of the scaping folks moving to ADA.
Regards,
Tom Barr
Regards,
Tom Barr