No Chemicals, No Medications, No Dechlorinator.

[TwoTankAmin]

Don't resort to character assassination, same goes to you @TwoTankAmin

Excuse me, but I do not insult people on forums nor have I done so here. However, I will go after bad ideas. Nowhere in any of my posts did I attack the OP personally. . Nor did I attack C. either. C. Breeze makes a lot of assumption about me and how I do things. C. has never been here to see my tanks, not bought any of my fish and has never met me.

I almost never test any of my tanks, I have no need. The one tank where I have very acid parameters and tea stained water I do use a digital monitor which continuously shows Coductivity or TDS, Temperature F or C and pH. I need to maintain the parameters in the tank well below those of my tap. It is also difficult to do color based testing when you have stained water.

And then there is the need, on occasion, to run a dry/rainy season to induce pleco spawning. Before I got my RO/DI unit, I used my tap for the rainy. To create the dry season I increased the TDS first by running crushed coral for 24 hours in a H.O.T. Magnum carbon chamber on the changing water. After thatam I added Epsom salt and a pinch of baking soda, technically all chemicals I am adding. I raise the tank TDS from the 83 ppm of my tap water to about 175 ppm over almost three months. At the same time I am gradually raising the water temp, to the low 90sF. Here is the thing, many of the fish in the Amazon basin contributaries are subject to seasonal changes. They thrive on them and the onset of the rainy season is a pretty marked change in temperature and conductivity rather rapidly.

I drop the temp from the low 90sF into the mid 70s in two large water change done over two or three days max. This doesn't harm the fish, it hopefully, causes them to spawn. I once had a heater malfunction in a tank and the water was heated to 105F. It killed the discus pair, it turned the rummynose tetras to mush, but all of the L450s were hunkered down in their caves and alive. They spawned a few weeks later. That was when I learned that many of the hypancistrus were almost "fireproof."

For those who have never visited Swisstropicals, the owner is a PH.D. and lifelong fishkeeper. There are some great articles there. One of the points he makes is that many of the things that plants and microorganisms need in nature are found in the water because it contacts a lot of things that dissolve in it. Plants use many of these. However, for many our tap water may not have the correct amounts of things or may even lack some at all. Many of these things most do not test for- magnesium, calcium, zinc, sulpher etc. Many are trace elements or minerals. In such cases we must add them for the plants to thrive.

I learned plant keeping more from the Tom Barr school of planted tanks than anywhere else. I have always followed his basic EI method except I do not do twice weekly water changes and refertilize. I change at least 50% weekly and that is also when I dose my ferts and Excel. Every three months I fertile the substrate woth Jobe's Fern & Palm spikes. This works fine for me but it may not for others. Here is an anubias that needed to be bleached which I pulled out of a tank.

Anyhow, to keep the peace in this thread this will be the last post I will make. I can already hear the cheering..........

 

[celebrist]

I'm blessed to be on well water

 

[2Itiwhetu]

Better yet, use a product such as Seachem Safe (no need for a double dose), which renders the resulting ammonia fish safe, so no worries about how fast (or not) the uptake by plants is, or isn't. When purchased in bulk, for the average hobbyist they will take several years or more to empty the container. It's cheap, effective, and completely safe (no pun intended) for any aquatic organism found on this planet.

You have made the point no need to "double dose". This is the point of my thread really, what more and more people do with their tanks is exactly what you said double dose. That then leads to a double dose of Fertilizer a double dose of medications a double dose of pH up or pH down. Then their fish tanks go into warp drive and nobody understands why. I put this thread up so people like yourself may just stop and think about what they are adding to their tanks, and more importantly why.

 

[Hendre]

Dechlorinator is the only thing I see people double dosing, as it's usually a safeguard against potential wacky chlorine levels. The rest? People generally follow to a T. It's a bit of a stretch to assume people overdose everything.

 

[2Itiwhetu]

Dechlorinator is the only thing I see people double dosing, as it's usually a safeguard against potential wacky chlorine levels. The rest? People generally follow to a T. It's a bit of a stretch to assume people overdose everything.

I'm not so sure, people love to "double dose" ask any gardener

 

[RD.]

You have made the point no need to "double dose". This is the point of my thread really, what more and more people do with their tanks is exactly what you said double dose. That then leads to a double dose of Fertilizer a double dose of medications a double dose of pH up or pH down. Then their fish tanks go into warp drive and nobody understands why. I put this thread up so people like yourself may just stop and think about what they are adding to their tanks, and more importantly why.

Amigo, your thread isn't going to stop stupid. lol Ask Seachem, one of the largest manufacturers & retailers of water conditioners, how that works. As far as people like myself, not that I am too old to learn anything, but I can safely state that there is nothing that you or anyone else can teach me regarding my water, or how best to keep it for raising fish. I know exactly what I am adding to my tanks, and why. Thanks for the chuckle though....

 

[RD.]

Here's a thread that I put up a few yrs back, so people like yourself may just stop and think about what they are adding to their tanks, and more importantly why.


The Dumbing Down of Seachem | MonsterFishKeepers.com


Read that through, and let me know if you still feel that I need to think any further about dechlorinator, and what I am adding to MY tanks. lol

 

[Rocksor]

I'm not so sure, people love to "double dose" ask any gardener

If you live in an area where they occasionally hyperchlorinate the treated tap water (well above 5ppm chlorine) and without announcing it, then double dosing water conditioner is the way to go without spending lots of money on an accurate digital chlorine test kit. We have 4 water authorities in my county, and in a couple of them, many local fishkeepers always lament a huge loss of fish when the unexpected hyperchlorination occurs and over 50% of their fish die within hours. Many of the long time fishkeepers in those areas have been burned and always say double the dose just in case.

 

[RD.]

If you live in an area where they occasionally hyperchlorinate the treated tap water (well above 5ppm chlorine) and without announcing it, then double dosing water conditioner is the way to go without spending lots of money on an accurate digital chlorine test kit. We have 4 water authorities in my county, and in a couple of them, many local fishkeepers always lament a huge loss of fish when the unexpected hyperchlorination occurs and over 50% of their fish die within hours. Many of the long time fishkeepers in those areas have been burned and always say double the dose just in case.

To add to that I know of folks who are on different water treatment systems, during different times of the year. Some months on chlorine, other times chloramine. Sometimes it can get a bit tricky even if one does everything within their power to stay ahead of the curve.

So when I see folks promoting my way is better than your way, all I read is ....... I am inexperienced in things outside of my little corner of the world.