"Guayni; SAHS" wrote on Sat, 6 Oct 2007 :
I recommend a level of less than 50 milligrams per liter although my tanks
had remained near 70 for a prolonged time with no drastic effects to my
fish.

You need to distinguish "fish-only" sal****er tanks, from reef tanks that
include corals. (Especially since you've posted this to r.a.marine.reefs,
a newsgroup specializing in reef tanks.)

Are you really recommending that 70mg/l for prolonged periods will be fine
in a reef tank? That, in your opinion, corals will show no drastic effects,
along with fish?

If that's what you mean, then you need to back it up. If it isn't what you
mean, then you've written very poorly. Or else your post is completely off
topic in this newsgroup.

I do not encourage water changes.

Why? Do you have anything to offer here except your random opinion?

This measure is needed but for other reasons and should be kept to a
minimum.

You don't encourage it, but yet it is needed anyway? Why is it needed? Why
don't you encourage it?

To conclude this paper I will like to summarize my findings by mentioning
key aspects of a healthy sal****er aquarium;

By "sal****er", you mean "fish-only", right? In a reef newsgroup, you ought
to mention directly that your writings aren't relevant.

Ø The level of nitrates should be kept to less than 50 milligrams per
liter

Fish-only? Or reef?

Ø When doing water changes, keep it to small amounts (10%)

Please justify.

10% every six months? In a reef tank? Really? How well are your corals
growing?

Many local fish stores (LFS) will completely disagree with my views but
that is expected. They make lots of money by selling pre-mixed sal****er,
chemicals and other quick fix solutions to the nitrates problem. Some even
portrait nitrates as the real menace to your tank and scare clients to a
point that they invest thousands of dollars in their gadgets. It is a
win/win situation for them and a severe loss to the aquarist.

Yeah. Or, maybe, they're offering advice to reef keepers, and you're the
only one interested in a fish-only tank.

If you have to do water changes more than once every six months (some even
weekly): you can toss all your gadgets away because they are not working.

Again, are you able to rapidly grow stony corals with only a 10% water change
every six months? I'd love to do that. Please describe your entire system.
Such small and few water changes don't seem to work for anyone else trying to
grow corals. What's your secret?

-- Don
__________________________________________________ _____________________________
Don Geddis http://reef.geddis.org/
I hope you won't let my superiority come between us. -- Despair.com