What the guy at the lfs is saying is true.
But what he has failed to tell you is,
A tank that has been neglected to the point of OLD TANK SYNDROME (OTS) is destined to crash at some point in the near fututure. And any normal maintenance can trigger the crash.
When OTS has taken control of a tank. The PH starts to lower and at a certain point the acidic PH will kill off the Biological bacteria that make up the biofilter. When this happens ammonia will start to collect in the water column and cause the fish alot of stress. Then the fish keeper notices the fish acting funny and does a water change. This water change has drastically different parameters then the tank water. Which causes a rapid PH swing and even more severe stress on the fish. At this point the fish usually start dying off unfortunately.
Also if nothing drastic is done to stabilize the system and stop the swing in parameters at every water change. Then the above process repeats.
A common but unnatural thing people do to stop the PH from dropping is adding a buffer. Etheir in powder form from the lfs or a bag of crushed coral. Its sort of like putting a band aid on a bullet wound. But it works for a while.
The product I used while figuring all this stuff out was ( bulls eye 7.0) it works for a while. But its not a permenant fix like the tear down and rebuild and recycle process.
But what he has failed to tell you is,
A tank that has been neglected to the point of OLD TANK SYNDROME (OTS) is destined to crash at some point in the near fututure. And any normal maintenance can trigger the crash.
When OTS has taken control of a tank. The PH starts to lower and at a certain point the acidic PH will kill off the Biological bacteria that make up the biofilter. When this happens ammonia will start to collect in the water column and cause the fish alot of stress. Then the fish keeper notices the fish acting funny and does a water change. This water change has drastically different parameters then the tank water. Which causes a rapid PH swing and even more severe stress on the fish. At this point the fish usually start dying off unfortunately.
Also if nothing drastic is done to stabilize the system and stop the swing in parameters at every water change. Then the above process repeats.
A common but unnatural thing people do to stop the PH from dropping is adding a buffer. Etheir in powder form from the lfs or a bag of crushed coral. Its sort of like putting a band aid on a bullet wound. But it works for a while.
The product I used while figuring all this stuff out was ( bulls eye 7.0) it works for a while. But its not a permenant fix like the tear down and rebuild and recycle process.
