Themuleous said:
I'm always up for a good debate, but please be less aggressive in your posting.
Sam
If you are offended by my post than I appologise but If you think I am being aggresive then you have led a very sheltered life my friend.........................
When considering 'nasties' I mean all things undesirable and as I am not a chemist I would find it impossible to pretend to know exactly what I am talking about there, that however doesn't matter a jot to me though. I mean by using 100% RO water and reminaralising nothing is left to chance. Luck, who needs it?
I also want to remove nitrates and phosphates and yes I know I will be putting them back in later by dosing my ferts which does on the face of it appear to be counter productive. However by starting with water with a oppm TDS and adding known quantities to the water I can be fairly confident of the parameters obtained within my tank and what they consist of, or at least the maximum quantities, and as I want to keep my nitrates as low as possible but still meet the needs of my plants I find this arrangement desirable, and as ferts are pretty cheap I don't worry about the money.
As for the cost calculations that you have worked out then fair enough it is easy to see how if your water is metered then the cost can go up quickly but mine isn't and I wouldn't care if it was. In the scheme of things in this hobby when you consider the ammount of money outlayed in a typical year is a further £20,£30,£40 or whatever really a huge saving? More to the point could it end up being a false economy?
I suppose things are also relative I mean if your budget is tight and £20 or so a year is a lot of money to you then fair enough, but to me I would gladly pay considerably more than that just for the peace of mind and not bat an eyelid especially when you consider the value of some of my fish (and I don't just mean monitary). So the cost of using 100% remineralised water plus the cost of adding ferts that have been previously removed add up over a year. What price do you put on peace of mind? As far as water quality goes I
know that mine can't be any better 247 365 days a year and I wouldn't accept anything less.
As I said in my first reply on this topic a lot depends on the make-up of the water that you start with, what parameters you are trying to achieve and how paranoid you are about water quality.
Do I think its absolutly necessary? NO.
Do I think that is the way to go for all species of fish? NO.