So I've been talking to a friend of mine and he's also kept many tanks over the years he said the water around here is a ph of 7.5, he was also telling me when he ran a salt water tank for years on nothing but a protein skimmer and a wave maker with absolutely zero testing, Ive known this lad for 23 years and I remember this tank well he had hermit crabs , starfish, coral anemone, feather dusters in the coral, and a barbed eel
Was his way the wrong way as well?
Hello; I have run tanks with nothing but an air pump operated sponge filter, A basic heater & a light. That amount of equipment can work. I did do WC fairly often.
I do not think a main issue is your setup with regard to the animosity in this thread. Some, including me, question the assertions you make about the quality of the water, but allow you can run a tank that way. Most of the friction is, so far, your refusal to back up the great water claim with something other than the fish are alive.
When I was 11 or 12, I topped off tanks with no WC for more than a year. Just kept adding food, leaving the poo in an UGF. Mant fish survived. I even felt keeping a small fish alive for two years must be a reasonable life span. I was wrong and have learned what I think is a better way.
It is somewhat rare that I can side with the member RD. We have a history on here. But he is correct in saying the procedures you champion should not be allowed to stand unchallenged. New commers to the hobby ought not be able to consider your setup as sound without some proof. You go back and forth about basic water tests. I still do not know if you will test the water.
The water test parameters which are covered in a test kit do not cover all potential chemicals in water. The logic becomes if you keep the ones we can test at decent levels then the others are hopefully Ok as well. Such is why i threw in the logic chain about evaporation leaving minerals & salts to concentrate over time.
Back to a basic setuo of only a sponge filter. It is the WC which is the key. A bare tank can be run with only regular WC for that matter without any filter.
The irony about the light setup is you keep bringing your son into the thread. I taught middle schoolers. Kids will get into stuff. That light setup is less safe than a light could be.
