Re: [APD] Water changes/waste buildup calculator

["Jim Seidman" <james at mail1_seidman.net>]

"Richard J. Sexton" <richard at aquaria_net> writes:
>Yeah, it's to show dilution from water changes. I have no idea of the math
>involved in anyting else to say nothing of Diana Wolsted's "never change"
>water regime.

Do you only fertilize your plants once and consider it done? Of course not.
If you're going to ignore consumption because you can't calculate it, then
you can come up with all sorts of ridiculous conclusions.

There is absolutely nothing in fish food that doesn't get turned into a form
that plants can consume. While the ratios are going to be fairly different
than optimal plant nutrition (with the possible exception of algae pellets),
fish food can provide everything that plants need.

I do not fertilize (by which I mean adding nutrients specifically for the
plants) my 35-gallon tall hex that I described recently. I only do water
changes twice a year. Yet the plants are healthy and nitrate levels are in
the single digits. I'm sure some stuff is accumulating, which is why I do my
semiannual water changes. But it's accumulating slowly.

Remember that plants' luxury uptake is closely related to the concentration
available. So there's effectively a built-in feedback mechanism that help to
keep such systems stable.

While your calculator does indeed produce scary numbers for limited
water-change scenarios, those numbers don't have any correlation to actual
practice.

- Jim


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