Go read the comments and you will need a couple bottles of wine after lol
Another sketchy sounding one to me on nitrates
- Thread starter jason longboard
- Start date
Don’t know this guy and haven’t watched his channel so I can’t specifically comment on what he said. Who knows, maybe he’s onto something but I can’t get myself to watch.
However, like PacuMom said, I’m a bit exhausted with so-called “influencers” who seem to regularly come up with earth-shattering discoveries for views. Equally annnoying are the throngs of “followers” with their advanced YouTube degrees.
However, like PacuMom said, I’m a bit exhausted with so-called “influencers” who seem to regularly come up with earth-shattering discoveries for views. Equally annnoying are the throngs of “followers” with their advanced YouTube degrees.
yes you are right, their are good ones and bad ones, but if you must reply, it would be nice if you watched what were talking about lol
Fair enough….maybe I’ll try but when jjohnwm summed it up as “But if you let the nitrate concentration in your tank water build up into the hundreds like this guy says…,” it took the motivation out of me.
Another thing worth mentioning is that on this forum we have some members who have some extremely old fish in their care.
Now these guys may have drip systems or do 100% water changes every day, but I doubt it very much. These guys are more than likely just like your average hobbyist who do their weekly water changes.
These guys will undoubtedly have nitrate in their tanks at some level too, and yet they have these fish that just keep on going.
If nitrate was so bad, and was toxic long, or even short term, then how the hell have these guys raised these very old fish?
Now these guys may have drip systems or do 100% water changes every day, but I doubt it very much. These guys are more than likely just like your average hobbyist who do their weekly water changes.
These guys will undoubtedly have nitrate in their tanks at some level too, and yet they have these fish that just keep on going.
If nitrate was so bad, and was toxic long, or even short term, then how the hell have these guys raised these very old fish?
Re: old fish in nitrate-heavy tanks, I think it's just survivor's bias.
The oldest person ever documented is Jeanne Louise Calment, who died at the age of 122. She smoked well into her 110s. Should we conclude that smoking has no effect on your health? No, because plenty of other smokers died earlier than they would've otherwise. So it goes with nitrates: there might be some fish that can endure it and live to old age, but it's only because they won the genetic lottery, and there's no knowing how many died early because of it.
Also, we don't really know the maximum lifespan of most fish. A decades-old animal sounds ancient to us, but that's not because it exceeded its natural longevity, it's because few fishkeepers have the dedication, resources, and sheer luck to keep fish for that long. You might have to give away your fish because you're moving, a disease, power outage or cycle crash might decimate the tank, a fire or natural disaster might hit your home. If we all had access to ideal conditions and infinite time, we might learn that fish regularly get to be that old, and perhaps even older if kept in nitrate-free conditions.
(For this reason, when you look at internet resources for estimated lifespan, you'll uniformly find "5-7 years" for small fish and "10-15 years" for larger, more robust species. This is bogus, we know that larger plecos, synos and loaches can live to be thirty. But few keepers have these fish and the information isn't widespread).
Lastly, I've heard an urban legend that if your nitrates are above 20 ppm on Halloween night, a mysterious spirit will manifest in your fish room, show you nitrate tests he took from the natural environment of your fish, and drown you by pushing your head into your tanks. Halloween is soon. I am not taking any risks.
The oldest person ever documented is Jeanne Louise Calment, who died at the age of 122. She smoked well into her 110s. Should we conclude that smoking has no effect on your health? No, because plenty of other smokers died earlier than they would've otherwise. So it goes with nitrates: there might be some fish that can endure it and live to old age, but it's only because they won the genetic lottery, and there's no knowing how many died early because of it.
Also, we don't really know the maximum lifespan of most fish. A decades-old animal sounds ancient to us, but that's not because it exceeded its natural longevity, it's because few fishkeepers have the dedication, resources, and sheer luck to keep fish for that long. You might have to give away your fish because you're moving, a disease, power outage or cycle crash might decimate the tank, a fire or natural disaster might hit your home. If we all had access to ideal conditions and infinite time, we might learn that fish regularly get to be that old, and perhaps even older if kept in nitrate-free conditions.
(For this reason, when you look at internet resources for estimated lifespan, you'll uniformly find "5-7 years" for small fish and "10-15 years" for larger, more robust species. This is bogus, we know that larger plecos, synos and loaches can live to be thirty. But few keepers have these fish and the information isn't widespread).
Lastly, I've heard an urban legend that if your nitrates are above 20 ppm on Halloween night, a mysterious spirit will manifest in your fish room, show you nitrate tests he took from the natural environment of your fish, and drown you by pushing your head into your tanks. Halloween is soon. I am not taking any risks.
... on this forum we have some extremely old members who have some fish in their care.
I got into the hobby because of YouTubers, I 'learned' from YouTubers, and I suffered numerous losses/problems due to YouTubers.
I do agree that there are a limited number of good YouTubers out there; however, I still stand by my point: Don't listen to YouTubers!
The primary reason is that anyone new to the hobby doesn’t know much about it (most of the time). If they follow poor advice, like that from 'content creators' such as FatherFish, they face problems, loss of fish, etc. They either leave the hobby (unable to comprehend their mistakes) or come to forums like MFK, asking for advice regarding their particular case, where they often get bashed/criticized for their poor choices, further discouraging them from the hobby.
So, in my opinion, a fishkeeper, especially a new one, should first get acquainted with the basics of the hobby, such as the importance of water changes, not entirely replacing filter media, etc. Once they get the basics, they can watch YouTubers and easily differentiate between right and wrong advice.
I do agree that there are a limited number of good YouTubers out there; however, I still stand by my point: Don't listen to YouTubers!
The primary reason is that anyone new to the hobby doesn’t know much about it (most of the time). If they follow poor advice, like that from 'content creators' such as FatherFish, they face problems, loss of fish, etc. They either leave the hobby (unable to comprehend their mistakes) or come to forums like MFK, asking for advice regarding their particular case, where they often get bashed/criticized for their poor choices, further discouraging them from the hobby.
So, in my opinion, a fishkeeper, especially a new one, should first get acquainted with the basics of the hobby, such as the importance of water changes, not entirely replacing filter media, etc. Once they get the basics, they can watch YouTubers and easily differentiate between right and wrong advice.
