Re: [APD] Re: High water evaporation in a planted aquarium -- or WhoChanged the Water?

["S. Hieber" <shieber at yahoo_com>]

--- boolybooly <boolybooly at ntlworld_com> wrote:
> . . . On
> reflection I would reckon
> Mark's chances of running a self balancing top up tank
> depend a lot on the
> quality of the top up water. But you are right it doesnt
> have to be RO, if
> he has a supply of rainwater or very soft groundwater
> that would help a lot
> I expect. 

The tap water itself, in some places is quite nice for
these purposes.  Although I don't use a top-off-for-months
method, the water here would work well for that purpose. It
comes out of the tap with very little of anything in it but
chlorine (no chloramines), which is easily taken care of. 
Yet a little bit can add up if you are adding back 1 or 2
gallons a week per 15 gallons of tank.

I doubt that it's a method easily adapted to open top tanks
;-) .

> If
> it gets out of kilter he can change the water, simple
> enough.

> Fish and plants act as indicators too.

Amen to that.  You have to watch your fish and plants.
 

> Robert though disagreeing, has a point in that water
> change dogma has its
> roots in advising novice fish keepers who often have a
> tendency to overfeed
> and dont yet grasp how to keep a tank alive. I know I had
> a few disasters
> starting out and at that stage would not have succeeded.

Folks measure the water, the chemical ferts, traces,
carbonates but just toss in fish food by eyeball estimate. 
Newbies could do worse than to measure the food they add.
It's not hard to do, and it's a helpful way to avoid over
feeding.  Not a cure, but a help.  With the high protein
content of prepared foods, fish need much less than many of
us supposed when we started out.

> Mark's question is in my opinion a good one which
> many aquarium
> keepers seem to ask themselves as their competance
> developes. 

Uh huh. Anyone that does tens upon tens of gallons of water
change every week has asked, even if only silently to
herself or himself, "Can't I avoid all this drain and
fill?"

Sure you can avoid a lot of it, but you have to follow
through on your method; you can't do half one method and
half another and then expect things to come out alright. 

> And you are
> right IMHO there are many ways to skin a cat. 

Well, I can't take credit for that -- so many others have
done it so well. I think it's good for other methods to be
floated on APD.  Every now and then we need a change from
all the Change talk, or things can get a wee bit stagnant.

Good luck, good fun,
Scott H.

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