[APD] RE: Navarro's tank and those funny tanks in Brazil

["Robert T Ricketts" <rtricketts at erols_com>]

Robert H wrote (snipped):

"I think you need to specify what kind of peat and how much. I wouldn't add
more that a few handfulls to the bottom of a substrate,..."
Tom Barr has specified this over and over and over again.
"...and how can you add peat and mulm to an existing tank that is up and
running or established?"
Tom's suggestions are aimed first and foremost at newcomers starting a tank,
how to set it and operate it successfully from the get-go.  An established
tank does not need mulm (or peat) addition if it is more than 3-6 months
old; it will already have or be developing such. If more experienced
hobbyist want to supplement organics to their substrates, they already know
how, and if not they can consult the archives.
"I am much more interested in allowing my tanks to mature and develop their
own mulm the natural way, over time."
You may be able to do this without nutrient imbalances and algae outbreaks;
newcomers may be less able to do so.  The peat and mulm provide a form of
"instant maturity" to reduce or completely avoid the planted tank version of
new tank syndrome, with one type of algae after another until the tank
finally settles down.
 "Another reason I would not do large water changes on a weekly basis.
Allow the tank to mature without disruption. "
This is personal choice, but debatable - endlessly.
"Large water changes DO put stress on fish."
Pardon my French, but this is pure horsefeathers.  Also debatable endlessly,
but the evidence is all against this concept from the 1930s.
 "It can even trigger ICH, particularly if a newbie is notcarefull with the
temp change"
Again this is horsefeathers.  You cannot trigger Ich if Ich is not already
present in the tank.  Spontaneous generation is out, so this is not a
debatable point.  As for the temperature issue, no technique can overcome
operator stupidity infallibly - that is smokescreen issue IMO.  If the
person cannot match temperatures of the water for a partial, do you really
think that they are capable of managing supplements?
"It could also trigger Cryp melt. You would be changing water chemistry,
hardness, pH..."
If you do partials regularly, you will NOT be changing water chemistry, you
will be restoring it by small changes toward source water BEFORE water
chemistry shifts away from source parameters.  I have had Crypts melt when
plants were brought to my tanks from different source water; I have never
triggered melt by partials in my own tanks.  Perhaps it more partials were
done, the tank water would not drift so far from the source?
"...frequent large water changes can interfere with spawning."
"Robert Paul Hudson"
I believe you will find the opposite response to be more frequently the
case - that frequent water changes promote spawning.  For some fish, water
changes with moderate drops in temperature are among the best spawning
triggers.
Robert Ricketts





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End of Aquatic-Plants Digest, Vol 4, Issue 98
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