Yes, I am basing the response on a planted tank.
The possible combination of plants and fish in such tanks vary, so your statement is only partially true and can be very much incorrect in some other scenarios.
I do 90% cleaning, wash the gravel and I don't have these problems.
Seriously? To be more specific for the benefits of others, is there some other substrate you put under that gravel that isn't washed at the same time?
New fish keepers have all sorts of problems, much of which is the fact that they do NOT clean the tanks enough. The number of people hat go "over the top" with cleaning pales in comparison the the many other mistakes that inexperienced people make.
Where are you drawing your data from? It's like you have a database of each fish keeper and you've evaluated all data to come to this conclusion. For every of your examples that not cleaning enough causes all sorts of problems, I can give you an example/thread somewhere when doing the overcleaning caused a problem. But like you said yourself, one can not know all the other factors that may have been in play.
In fact, by an overwhelming margin, overfeeding while not cleaning is the biggest cause of fatalities
Yes, I agree. But on a side note if you want to see a stressed and underfed fish then just google common plecos in youtube. You'll hardly see a healthy looking one despite some of them being kept in proper sized tanks.
We don't know exactly what you are doing either. How did you know that there was a spike in NH3? Is the data a result of a test kit?Was the pH higher than 7
What are you trying to imply? I was doing nothing fancy besides cleaning my filter the previous day. By the next day, in different cases there were different symptoms to tell me something was wrong, mostly the fish behaviour. Flicking was one of the most noticeable ones but the water smelling of chemicals happened too. Fish getting very quiet and disinterested is another. That's what made me test the water. I use API/Nutrafin or JBL liquid test kits. And yes, ph is 7.4.
How soon after the media wash did the symptoms appear?
Within 24hrs.
The prime area of attack for NH3 is the gill tissue, and that would be permanent damage. The symptoms would be more akin to CO2 poisoning, i.e. gasping at the surface, inflamed gills and so forth. It would definitely not be flicking.
By the way, on what levels of toxic ammonia are you basing your conclusions on? Are you talking about high nitrites instead by any chance? I can dig up scientific data up that shows some certain levels of ammonia can very well be tolerated without much consequences. Fish can also recover from that "permanent damage" you mention above in many cases if taken care of. As for the symptoms you describe, I presume you are talking about some really toxic levels for longer periods of time. I am talking about trace levels of ammonia. In the worst scenario I had, about two years ago after I cleaned the sole filter in a tank, by the next day the fins of my cories had disintegrated. The water smelled like ammonia which was the initial reason that made me look at the tank. And still no fish gasped at the surface, but they were rather looking like stoned, not doing much. These cories are perfectly healthy and alive today.
As you noted, there could have been a parasitic issue. We really don't know.
You are speculating here. There was no parasitic issue because I still have got those fish 2 years after and they've never seen or sniffed medication.
As I mentioned, and as clearly indicated in the article washing your media cannot dislodge the majority of the microrganisms in the filter media.
Of course it can't dislodge the majority of them. Otherwise we won't be able to clean the filters at all.
I use a garden hose and spray the removable trays out on the lawn, then I reassemble. No problems at all.
I'd presume you are talking about a heavily planted tank with little bioload. Two days ago I also cleaned the media under the tap water too without any consequences but the tank is heavily planted and has 3 external filters on. I cleaned just one of them. But that was not the case when I had just one filter on a semi planted tank for example. And in unplanted tank one has to be very cautious.
I've kept sensitive fish such as discus and dwarf chiclids while cleaning the tank meticulously without any issues. My cleaning routine continued even with fry in the tank.
What's so sensitive about discus besides when raising them? Ottos or shrimp will kick the bucket before them and mine aren't dying either.
If the tank has fundamental problems then there are lots of things that can push it over the edge, both directly and indirectly.
Correct. Then why do your tanks need to be cleaned so meticulously to actually function properly? This type of setup doesn't sound to me very practical.