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

[Robert Zink <bonsai at hrcreditunion_net>]

Hi Tom Barr,

   You wrote:
 
> Told ya all.
> So what do we learn from water changes???????????

Yes you did! Thank you. You were one of the first I listened to after
believing for many years in the myth that "well aged water" = "good water."

> 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. 

It sounds like you're saying I'm flirting with disaster. But you know, I
attribute my great success with this tank to the principles you have set
forth. I've overcome overall plant decline, hair algae, spot algae, and my
own version of "crypt melt." All by listening to advice in this forum!

At first, with the "kinda high 3WPG," non-CO2 setup, many of the plants were
languishing and spot algae was developing. Then I started doing water
changes. Then the hair algae began. Increased fertilization (as you said)
eradicated the hair and eventually even the spot! This all took about a
year. Now I was hacking 1 - 2 handfuls of excess plant growth out of this
20G every week! The bronze wendtii crypts were dividing, the undulata crypts
were outgrowing the sword, the Vallisneria was a dense background, and the
Anubias barteri was branching and flowering.

I saw my work was good, and from it I derived great pleasure.

Until one day I realized that I had been resting too long on my laurels.
Gradually, I had been "mowing" more and more Val, and fishing out more and
more dead crypt leaves each week, until all of a sudden I realized that my
crypts had all shrunken down to a fraction of their former glory. Again, I
relied on the wise words from APD, and the Valisneria was heavily thinned. A
5 gallon pail half full of it was used in barter at my LFS ($16 value!). A
new balance has been achieved, everything is coming back strong, and I have
learned a great deal.

Another tank (10G non-CO2) has had a different odyssey, battling lighting
issues and green water, but has now also become productive due to the great
advice gained here. Many thanks.

I hear ya about adding CO2, but I'm loathe to go there. What if I did my 50%
change 2 or 3 times a week? Dou you think that would be better?

I have been studying on a non-disruptive water change process that would
make it convenient for me to do a large change a couple of times a week
without drawing the water level down in the tank. It entails a supply hose
from the faucet, a sump pump in a bucket (or gravity drain, if available),
and _no_drilling_ of the tank. I'm sure it's been done before, but I haven't
seen it described yet.
-- 
Best Regards,
Bob Zink

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