Rethinking standard practice: 8 years, no testing, no disease.

[vain]

I cycle the water when I'm usually adding stuff to the tank for example 5 weeks ago I added live plants and all the large rocks seen in the video , the fish get removed into a bucket of there own tank water before a 50 percent water change is done , then that bucket of water is added straight back into the tank , the tank itself is never actually full and I always leave space at the top for tank to breath

And before people come at me about my methods a) the fish were removed for their own safety and b) you can't argue with their condition shown in these photos

And please bare in mind these live with barbs and a Chinese algae Eater on a day to day basis

 

[esoxlucius]

If you'd had stated from the very start that this was a heavily planted tank then I don't think any eyebrows would have been raised at all.

But hardly any plants and only a 50% water change every three months, even with quite a low bio load, that scenario is still going to give you a nitrate creep.

I suspect that you certainly do have elevated nitrate but your stock have become "immune" to the higher levels over time. And your once every three months water changes are maybe just keeping that high creeping nitrate from going off the scale.

An actual nitrate reading from before and after a water change would tell us a great deal. But you don't intend to start testing anytime soon so basically I don't even know why you've bothered posting these claims. They tell us absolutely nothing.