Do you have either real or artificial plants, or both?
11 years ago
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- 11 years ago
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Which plants do you avoid, not have in your collection and why?
Comments (31)Carol, mine would generally be considered partially to mostly closed, I believe. When I obtained my 90 and 55 gal tanks, the top glass came with each. (The 90gal was a garage sale purchase, and the 55gal a hand-me-down from a friend's father who decided that after 20-30 years he was tired of keeping cichlids.) With the 55gal, the top glass covers about 75-80% of the tank -- it's missing the rubber "hinge" section as well as the plastic backsplash section. With the 90gal, about 90% of the tank. Having the top glass does help with keeping the humidity higher and more consistent. The only way the "above fluoros" would be anything more than useless would be if the tubes sat across the top of the tank. Sorry about that. You are absolutely correct that you would need to provide supplemental lighting. I did have a buddy who did just that with one of his larger terrs. He got 2 -two bulb 4ft shoplights and sat them across the top of the tank. Worked well. My tanks both have simple hoods I designed and my dad helped me make years back when I went upstate to visit. Each hood is hinged so I can flip back half of the hood to access the tank and the bulbs. The hoods -- from front to back -- cover about 90% of each tank. For lights I use six 200W equivalent coiled fluorescent bulbs in my 90gal and four 200W equv + two 100W equiv in my 55 gal. I have pondered trying some of the newer tube LEDs (I know a grower who supplies plants to the pdf hobbyists. He has done a great deal of investigating to find a brand of LED he feels will actually work for growing plants... as opposed to the junky ones you will find at a BBS.) Unfortunately, the suckers are EXPENSIVE. That has held me back. I'm currently testing out 2 LED tube bulbs on my plant stand. I'll see how they work out. (Definitely a LOT less heat than even regular fluoros, but haven't had them in play long enough to see what the plants think of them.) If your tanks are open, you will have to play much closer attention to humidity issues ... or more to the point a lack there of. Even without a top, you should wind up with an overall higher humidity level within the tank than the rest of the room. And depending upon just what plants you wish to grow, the humidity levels you will need to maintain may or not be more challenging to maintain in an open system. The buddy of mine who had the shoplights lying across his tank had a stream running through the tank (I think it may have been a 125gal L tank but it has been too long so memory is fuzzy.) The stream kept the tank envir. quite humid even though the tank was open....See MoreHow many new plants have you aquired this year? Do you do this?
Comments (17)Mike, First I want to say, the plants I received, beginning Jan 1, 2010, were in 3-4" containers, bulbs and cuttings. Only a handful were larger, meaning 8" to 1' tall. Total: 58. :) :( Marguest, your Banana Tree is beautiful. The colors amazing. There's even a pup. Did you find it on Ebay? Mike, to answer a few questions. I MUST stay away from Ebay..It's one addicting site. Not only do they have great deals on plants, but plant supplies. There's also a few online nurseries I browse every other wk or so. The internet makes it too easy to shop for such an exciting hobby. A few clicked keys, next thing, a package is at your front door? One word of Warning for those who really want to stop buying plants.. Well, an attempt. Do NOT sign up for nursery News Letters. It's convenient, swaying us to their site, displaying their wares. Hear the clicking keys to Paypal? lol. As for local nurseries, fortunately, there are two that sell very very nice and rare specimens..luckily, opposite directions, both a long distance drive. An hour on non-congested days, 1.5-2 hours during 9-5, Rush Hour traffic. Although, traffic has gotten so heavy the past five years, the only time to go anywhere with time to spare is between midnight and 5am. Problem is, the stores are closed. lol. Our grocery store, Jewel's, always has plants for sale. Mostly, basic plants like Spaths, certain Dracaenas, etc. My problem arises when they have dollar sales. 3-4" potted plants for 1.00. Every so often, they'll have a rarer specimen. Buy 3, pot them up, and you have a lovely plant for 3.00. Four years ago, they had, mixed in with other dollar plants, Schefflera 'brassaia/actinophylla, a plant I hadn't seen in years...last one) I grabbed it up fast. lol. That's about it. Not too bad for 9 months. lol. Toni...See MoreDo you have a plant you 'dislike'?
Comments (32)I have to say that I never met a plant I didn't like... Until recently I had only few indoor plants, but a lot of plants in the garden - too many! and lot of potted ones that would winter outside, too. Need to control myself not to get just about everything I can. Plants I would not grow inside are because of mite/aphids magnets, and sometimes the size they want to grow to and space available, not because I don't like them. I have 2 bouganvelias, and one gets covered with bugs minute I bring it in. Other one doesn't - it's a mystery to me. Need to do something with it-it's getting on my nerves to try to keep it bug free-no other plant I ever had was so 'buggy'-poor thing ends up in solitary and chopped up every year. Does well outdoors tho. I find it amazing that from just a tiny seed, something so amazing could grow. I planted a ginko outside that was about 1.5"tall 7yrs ago, now it's taller than 2 sty house. My mother used to grow some plants in the apartment we lived. She had amazing hoya, euphorbia milii, passion vine and a begonia that was a 'forest' to me - many stems, growing upright more than 5' tall, and blooming non-stop (few other plants too). These plants were not very easy to get where we lived, and she did grow them really well. She also experimented a lot: grew palms from seeds (we got dates once a year & she would save the seeds), coffe & citrus plants from the seeds, and similar. My father had aquariums, one was about 90gal, with colorful fish. Another with betas only! There were at least 4 tanks at any time. Thinking back, they did amazing with all this flora & fauna under not very favourable conditions... Rina This post was edited by rina_ on Thu, Dec 13, 12 at 21:49...See MoreHave you gone dairy-free, either because ...
Comments (18)I think this is one of those cases of where one thing that works for somebody doesn't work for the other. The no dairy has made no difference to my complexion whatsoever. I also have adult acne (was spared as a teen though) for me it is very hormone related in what makes a difference in my monthly cycle. Of course the majority of all dairy I consume are of the organic hormone free kind so maybe the hormones in normal dairy is the cause there for others. Also read the label on the cheese you buy some of it has ingredients I would not expect to see such as Aluminum. Organic if you can find it also tastes so much better imo. Dairy such as milk and butter are large ingredients in many foods. My daughter is allergic to the proteins such as caseins and whey in dairy, but we don't take any chances with anything that contains milk or those proteins. Goat products still contains caseins and whey and are thus not in our household. Also our pediatric allergist recommends to not have any exposure to the allergen to hopefully allow her body to stop producing antibodies against it so maybe she can eat dairy later. I do drink milk and yoghurt (organic on both) at home and my daughter drinks rice milk enriched with Calcium. I try to avoid soy and adding extra estrogens with soy substitutes for her, but there are some things we buy pre-made that is dairy free and often there is soy in that instead. Don't want to add soy milk unless I have to in things. Coconut milk and Almond milk are both great for cooking when I need something, but I usually stay away from recipes calling for milk. I wish I could say eating dairy free for 2 years (I continued for about 8 months after stopping BF) did or didn't do anything for my weight, but dairy hasn't seem to have had an effect there either. Probably because I don't eat much different calorie wise. If I don't have dairy I need some other source of protein so the calories gets replaced one way or another. Of course I have to stick to around 1500-1800 calories a day to maintain weight. If I go above as in eating out where it can really blow up then I gain in no time - dairy or not. I'm personally of the belief that none of the natural foods (ie non-processed) foods we eat are necessarily bad for us (unless you have an allergy), but that moderation is the key and eating too much of anything your body doesn't need will cause you problems. However the question for me is how do I figure out what my body really need. I try to listen to food cravings when they don't relate to french fries or junk food, but not sure if that is really the key. I started with this when I noticed that I got cravings for salt (not just salty food) when my blood-pressure was on the low side of my already low-blood pressure. Since I have type 1 diabetes (very well controlled) I also try to limit my daily carb intake and eat less refined carbs since there really isn't much difference to your blood between a spoon of sugar or a slice of white bread. It both turns in to glucose and for me at the same rate as far as spiking my blood sugar vs. a whole grain bread with lots of fiber. I guess with all this blabbering my personal choice is try for moderation and avoid too much processed foods, get some exercise, and eat at home and I seem to feel and do better weight wise too....See More- 11 years ago
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