There is no soil to supply nutrients, and no organic fraction to break down and supply nutrients, other than roots that might rot or plant parts that are sloughed off and rot in the water. That means you have to be completely responsible for supplying all the nutrients essential for normal growth. If you don't supply all these nutrients, the plant won't grow. Keep in mind that growth = an increase in the plant's mass, so if one leaf dies and another appears, that really doesn't represent growth. The plant is stealing nutrients from older tissues and using them to support new growth, making growth relatively stagnant. I cant see the rock well, and I don't know if it's porous, so it absorbs water. Assuming it is, I'd probably try to keep the water level about halfway up the rock. I'd use a fertilizer like Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 that has all the essential nutrients in a favorable ratio. I would probably use about 6 drops in 16 oz of water. As an alternate to the FP, I'd check with a hydroponics shop and ask them for a single fertilizer that is water soluble and has ALL the essential nutrients in a 3:1:2 ratio. I'd change the water weekly to prevent fouling and excessive algae growth. That will turn your plant around, if you're up for it. Al

It wasn't deleted. It was there all the time. You were just looking at a page from your computer cache. In the future all you have to do is refresh your page and you can see it.

Well, you raise a lot of questions here. First off, how big is this container? Goldfish can get BIG, my feeder fish on their 3rd year and are 6 to 8 inches long. The "book" says 20 gallons min for the first goldfish and 10 gallon for each additional. 1. I would let the pump run 24/7. First if it is always on you can't forget to turn it on for a day or week. Next, it being hot you need to get all the oxygen you can into the water as hot water holds the least O2. 2. Feeding my fish is the best time of my day, but some people don't feed them and they seem to do fine. I guess it depends on how much algae and such is growing. If you expose your plants to the fish you may find the fish have completely eaten the plants, stems and all! Maybe not this year but maybe next year. I have to put slate tops around my Lilly to keep the roots intact. That said, I have my plants in those plastic baskets with lots of holes so the water can flow in and out. 3. Don't empty the pond if you don't have too. Good things like good bacteria will grow. ("Good" smells like fresh dirt, "bad" smells like rotten eggs.) The main reason for a filter is to run water thru as much surface area as you can to get bacteria to grow to take care of the fish waste. Bacteria turn ammonia to nitrite to nitrate and the plants love to eat that! If you empty the pond you have to start all that over again, and good bacteria can take months to grow. I have a small 200 gallon pond with a small pondmaster filter and I use batting from a craft store as the pre-filter to accumulate muck. Every 2-3 days I need to pull the pre-filer and rinse it off. I actually have 2 pre-filers so I never put one back in full of city water. I've seen arrangements for small ponds where they just drop the filter into a small sealed plastic jar, punch holes, and fill with gravel. That gets a sort of filter going and leaves places for bacteria to grow. That needs to be rinsed out with pond water every so often. 4. Texas stays warm all winter, I go there from New York to enjoy your lovely warm Christmas! So that shouldn't be a worry. 5. Keeping the pond in the shade helps too, but it will eventually warm up to the average air temperature. If it stays in the low 80's it should be fine. 6. If the fish have good water and good food (either feed or from plants) then they will definitely grow. You'll see them get bigger month by month. Good luck, I hope your fishies give you years of enjoyment!

I bought a Miele steam oven DG4080 off craigslist. The seller gave me the instruction manual but it is sparse to say the least. I used the menu selector to steam some cabbage. I decided to stop it before the program ended and opened the door, getting a face full of steam since my steam oven is mounted under counter. When I closed the door, it made a funny noise (grinding?) . I remember my sister saying something about steam reduction and checked through the menu , it seemed to be turned on, but I can't figure out how to make it reduce the steam before opening the door. So my question is, are you supposed to wait before opening the door for a period of time? Another question is, how much do you fill the water jug? I filled it to the first line and it complained. I added more water to reach the second line and it started working. Nowhere in the manual does it say how high to fill the water. Any other tips you could provide would be greatly appreciated!