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Remember that nature is not necessarily the optima for breeding and health for fish. Same is true for agriculture and livestock. The issue for many such question is that most of the livestock we get are FARMED raised, much like domesticated farm animals. They are well adapted to the local...

I do it about 1 hour after the lights are on in the morning typically. If you have BBA issues, you have CO2 issues, and a water change will help by exposing plants to CO2 in the air etc.

You can do chemical oxygen demand much easier, some places require by law to do only Biological O2 Demand. COD will give you a pretty good indication. BOD takes much longer, so there's a delay of a day or two for reporting. The hach BOD method is one of the easier ones to use. Not to mention...

We use a standard reference when testing water samples in research. Hobbyists can/should do this step as well. Then you can know whether the test method is correct. Most hobbyists are simply unaware of how to test properly, and assume the test kits are accurate and precise. They are NOT...

This is due a back up system in case one does not balance the other. I run most heavy on the refuges, then have a mega skimmer also. But as long as the skimmer does not get much skimmate, not much reason to run it. I use it on the initial set up phases, and if any larger changes are done, or...

Just dose everything but KNO3, and switch it with K2SO4. Do your water changes once a week, you should be fine.

You can keep larding on the ferts, or........you can reduce them down if water changes are chore. I just suggest d50% weekly since the math was easy, but.......modification is VERY easy. Additionally, you can predict the outcomes using wet's dosing cal with the any routine with EI...

Troi, if we consider the idea as a type of "competition" for those limiting nutrients, whether plant, bacteria or algae.......then if I can get at the resource before it's broken down by bacteria into inorganic compoents, I would have an advantage in limiting systems. But...in non limiting...

Outside of nutrient management, I do notice whatever level I drain the water to, the level above that is always algae free on the glass in every aquarium. In moist, there's no algae either way. But if I uproot plants, scrape or scrub off algae, trim heavy one day, leaves everywhere, made a big...

This is old, but some things apply decades later: Suggested test kits for: *pH pH monitor (much better) –Common colormetric low range cheaper but quite good also. *KH Most all test kits are decent. *NO3 Narrow range lab grade Lamotte (>1.0,2.0, 4.0, 6.0 etc (tablet -much better)- and spoon...

Simply cut the RO with Tap water, then you get some GH/KH, otherwise you are just wasting a lot more RO than you need to for a water change. I only would use RO for fish, plants do not care in 97% of the cases. So say 50% RO, 50% tap etc. If you insist on 100% RO, then baking soda + GH...

The other issue of difference is that aquarist can control light intensity and duration/CO2. For environmental management, how might you try and change the CO2 or light in a river or stream in the UK? PO4, NO3, etc are pretty much the ONLY tools you have to work with. the othe rissue is...

And yet I have no issues at all:) E stellata gets a full dime(2 cm+) in dia and huge, weedy like growth. I think this is due to some growth reduction at lower N and dependency on CO2 supply. With good non limiting CO2, I observe no such issue. Also, the best R macrandra I've ever grown and ever...

The pH/Kh chart used to measure CO2 often is the issue here, this PO4 buffer causes folks to think they more CO2 than they really do. Thus with poor CO2, using the pH/Kh chart, they think because their pH is lower, adding it should give them high CO2. Obviously this was not well thought out at...

You might see Steve Dixon's comments dating back over a decade ago for SF tap water.... very similar to RO...... www.sfbaaps.com under "references". Regards, Tom Barr

I'm just glad you claibrated the test kit and showed others that they are not always correct as often claimed on line. Regards, Tom Barr

The chemical fertilizer lingo from the USA is archaic. The % is fine, but often they will use things like KO2 for K+ rather than just K+ ppm or %. Basically, I add about 1/2 K2SO4, 1/3 MgSO4 and the 1/6th left as CaSO4. You can use calculators to figure out how much ppm those add. Add say 5...