Re: [Killietalk] Nitrogen, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia

[Scott Davis <unclescott at prodigy_net>]

Thank you all for some terrific insights into how the
nitrogen cycle works and can be made to work to the
benefit of our killies. You have made it (well a lot
of it) understandable to folks like me. Tyrone's
comment below triggered a thought, not so much for
those who have been regularly contributing to this
thread, as for some of us who have been lurking and
busy flagging and saving posts.

Accompanying a rain/sleet/ice/snow storm, which swept
across a lot of the central U.S. this week, was a
noticeable drop on the mercury. While Chicago area
weather is mild compared to that west and north of us,
in many homes indoor humidity will plummet as our
furnaces run more and more.

In such times, one can detect a water level drop in
tanks on a daily basis, especially in the open, or
vigorously aerated and/or plant covered aquaria,
because of evaporation. While water changes may become
more important than ever, topping off with R.O. water
is also very useful for those of us with that liquid
rock issuing from our taps.

With in a month or three, general aquarists will
suddenly witness a series of "mystery deaths" in their
aquariums where they have been topping off evaporation
with tap water. Even in tanks experiencing some
partial water changes, TDS and hardness may double or
triple before winter is through. The osmoregulatory
system of  fish at the bottom of a tank's pecking
order (as it was explained to me) will begin shutting
down and the fish will begin dying off for no
immediately apparent reason.

I still need to keep up the water changes (that same
old reliable New Year's resolution) so as to "flush
the toilet" and replace trace elements to keep the
killies and plants happy. But the R.O. "top off" every
couple of days, also becomes an important part of the
care routine as well.

All the best!
Scott

--- Tyrone Genade <tgenade at gmail_com> wrote:

> .... I am surprised someone hasn't jumped on this...
With evaporation salts will accumulate and for this
reason water changes would still need to be made. Back
home in SA I have lovely soft water and could probably

go years without a water change (and so never really 
dwell on it which is why it slipped my mind). People
living with liquid rock tap water could soon run into
trouble without the aid of diluting water changes...

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