On Dec 29 2007, 12:27*pm, g_i_n_k_o wrote:
In rec.aquaria.freshwater.plants Reel McKoi wrote:
:
: I'm starting to think it's the nitrates and phosphates that come right from
: my tap! *And the rain water I'm using is catching dust and providing more
: algae nutrients........ *a losing battle unless I go for some expensive pads
: to remove these nutrients.

As a rule to conserve money, I try to avoid all things that have expensive
replacement pads, cartridges and other such items. *I don't believe in most
of them as to actually working as advertised. *

One exception is a good Reverse Osmosis unit. *It needs replacement cartridges
about once a year. *The RO water is pretty pure and I add back the desired
hardness with baking soda and something called GH Booster that I get really
cheap from aquariumfertilizer.com. * The waste water comes after the carbon
block filter, so I use this for hard water tanks (i.e. goldfish and most
live bearers). *So the money I would have spent on de-chlor chemicals instead
goes into replacement RO system filter cartridges.

Another exception is a CO2 tank with regulator. *This really helps and once
you have the system, it only costs around $20.00 for a refill that lasts more
than 6 months. *I wouldn't even try growing plants in a high light setup without
adding CO2.

Then you need to follow a fertilizer dosing schedule. *I use something called
the "Estimative Index". *Do a google search on "Tom Barr" "Estimative Index"
to get the details. *I get raw chemicals for nutrients at aquariumfertilizer.com
and follow the plan with the 50 percent weekly water change. *There are other
plans out there, but EI works well for me.

Most of my hight light tank problems went away when I started doing the above
three things. *There are other ways to do this, but it works for me and is
relatively inexpensive (long-term) compared to other ways.

For medium light tanks with fish, you don' need to do much of this. *I have
good success by using hard or RO softened water and just adding trace elements
once a week or so. *The fish poop provides enough macro nutrients for a
medium light tank. *It's much simpler, so that's why I suggest people start
out with something easier before doing the high light, high maintenance tank.

Hope this is helpful. *There are many ways to do this. *I think this is one
of the easiest and least expensive ways.

In all reality if your using tap water and doing nothing to it but
adding dechlor or just letting it age or using rain water odds are
your dumping phosphates and nitrates into the tank with each water
change. Its the primary reason folks like to use RO or RODI water as
it eliminates a loot of potential for this sort of problem. You can
get a fairly decent and suitable rodi unit for about a hundred bucks
on Ebay or from Filtersdirect.com, and then it will cost perhaps
$25-30 a year or two to replace carbon and spun fiber filters and DI
resin,.......but you will not need to be concerned with declorinating
water any more for a fish tank and your water will be essentially free
of elements that create problems in due time. Yes, in Freshwater you
will have to re-add certain elements, but a contianer of those
compounds will last a long long time and they are not expensive
anyhow. RO or RODI water and proper lights makes for a lot less
work and a lot more viewing and enjoyment of a fish tank. I have
three RODI units in operation as I do use a lot of water each week in
all my tanks. I have one in the barn feed room which is essentially a
fish room, I have one in the laundry room and one in the hall bath
with has been converted to the "centralized" fish keeping room as
well................The laundry room RODI is hooke dup mainly for auto
top off of my sal****er system and is used to make sal****er for water
changes if I run out of natural salt water. The other two are
primarily used for the coffee maker (ro water only) or rodi for the
freshwater tanks etc. All waste water produced (about 3:1 or so)
during use in making rodi water from these units is also used for
watering plants indoors or out so its not wasted.

LIke I stated previously, I add no additional supplements for plants
of any kind, and I can maintain water lillies (miniature Helvola
Chromia's ) in bloom for most of a full year........The naturally
occuring nutrients also provide sufficient food for my "marginal" type
plants that I have growing in my custom water filled hood that also
provides a place to mount the lights for the tank itself, and provides
a huge flow through bio filter on top of the tank where I can also
grow marginal plants l like frog bit, iris, small taro, water celery,
Hosta, Chameleon etc etc with just a simple hanging plant light above
it all specifically just for the marginal plants and it plays no part
in keeping the tanks submerged plants in shape...........Plus that
hood has added an additonal 12 gal of water on a 29 gal tank but in
the process it eliminated a hang on back fitler , and only added a
decent powerhead capable of pumping water up intothe hood itslef (I
use a MaxiJet 1200 powerhead for this purpose) so there is relatively
little filtration equipment etc inside my hydronic hood
tank...........................