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A journey through the Rio Sucuri

Woke up this morning seeing this beautiful vid. Probably most of you know the channel, but I just wanted to share.



Love that, brilliant video - I've seen less fish on some reef dives - that river was packed! It reminds me why I miss shimmer in my tanks too, it brings the underwater view alive.

It's also interesting how much some of the those plants were pearling up - where does a river like that get a sufficient CO2 source from, decomposing matter?
 
Rio Sucuri in Bonito, Southern Brazil is one of few freshwater habitats in the world that truly resembles Nature Aquarium in water clarity, and diversity of aquatic plant and fish species. The scenery looks just like Amano forested aquascape..

Most (estimated over 95%) tropical water bodies in the Amazon basin, Congo basin, and SE Asia Mekong basin are too turbid or dark to support submerged aquatic plants or snorkeling. Bonito region, underlain by karst formation, is a rarity with clear spring fed alkaline water comparable to Lake Malawi and Tanganyikan in Africa. Spring water is high in dissolved CO2 and clarity for plants. No wonder Bonito is a hot spot for eco tourism marketed as Natural Aquarium for snorkeling..

 
Hi all,
where does a river like that get a sufficient CO2 source from, decomposing matter?
I think the spring water <"welling up through the stream bed is carbonate rich">, the <"presence of Charophytes"> is usually a good indicator for hard water and the spring water would continually replenish the HCO3- ions for those plants that can use bicarbonate as <"their DIC source">.

There are images of similar situations in @plantbrain and @zanguli-ya-zamba threads.
Bonito region, underlain by karst formation, is a rarity with clear spring fed alkaline water comparable to Lake Malawi and Tanganyikan in Africa.
Edit: Beat me to the post.

cheers Darrel
 
Hi all,

I think the spring water <"welling up through the stream bed is carbonate rich">, the <"presence of Charophytes"> is usually a good indicator for hard water and the spring water would continually replenish the HCO3- ions for those plants that can use bicarbonate as <"their DIC source">.
cheers Darrel
Spring water is not necessarily hard water or bicarbonate saturated unless it passes through limestone formation. Spring water is emerging groundwater clear and free of sediments, and high in dissolved CO2 as it is filtered through bacterial active soil zone. Surface runoff fed streams tend to be sediment and tannin rich, and CO2 saturated from rainwater passing through the atmosphere and running over decaying matter. In either case, there is natural replenishment of CO2 from natural inflow fish tanks do not have.

I notice in the video the plants are lush and free of algae except in one area. This is by far closest to well maintained Nature Aquarium and demonstrates that healthy plant mass will out compete algae. Even in that one area, the algae is lush green thread algae not uncommon in over lighted healthy aquarium. This is different from habitats I’ve seen in Peruvian and Venezuela Amazon habitats where brown and hair algae covered submerged wood and plants along with human trash. Bonito is a tourist destination and I’m not surprised they do regular cleanup of human trash.
 
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Hi all,
Spring water is not necessarily hard water or bicarbonate saturated unless it passes through limestone formation.
No, spring water doesn't need to be hard, it is more the presence of the Charophytes that tells you the water is hard. Where I live it is all limestone and a lot of the springs are <"tufa forming"> where the CO2 has some out of solution at the spring head and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) is deposited.

Have a look at @plantbrain's comments in the linked thread.

cheers Darrel
 
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