Re: [APD] RE: Water changes, CO2 tanks, and non CO2 tanks

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

I wouldn't recommend across the board that tanks without
added CO2 not get large regular water changes -- Not saying
Tom said otherwise, I'm just want to express a point.

Not all tap has a lot of CO2 in it and in places where it
does, it's not all year round. Also, diff tanks without
added CO2 can vary from each other a lot in terms of fish
load, how fast organics build up, amount of light, etc. In
addition, folks without added CO2 are often beginners that
aren't going to be using a lot of test kits and water
changes are a good way to keep things from building up too
much. ONe has to decide between possibly needing to dose
ferts if doing regular large water changes and possibly
having unwanted accumulations if one foregoes them.

Water changes are probably a safer bet as a general
recommendation.  Once a tank is relatively established, one
can start to space water changes farther apart and see how
far one can go without developing problems. But I'm sure
others have diff views, too.

Regular waterchanges also help some of us to remember to do
some of the more thorough maintenance ;-)

Scott H.

--- Thomas Barr <tcbiii at earthlink_net> wrote:
> 
> That often times that if you see dramatic increases in
> pearling it's
> primarily due to the CO2 rich water in the tap.
> That's an easy sign to show you that the plants could be
> grown healthier
> and at faster growth rates than they are if you have not
> seen this type of
> growth during the other times of the week.
> 
> So does this temporary high level of CO2 harm fishes? No.
> Does it tell you that you can/should add more CO2? . . .
> 
> What happens if you add lots of CO2 for one day and then
> not for the rest
> of the week on a non CO2 planted tank? This is why you
> don't do water
> changes on a non CO2 planted tank => plants(and algae)
> get acclimated to
> low CO2. Doing frequent water changes is counter
> productive on a non CO2
> tank.It helps the algae initially as the CO2 levels bob
> up and down each
> week. 
> 
> Both plants and algae take about a week to reacclimate to
> low or high CO2
> levels. 
> Algae, at least some species, appear to be faster at
> this.
> 
> This explains the lack of water changes improving the non
> CO2 tanks while
> explaining why CO2 methods are conducive to large
> frequent water changes.
> Other mechanisms are at play here, but this is certainly
> one of the main
> ones at least about the water change differences in the
> routines.



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