Thursday, May 27, 2010

Baby Shampoo No Phthalates

Muschio

Ho sempre identificato il muschio del mio acquario come Taxiphyllum barbieri (Java Moss) in quanto come tale mi era stato venduto.

Osservando le foto di vari acquari ho però notato che la crescita del Taxiphyllum barbieri is more horizontal than that of my moss as soon as possible, it tends to grow upwards. Consult the site
Aquamoss that, in my opinion, is the most complete on the subject, I have tried to identify in detail by analyzing the moss from its structure.

The lack of branching and leaves me to prevent a relatively small membership of the genera and Vesicularia Fissidens but seems to confirm the membership of the kind Taxiphyllum. But I have noticed the similarity with the typical growth of Leptodictyum riparium (stringy Moss) ... the following photo taken from the site Aquamoss compare, order,
Vesicularia dubyana, barbers and Taxiphyllum Leptodictyum riparium.

The photo does not fully resolve the doubt in that, only by comparing the structure of the moss in my possession which could be either Java stringy moss.
I then tried to compare the "leaves" of moss in my possession with those of the two mosses above (Java and stringy).

maximize the pictures of my moss you see the "leaves" approximately lanceolate (subsequent microscopic observation confirms this observation by showing greatly elongated leaves:


that resemble those of Leptodictyum riparium:



and much less to those of the barbers who Taxiphyllum sonopiù court and "rounded"

So both the structure and the type of growth would seem to confirm that what is in my possession Leptodictyum riparium. This does not significantly alter the method of cultivation as it is a moss that supports environmental characteristics similar to Taxiphyllum barbers, instead change the rules for use in the aquarium as much vertical development, which I actually found, makes it more suitable for a background compared to the cultivation on wood or a focal point in the foreground.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

What Does New Jersey Driver's Licence Look Like

Controllo delle alghe

In a 2009 article in the old in his forum, Tom Barr, emphasizes the fact that the different systems of fertilization are often proposed as methods to combat algae when in fact only be understood as methods for growing plants.
He stresses that arise from this basic misunderstanding of many of the problems encountered by aquarists and that the only way to solve this problem is to return to the basic application, or "What causes the growth of algae?".

Beyond the fact that the premise could be questioned, as a better growth of the plant is almost always an unfavorable environment for algae, some of the points raised are certainly interesting.

The first is that there is una risposta unica al quesito in quanto esistono moltissimi tipi e specie di alghe con esigenze specifiche per ciascuna specie.
Questo concetto è ovvio ma viene spesso dimenticato e nelle discussioni che avvengono su internet si tende a generalizzare o al limite ad individuare vagamente la tipologia di alga.

Nell'articolo si mette in luce come, in alla legge di Liebig molti ritenendo la PO4 essere la causa principale delle alghe cerchino di limitarla in modo da togliere nutrimento alle stesse.
Viene fatto notare che l'eccesso di PO4 non può essere considerato una causa primaria in quanto si possono trovare molti esempi di acquari con (relativamente) forti concentrazioni di PO4 e la completa assenza di alghe e viceversa aquariums PO4 limited and strong algal ... PO4 then not only can not be considered the primary cause (if in excess) but not the limiting factor for algae. From here
Tom Barr explained that most influence with respect to the dosage of CO2 has PO4. In particular shows that, even in pools in which the CO2 is not limiting, it is possible to induce an algal bloom suddenly changing the dosage of the same.
The phenomenon is greater the more often you make changes ... and the end result is always the greater adaptability of the algae from the plants to sudden environmental changes.

This coincides with an observation made several times in my aquarium and confirmed A recent (yet another) occurs. About three months ago, I forgot to reload the small tank of CO2 (a yeast) and when I realized that the emission of carbon dioxide was zero, a bit 'out of laziness, partly' because the plants did not show signs of distress , a little 'because however Doso carbon in liquid form I decided not to refill them.
Within a couple of months, during which there was no added CO2 with yeast, algae, the situation was greatly improved. As a double for a couple of weeks I restarted the CO2 and algae are back (filamentous, staghorn, and BBA).
I do not think that CO2 causes algae but it is likely that, as the yeast system is absolutely non-adjustable variations due to it are more harmful than the benefit resulting from the addition of CO2.

Staghorn on stem Eleocharis

Tom Barr himself insists (trying to translate word for word): "As long as CO2 is stable and does not change / vary too much from week to week the plants should continue to and thrive, small but free from algae. "
analysis extremes then the problem is recommended, in low tech aquarium, CO2 without changing the water more frequently than a month since the weekly changes were due to peaks of CO2 that would promote algae.

Again, my observations coincide because, although it does not get to experience change monthly or even every two months, I noticed that the best results I obtained with two small weekly changes rather than more massive changes weekly or fortnightly. Probably my system, increasing the frequency and reducing the quantity, the peak level of variation.

Tom, with a subsequent post, extensive analysis with other nutrients, and notes that increasing the NH4 is possible to induce an "algae bloom". Your point however is that this phenomenon does not generate an increase in other types of algae and therefore should be considered only direct cause for this phenomenon.

With regard to the Redfield Ratio linking P and N in the article mentioning i lavori di Anderson che in merito spiega come il RR sia un parametro abusato in quanto esso è un valore medio calcolato su scale ampie di spazio, tempo, volumi e tipi di alghe e andrebbe ricondotto almeno a valori specifici per le specie osservate. ..

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Money Tree Poem For Invitation

Fotocamera

Da un paio d'anni a questa parte utilizzo per le foto all'aquario una fotocamera compatta Panasonic Lumix DMC-LS60 sulla quale non posso che spendere elogi. Le foto sono fantastiche e con un ottima definizione e fedeltà di colori.
Come tutte le compatte di basso costo ha un limite notevole che risulta molto penalizzante quando si tratta di fotografare un acquario: non è possibile regolare manualmente la velocità di scatto e/o l'apertura focale.

I problemi nel fotografare un acquario sono di due tipi:
- Luce: non è mai abbastanza e non è possibile rimediare con il flash a causa della riflessione sui vetri
- Soggetti: i pesci richiedono alte velocità per evitare il "mosso", per le piante spesso è necessario, al contrario, prediligere una maggiore profondità di campo.

Escludendo le varie modalità automatiche che non permettono alcun controllo sui parametri il limite della LS60 è che anche in modalità manuale non sono previste regolazioni su tempi e focali. In tale modalità (come nella modalità macro) si possono modificare solo il bilanciamento del bianco, gli "ISO" (100 -> 3200) e la compensazione exposure (+2 to -2 in steps of 1 / 3). In fact, the only possible intervention seems to be the adjustment of the ISO that allows you to vary the times at the expense of image quality caused by noise.

To better understand how to manage and evaluate all the opportunities to increase the light I run an experiment:
Late at night, with no ambient light, I lit a lamp 150w and I have placed under a white card. This gave me a source of scattered light intensity constant. I place the machine at 50 cm from the card by putting it in focus, and I started to transcribe the various apertures and focal time indicated by the machine to change the ISO.
result was a multiplication table as follows:






ISO foc time (s)
100 2.8 1 / 4
200 2, 8 1 / 8
400 2.8 1 / 15
800 2.8 1 / 30
2000 2.8 1 / 60

Surprise! The macchina non adegua focale e tempo ma solo il tempo mantenendo sempre la focale a 2,8 (apertura massima).
Questo mi porta a due considerazioni. Primo: per quanto possa manipolare i parametri la macchina tenderà sempre ad aprire la focale al massimo andando a ridurre la profondità di campo. Secondo: in base alla prima considerazione non ha senso variare di molto gli ISO se non fino alla velocità di scatto minima necessaria per riprendere un pesce (fattore che dipende molto dalla mobilità dello stesso in quel momento).
Quindi si ottiene un risultato migliore evitando di spaventare il soggetto rispetto a qualsiasi regolazione possibile sulla macchina la dimostrazione è nei due scatti seguenti; entrambi con f 5,0 e t 1/8s,

nel primo il soggetto era spaventato e in movimento


nel secondo, decisamente più ben riuscito l'esemplare era quasi immobile...




Per le piante la situazione invece è grave a causa della scarsa profondità di campo. Quindi l'esperimento è continuato, in quanto, mi sono chiesto cosa sarebbe successo zoomando visto che, normalmente, l'adozione di uno zoom riduce l'apertura focale.

Quindi ho mantenuto costante l'impostazione degli ISO a 200 e ho provato a zoomare ecco il risultato:





Zoom foc time (s)
1x 2.8 1 / 4
2x 4.3 1 / 4
3x 5.0 1 / 4

then changing the zoom you can vary the depth of field (at the expense of the return) even if the range is not large as the machine allows openings 2.8 -> 5.0.
However, when the subject of the shot is in the foreground and you want to isolate it from the rest of Aperture 2.8 can also be handy: in this shot, wanting to highlight the bubbles of oxygen, I used the macro taking the sensitivity as low as possible (200 ISO). The machine is set to f 2.8 t 1/15s and the result is certainly decent ...


Maybe I could have gone down to 100 ISO but not always when shooting are unable to have control of all parameters.