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Playing with water
Thomas Barr said:
"Playing with softening and RO units is a waste of money and time and is
quite counter productive."
Well, for some it is, for some it is not. The most recent analysis of my
local water (Fairfax County in Northern Virginia) said that "Phosphorous,
tot reac" was 0.49 mg/L. But when I tested the water out of the tap a few
minutes ago I got a reading of 2.5mg/L using the Seachem kit.
My tank is full of fish as well as plants. When I used tap water, the
phosphate level increased day by day, starting at 2 to 3 mg/L. It was
impossible to have the nutrient "balance" that most of us want. Algae was a
constant problem. I now filter the water and I only have to spend about ten
minutes every two weeks removing a little algae from the sides of the
aquarium (and perhaps clip one or two anubias nana leaves which the algae
love).
Filtering the water cost me about $1.50 a week. To me, that is money well
spent. If you don't need to do this, that's great; I envy you. But you are
mistaken if you assume that no one needs to do it.
John Godbey
Springfield, VA