To change or Not to change that is the question...

[keely]

I think different people have different perceptions of what's work. I change half the water every week, the old fashioned way, with buckets.

I find gravel vacuuming satisfying for some reason, watching gunk go up the tube. While I'm running water into pails, I can mentally finish my master plan for world peace.

It seems so minor, to me. If I had to buy the list of chemicals in this thread, remember when and how much to add, and keep testing my water all the time to make sure they're working, THAT would be work, for me. Not to mention I hate cleaning filters, which seems to be the replacement for gravel vacuuming in your case.

 

[RTR]

TnCgal - I've run RFUGs with zero, zilch, nada buildup of mulm in the substrate over very extended periods of time (10 years is the longest test to date), so that part of the system is comprehensible and achieveable.

slipnottin - With sufficient mechanical mechanical filtration sufficiently maintained, 99% plus of the particulates will be squestered in those filters, and with short enough maintenance intervals on those filters, at least a majority of that particulate matter will be out before it is digested. A rather lax variant of this is how I run low nitrate tanks. I know if I went back to my old SW handling of daily mech rinsing I'd really be low nitrate - I don't know if I would make 2 ppm without partials, but I can accept the possibility, especially if the micron pads are used in the HOTs and swapped out quite frequently.

But there is still the issue of dissolved materials - pheromones, phenols, and all the other organics, plus the colorants, and the bacterially mineralized nitrogen, phosporous, sulfur, chloride, and other non-organic carbon compounds - they need to be taken care of in some manner. This water may well be heavy enough for foam fractionators to work - is such employed here?

I can say that I would never use some of the products listed, as they are undefined and unpublished as to ingredients, and have reputations that I consider well inside the snake oil category. But that is personal opinion. I can see the fitration tecniques employed and know their effectiveness in my hands, so I can see that this could be extended. If I were doing so, I'd still do the water changes to handle the unmeasurables (without a spectrophotometer that is), rather than use undefined chemical soup to combat buildup of some of these, but again that is personal option. The pH, Gh, and KH bother me, but I have not researched the "in" levels for Tanganyikans or why it is desirable to excede Lake parameters. It would be interesting to see longevity and fecundity data from these fish.

 

[slipknottin]

i just read back through the thread, and Dochere never mentions cleaning out the filters. So there is NO nutrient export going on, with the exception of possible denitritfication...

 

[Anton Wernher]

I am confused as to what is done to the tank(as far as maintance) and how often.

"2) I try to shop online, not many good places around here; the closest one I go to is about 35 minutes away. I would like to say that not all of those chemicals are put in all the time. After I test I add what’s appropriate to adjust the tank accordingly, I do all of my bidding 1 day a month."

Does this mean all the maintaince to the tank is done once a month?

 

[Fishiebusiness]

Originally posted by slipknottin
i just read back through the thread, and Dochere never mentions cleaning out the filters. So there is NO nutrient export going on, with the exception of possible denitritfication...

I agree.
If one finds it too much of a hassle to do water changes once a week, would he not find rinsing out your filter media DAILY also a bit too much?

 

[Dochere]

Originally posted by RTR


But there is still the issue of dissolved materials - pheromones, phenols, and all the other organics, plus the colorants, and the bacterially mineralized nitrogen, phosporous, sulfur, chloride, and other non-organic carbon compounds - they need to be taken care of in some manner. This water may well be heavy enough for foam fractionators to work - is such employed here?

Hey RTR can you expand on this? Are you referring to a protein skimmer or equivalent? Thanks.

Slipknottin, all the media is changed on a regular basis. I do not clean the media; I throw it away and replace it with new media.

Anton, I do a majority of the maintenance once a month. Except for vitamins and trace minerals. I have been testing twice a month for about three months, but have not found it necessary to do any other maintenance in between regular maintenance.

 

[slipknottin]

oh...

theres your nutrient export.



Tanks with a sand substrate dont allow debris to get trapped either.

Ive been doing this for awhile. Tanks with sand substrate and good filtration such as penguin 330s or emperor's. I replace the media every month or so, and the bacteria go un-affected as it lives primarily on my substrate and on the biowheels.

 

[Dochere]

Originally posted by RTR
...I can say that I would never use some of the products listed, as they are undefined and unpublished as to ingredients, and have reputations that I consider well inside the snake oil category...
...If I were doing so, I'd still do the water changes to handle the unmeasurables (without a spectrophotometer that is), rather than use undefined chemical soup to combat buildup of some of these, but again that is personal option...

Hey RTR on the first part there, is there a list or web site or other source of information on good products vs. bad products. I wouldn't mind switching/reducing additives to the tank, as long as the tank keeps behaving as it has been.

On the second part, how could the ability to compare two light radiations wavelength by wavelength help you in determining if it was proper to do a water change? What would be your control in determining acceptable water conditions? Also couldn't you simply use a turbidimeter to determine the suspended solids in the water and compare that to what would be the maximum acceptable? While where on the subject, what about a sediment test with a color coded coagulant to determine dissolved solids?

 

[JeffP]

Dochere,

You didn't mention if any of your filter media contains carbon. If it did, it might address RTR's point on dissolved organics, phenols, and probably pheromones and similar organic compounds. Carbon should be able to remove those. I don't understand the water chemistry well-enough in an alkaline tank with various chemical supplements to speculate what happens to the other comments RTR mentioned.

Post pixs!

 

[Dochere]

Jeffp, in the media baskets there is Purigen, Detox 2, Organic Resin, and Matrix Carbon.