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Re: CO2 from tapwater



If you have confidence in the stability of your tapwater chlorine, 
chloramine, and ammonia levels, you could make the input flow rate slow
enough to keep things safe.  

Think of it as very frequent but small water changes. The trouble comes 
if those levels fluctuate over the months and seasons and you haven't 
accounted for them.  

But personally, if I had easy access to a waterline and a sink from my 
tank, I would try it.  I'm certain that even if you just got the average 
flow per month to match your monthly water changes, a constant flow would 
be better for your plants and fish...an example:

  Tank: 100 gallons
  Water Changes: 25% every two weeks = 50 gallons in 28 days
  Equivalent Flow: 1.8 gallons/day = 1.8% water change every day

I would feel safe doing a 1.8% water change daily with no water treatment.
To be extra sure, I could filter it with activated carbon, and I would be
tempted to start out that way, but I think it would remove some useful
ions and I would end up removing it.

Carlos E. Munoz 
<cmunoz at crystal_cirrus.com>

>>>>> Lorenzen, David C <david.lorenzen at eds_com> (here: "LDC"),
>>>>> on Wed, 13 Jan 1999 07:41:46 -0600,
>>>>> pondered the meaning of life, then wrote down:

    LDC> <snip>
    >> I've noticed that people who have their tanks on "system"
    >> (constant influs of fresh water from the tap, owerflow goes
    >> down the drain) seem to be able to grow anything with sero
    >> effort. Any why not? Higher CO2, stable water chemistry
    >> (no buildup buildup buoldup *flush* 50% water change
    >> buildup buildup) - it more closely resembles nature.
    >> 
    LDC> I have informed individuals that the (constant influs of fresh water 
    LDC> from the tap) concept could be bad. How would one monitor and control 
    LDC> the excess ammonia, chlorine, etc from the tap water?