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Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #1707
- To: Aquatic-Plants at actwin_com
- Subject: Re: Aquatic Plants Digest V4 #1707
- From: Roger Miller <rgrmill at rt66_com>
- Date: Wed, 20 Mar 2002 18:46:28 -0700
- In-Reply-To: <200203202048.g2KKm1A11526 at acme_actwin.com>
- References: <200203202048.g2KKm1A11526 at acme_actwin.com>
On Wednesday 20 March 2002 13:48, Dom wrote:
> A question about water changes. Why are they necessary (if they are
> necessary).
Water changes are a way of keeping things from building up in the aquarium.
"Things that might build up" covers a wide range of chemicals, including any
chemical that we add to the water on a regular basis and any organic
chemicals that might be generated in the tank. The first group would include
fertilizers, many of which can be toxic if they build up to sufficient
concentrations. The latter group includes allelochemicals or othe chemicals
released by the plants and possibly any sort of toxin, enzyme or hormone
released by the fish and or invertebrates in the tank.
I've read in ecological literature that healthy terrestrial plant communities
may lose 10% of their primary production as exhudates produced for a variety
of reasons. If aquatic plants do the same thing then that behavior could
lead pretty quickly to a lot of "stuff" in aquarium water.
People have demonstrated over and over that you don't have to do water
changes on a regular basis to have fairly healthy-looking plants and fish. I
can't recommend to anyone that they should do that.
Roger Miller