So true, people don't feed the right foods or take the proper care of either themselves, their fish or even their children , these people are the very definitions of irresponsible .
Water Changes...Unnecessary?
- Thread starter nishikigoi21
- Start date
Stick enough pothos/ivy/wandering jew/inchplant cuttings or spider plants, or peace lilies or coleus, or one of the other plants that can handle it in your tank with the green bits sticking out, add light (sun is best), and you'll never get a nitrate reading again. It's not so hard, and it works better then WC. (You still need WC, but not much.) Why fight with 5ppm or 30 if you can have ZERO? How do you think the rivers keep it so low?
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in addition to everything, i cant stand dirty fish tank smell in my house. you can smell 40 ppm from the next room. 100 ppm in a big tank would probably make me sick.
Exactly, however most of the other members don't have the proper drive to achieve this , they put a single pothos in a several hundred gallon tank and expect results.
Elephant ear, lucky bamboo and lotus also work.
I am not anti WC by any means. I am just saying that properly stocked and well established tanks do not need weekly or every other day (excessive) water changes. WC is obviously important. The only point I wanted to get across is many people imho take it to the extreme.
Glass only tanks, overstocked tanks, etc by all means wc away every day if you want (given temp is ok). Just saying I feel many think it is vital when it really isnt.
Pond example. Well, I argue a bit on that as we've had many ponds and lakes in the past that never got really rank. They seemed to flourish well and clarity was pretty impressive. Each there own. Again I believe in wc. Just not to the extreme as many.
Glass only tanks, overstocked tanks, etc by all means wc away every day if you want (given temp is ok). Just saying I feel many think it is vital when it really isnt.
Pond example. Well, I argue a bit on that as we've had many ponds and lakes in the past that never got really rank. They seemed to flourish well and clarity was pretty impressive. Each there own. Again I believe in wc. Just not to the extreme as many.
Many big ponds are heavily planted. Also, IME, a plant with its leaves out of the water is worth many times an underwater plant for nitrate removal.
You are referring to a study called Tolerance of developing salmonid eggs and fry to nitrate exposure, by Kincheloe (1979
I could not get access to read the actual study but what I found is that the study was not included in the freshwater nitrate toxicity guidelines of New Zealand for example due to Saprolegnia fungal infestations and uncertain health status of the test organisms.
Quote:
The rainbow trout data included two concurrent tests undertaken for fry of resident and anadromous (“Steelhead”4 ) rainbow trout by Kinchloe et al. [14] and recent chronic studies with embryo-alevin-fry life stages, including the New Zealand strain, for a range of water hardness values [3, 15, 16]. The Kinchloe et al. study measured mortality effects on eggs and fry after a 30-day exposure period. The egg sensitivity data in this study were compromised by the mortalities associated with Saprolegnia fungal infestations so were not included. There is no indication that the fry were adversely affected by fungal infestation, with good control survival (>95%) and a partial concentration response for the “non-anadromous” rainbow trout. However, Environment Canada did not include this data because of the uncertain health status of the test organisms
http://envirolink.govt.nz/assets/En...ty-effects-on-freshwater-aquatic-species-.pdf
In one of the studies I posted earlier Saprolegnia was also an issue in both nigh nitrate and low nitrate groups and they recorded greater survival of fish in the high nitrate group.....strangely enough...However, I doubt it eggs have a chance, nitrate or no nitrate.
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Thanks. There isn't much info in that at all, besides that they were trying to establish nitrate toxicity in cultures that suffered saprolegnia...
One reason for the variability was the Saprolegnia infestations. An attempt was made to segregate egg mortality due to fungus infestation from that due to nitrate exposure alone, but a cause and effect relationship was sometimes difficult to establish.
Hello; let me add a speculation about the value of live plants in a closed system. I keep live plants in pretty much all my tanks, the exception being a hospital tank.
For live plant growth to be an aid in removing nitrates I have come to think some god fraction of plant matter needs to be harvested. I have been doing this for a time. The nitrates become bound up in the plant bodies.
I "harvest " plants from my tanks from time to time. By that I mean I take perfectly healthy plants out of the tanks. The free floating plants like hornwort are just removed and thrown into a bucket when I do a WC. It was difficult to toss the first few batches of healthy hornwort out like trash.
The rooted plants are pulled up when they overrun a tank. I have had some success getting a couple of area fish shops to take some of the plants. One shop about 50 miles away will only take the crypts and give me a store credit. Another shop about 78 miles away will take the crypts and the valls. One other shop will not take any plants at all.
I also try to remove detached leaves and dead leaves from the tanks. My thinking being to allow them to rot in the tank will put the nitrates back into the closed systems.
Not sure about emergent plants whose roots are in the water. I guess as long as their is new growth they are pulling nitrates. perhaps some judicial pruning?
For live plant growth to be an aid in removing nitrates I have come to think some god fraction of plant matter needs to be harvested. I have been doing this for a time. The nitrates become bound up in the plant bodies.
I "harvest " plants from my tanks from time to time. By that I mean I take perfectly healthy plants out of the tanks. The free floating plants like hornwort are just removed and thrown into a bucket when I do a WC. It was difficult to toss the first few batches of healthy hornwort out like trash.
The rooted plants are pulled up when they overrun a tank. I have had some success getting a couple of area fish shops to take some of the plants. One shop about 50 miles away will only take the crypts and give me a store credit. Another shop about 78 miles away will take the crypts and the valls. One other shop will not take any plants at all.
I also try to remove detached leaves and dead leaves from the tanks. My thinking being to allow them to rot in the tank will put the nitrates back into the closed systems.
Not sure about emergent plants whose roots are in the water. I guess as long as their is new growth they are pulling nitrates. perhaps some judicial pruning?
