It's amazing what works with enough water changes, but now that I hear once a month, I'm intrigued. Do tell!
Calling All Cars! Tank Police Alert!
- Thread starter SubRosa
- Start date
One more example of how real life rarely lives up to imagination! The substrate is bone white when I show up, there will be a fair amout of brown diatoms on the glass (acrylic). What comes out of the gravel siphon is rarely even tan, usually white like when vacuuming new crushed coral, which btw is what keeps the system from crashing. That substrate is 100% crushed coral. The reason this tank shouldn't work with the current maintenance schedule is because the pH would crash which would halt nitrification. Water parameters are however remarkably stable: pH 7.2, NH3 and NO2 undetectable, nitrates run about 120 before the change, source water on average contains 3ppm or 4ppm. Filtration is an Aquatech hob (I forget the model, but it's essentially a Penguin 150 without the biowheel) and a Rena XP1. There's also an approx 200 gph powerhead in the tank. This is a very real set up, and I would suggest that anyone who wishes to comment negatively on it first ask themself "how many fish have I kept for 10 years?" and then comment accordingly. In pm.
I've seen far crazier in friends fish tanks. Small uncycled tanks stuffed with huge fish at several times the recommended stocking levels, on which the only maintenance performed is a full tank tear down, soap and water clean out once a year. Crystal clear water, and no visible discomfort to the fish. These tanks have run on average 5-10 years. Usually they lose a few fish in the beginning (while it cycles), then never experience any problems. Their nitrates are insanely high, but ammonia and nitrite are always non-existent.
Right now I've got a 29g barebottom tank with a Rena XP2 on it, housing around 70 cichlids ranging up to 3 inches each. Been trying to get rid of them for a while, and have nowhere else to house them. I do 50% water changes on it between every 2 weeks and a month. For a short time, it also contained a 10" oscar I was temporarily housing while it's owner resealed their leaking fish tank. Never a dead fish (aside from those the oscar claimed), never a problem whatsoever.
Would I recommend doing any of this? No, not if there were better suited options available. But it goes to show that the "your fish are all going to die immediately" mentality toward stocking levels is often more than a bit extreme. It's one thing to say that a fish would do better in more space, quite another to say there's no way it can possibly survive or thrive in said space (within reason of course, I'm looking at you Mr. Oscar in a betta bowl, lol).
Right now I've got a 29g barebottom tank with a Rena XP2 on it, housing around 70 cichlids ranging up to 3 inches each. Been trying to get rid of them for a while, and have nowhere else to house them. I do 50% water changes on it between every 2 weeks and a month. For a short time, it also contained a 10" oscar I was temporarily housing while it's owner resealed their leaking fish tank. Never a dead fish (aside from those the oscar claimed), never a problem whatsoever.
Would I recommend doing any of this? No, not if there were better suited options available. But it goes to show that the "your fish are all going to die immediately" mentality toward stocking levels is often more than a bit extreme. It's one thing to say that a fish would do better in more space, quite another to say there's no way it can possibly survive or thrive in said space (within reason of course, I'm looking at you Mr. Oscar in a betta bowl, lol).
Weird. You're right, not what I imagined at all, lol. Not my style in a lot of ways but cool how it works anyway.
