The Lions

[TheKillHaa]

Hello, showing this time several interconected solar tanks, full of aquatic plants.
i call them lions as they consume in one week what a high tech 60 gal tank will do in a year and a half.

over 100 spp, some i dont even racall, some i dont even know as birds and other insects helpme with natural ferts and seeds of "who knows what"

located @ Tijuana BC, lat 32° full solar light all year. +1320 gals,

Took me three years to find the variances of balance, understanding concepts about ferts (thanks Tom), reading plant behaviors and fight agains weeds, insect plagues, algae, mosquitoes, bees, etc etc. now all is on wheels, it find by themselves the road to be cristal clear all year around.

dont miss the subaquatic views with my diy camera protection lol.

with you, Los Leones (The Lions)
[video=youtube;eOLt7dwiuoM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOLt7dwiuoM[/video]

 

[csmith]

Pretty amazing. Do you sell plants out of there or is this purely hobby at it's most extreme?

 

[ibanezfrelon]

Well, this really is amazing!

How do you fertilize all this?

 

[Wet]

Awesome. The jam, as always, was, too.

 

[Tom Barr]

April is the month when you have to do a bit more "work", but I think it should run fine as long as you do not removed more than say 20% of the plant biomass at one time.
You can also use shade cloth, say 10, 20% etc light transmission to reduce algae and any other issues. Cheap easy way to control light/reduce/remove algae.

The fight against duckweed, bladderwort and other plant pest can be tough.
Stay on top of keeping out the pest before they get established, they will make your life much harder.

Now you will have to hack and sell the weeds that grow
Or sell narco plantas Might do a better safer business with these.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[TheKillHaa]

lol,, im on the right spot for those plants, huh Tom? But those are easiers, i like challenges. Since i started 3 years ago, i installed my first tank under sun, it was a totally disaster. But i followed making practices, and this is the result. I dose under EI precepts, (btw i translated EI to spanish)
i dont like shades cloths, instead pure light sun gives plenty of color and textures, i uses shades two years ago, its not the same. I prefered learn on thought ways.
weeds are more complicates than algae, control ludwigias, duckweed, sessifloras, myrios etc is harder than anything else, those plants are killers of not so fast plants,

i keep learning, is a long way...
thanks for ur comments.

 

[Tom Barr]

You can confirm the faster more aggressive species in some tanks and keep the slower growers in others.
Any emergent plant growth will have no CO2 limitation at pretty much any light intensity also.

Myrios, any floating tips etc, these will grow like mad, while the submersed plants will not nearly as much.
The trade off is that the submersed plants are more shaded, which reduces the light, but you have almost every tank as emergent growth.

So why not just go all hydroponics, emergent growth and no water at all?
You are sort of doing this right now.

All you need is some larger pipe or trays and place these on racks, run water through it with nutrients from a reservoir.
Then there is no algae at all.

On the lower racks, you place Anubias/mosses etc, mid light plants on the middle and high light plants on the top.

You should go see FAN, it would be well worth while or other hydroponic commercial operations.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[TheKillHaa]

You can confirm the faster more aggressive species in some tanks and keep the slower growers in others.
Any emergent plant growth will have no CO2 limitation at pretty much any light intensity also.

Myrios, any floating tips etc, these will grow like mad, while the submersed plants will not nearly as much.
The trade off is that the submersed plants are more shaded, which reduces the light, but you have almost every tank as emergent growth.

So why not just go all hydroponics, emergent growth and no water at all?
You are sort of doing this right now.

All you need is some larger pipe or trays and place these on racks, run water through it with nutrients from a reservoir.
Then there is no algae at all.

On the lower racks, you place Anubias/mosses etc, mid light plants on the middle and high light plants on the top.

You should go see FAN, it would be well worth while or other hydroponic commercial operations.


Regards,
Tom Barr

u read my mind here, im on my way to make some arrangements to go hydroponics, (besides these tanks) i just need a little bit of time. i'been looking for that info recently, probably i will start building the racks next week. i have some sq ft at terrace

what/who is FAN? i have no clue...
Regards
Marcelo.

 

[Tom Barr]

Florida Aquatic Nurseries(Florida, USA)
Tropica(Denmark)
Oriental Aquarium(Singapore)
Pisces (Australia)

If you are really interested in doing shipping in Mexico and going to a larger scale, let me know, I have a Mexican investor who approached me about doign a Tropica Brand in the USA.
You'd need phytosanitary certification and some other red tape, but you could make as much as mid level narco

FAN has a tour coming up at the AGA meeting in Nov in Ft Lauderdale. Might be worth your while. Not everyone will be gringos at the meeting also

Sorry you guys lost in the Cup, we both went down to good teams though?
Let me know what and where you want to go with this.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[TheKillHaa]

i heard from several sources that Tropica will not be longer be requested by aqurium shops @ Mx, due issues with customs border, high prices and poor quality plants due overtime wating at the border..
the biggest plant seller in Mx is a guy with +20 years selling fish and egerias, valisnerias and echinos... Guess who is the new guy in the block, with over 150 spp and a phytosanytary license already on hand? give u a clue, his nick is a high octan beverage

@ this Aga convention, there is not only gringos? What about brazilian chicks? Thats really matters, rofl.

yes, im planning to go large scale.

saludos!

 

[TheKillHaa]

btw, i did not see the games, i was doing water changes and maintenance to the tanks, thats my real pasión.
sad but true

 

[chad320]

Let me know when you decide to ship to the US. I saw a few that id like to have and cant seem to get.