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Water's Edge

Added some Flame Tetras today :D

I guess they like the tank, seeing as they've mostly disappeard into the mass of plants!
 
Morgan Freeman said:
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I feel embarrassed to have totally missed this and not commented.

A belated congratulations on a great set-up. There's something very special about mixing underwater and emerged plant growth, and your aquarium is very fine example.

Kudos.
 
Thanks George!

A little more growth and a few more plants and I think I'll be close to how I want it.

Unfortunately one of the Tetras has a missing eye :eek: . Seems healthy enough otherwise and is swimming out in the open. I'm really glad I chose these, they look better in here after only a few hours compared to the shop.
 
Really beautiful tank you have mr freeman! The depth range is incredible.
 
Thanks Toaster.

Just wish my water would clear up like it was before. Changed the filter floss and for some reason it's not clearing :/ Last week it was like crystal.
 
The last two months have been great with barely a water change. Now I've run into a problem, one fish has a case of pop eye and I fear it's due to rapidly dropping Ph. I added the last of the fish around a month ago and since the Ph has dropped from 7.4 to 6. Could this be the cause?

Am 0 Ni 0 Na 0. Temp 25c.
 
Hi all,
and I fear it's due to rapidly dropping Ph, Could this be the cause?
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Not exactly, they are both symptoms of "old water" syndrome. I don't under-stand where the "no water changes for low tech. tanks has come from", even if you use tap water I don't believe in the "fluctuating CO2" argument either.

I'd change 50% of the water now, and then I'd start a regime of regular small water changes. I do 10% a day on tanks over 50 litres and more on smaller ones. If I go away for a fortnight, and water changes haven't occurred, when I come back I do 30% for 4 days (or 50% on small volume tanks), and then back to 10% a day.

I firmly believe regular water changes are advantageous in all tanks. I believe this has been one of the major reasons why I have been a more successful fish keeper in my second incarnation than I was in my first in the 1970's, when water changes were regarded as unnecessary, and even dangerous, and old water was imbued with all sorts of magical properties.

cheers Darrel
 
I'll support Darrel here. If there's any livestock in the tanks then at least a once a week water change is vital. This no water change nonesense is exactly that nonesense
 
I do waterchanges, just not as regularly. This is probably a dumb question, but what am I removing when I make a water change if not nitrates?

I'll increase them from now on.
 
general crap/detritus/tds buildup/phosphates etc and remember these fish comes from fast flowing rivers in the wild so they flourish in a nice constant freshwater supply.

it also helps to restore other minerals lost from the water as its been used over time I think iron is the obvious one that comes to mind but i'm sure there's others
 
I've been following it exactly. You're not supposed to do anything other than a small water change every so often. How do people make it work? :crazy: They obviously have success with it. I thought I was for a good few months.
 
hinch said:
it also helps to restore other minerals lost from the water as its been used over time I think iron is the obvious one that comes to mind but i'm sure there's others
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I top up with around 3 litres every week due to evaporation :/
 
Hi all,
One thing with the Walstad concept is she does stress that you need a reservoir of carbonate buffering at the start.
Personally I think the problems she suffered with her Rainbow fish (suffering from mycobacteriosis) are largely down to the lack of water changes, for whatever reason she has remained adamant that you don't need water changes whilst the evidence has stacked up that you do. I like the book, but I think she was wrong in this case.

I think if you have a large plant mass that it does to some degree substitute for water changes, but that over time salts and other substances build up and reduce the water quality.

I use the BOD concept for tank management, unfortunately we can't really measure BOD meaningfully, but basically the larger the bioload is the more oxygen and dilution you require. This means that If you have a high fish load, or fish with a high protein diet and a high oxygen requirement, you need plants (ideally emergent), lots of water changes and a filter that is very efficient in terms of gas exchange (wet and dry trickle) and biological filtration.

Potentially this sort of set-up can deal with a huge bioload, but with a smaller bioload it maintains very high quality water.

cheers Darrel
 
I was under the impression that I didn't need any calcium carbonate additives as my water was already hard and high Ph. Having spent today researching further it looks like I was probably mistaken. Experience clearly tells me I was wrong too.

Thanks for the responses, something to think about. I will keep up with water changes whilst this health issue is still going on.
 
Tanks doing well again though I decided to remove the riparium section. Everything grew too big!

This is the tank now. It was too overgrown and there wasn't any swimming space for the fish so I moved some plants around. It's not how I'd like it to look but I'm moving soon so didn't see the point of a full rescape.

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There's been some more changes but I'm moving on Saturday so this tank will be broken down. Finally got round to measuring my GH and KH and they're both off the chart :rolleyes: Don't think I'll be using John Innes again.

Anyway, new journal coming soon. Will be trying out a low light, co2 injected tank next!
 
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