Quote:
Originally Posted by Dmaaaaax
Oh, I was agreeing with your math beaslbob.  My point was how high can your fish/plants/algae tolerate of substance X. For some things it is definately not 200ppm. On top of natural filtration, water changes are still necessary and the amount depends on a number of factors I was listing above as well as others I can't predict. The flip-side is how low can a specific ppm go if you change out too much water and are not replenishing with enough of substance X that a plant needs.
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The key is to consume wastes being created like nitrates and phosphates so that they are 0 regardless of the water changes. Even if the replacement water has nitrates in it.
And to buffer to prevent builds up like hardness. (peat moss) or losses like calcium/magnesium/iron
But I do agree a more common problem especially for saltwater reef tank is the plant life may actually reduce things too much through filtering as well as consumption (halimeda for calcium carbonate). Which is also complicated by the fact that many things like potassium to not have accurate test kits available for the home hobbiests.
FWIW I just had to replace a leaking 20g l. Seems after 25year it developed a leak.
photo immediately after setup of new tank
12 hours later:
24 hours later
48 hours later:
I find that amazing even after witnessing it many many times over the last 30 years. I do now use a different method to prevent the cloudiness in new tank, but could not avoid it in this case.
my .02
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fw leiden since 1979, fo salt since 1979, mixed reef 55g 2002-2009. Strong emphasis on the tank taking care of itself. Balanced with plant life, no water changes, tap water, no filters in FW. Only dosing calcium, alk, mag in marine reef tanks.
http://www.aquariumforum.com/f15/my-...ods-26410.html
recent tanks (till 2009) 7 years- 10g FW leiden 7 yrs, 55g mixed reef 7, 2 yrs, 20g FW leiden, 10 g fw leiden , 29g mixed reef, current tank 55g leiden