That all makes sense.

I actually do one of my water changes every month with no salt just for the
reasons you stated. I've thought of picking up a salinity meter, but
they're really expensive (even on eBay) and I just can't fit it into the
budget until I get back to work.

It sounds to me like what I should do is get another of the "media
containers" for my Emperor filter and just keep two of them in there, both
with batting. That way if I have to throw out one of them due to being
clogged, the other one will still have been in there for several weeks.
I'll order it from them this week.

I have no idea of the alkalinity of the water. I'll look for a test kit for
it today. I'm going to get two more live plants (already have one in there)
to replace the silk ones I removed.

FOOD- I forgot to mention the foods I use. I use the Hikari flakes and the
Marine Labs slow sinking pellets, alternating this as their morning food.
At night I feed them frozen brine shrimp or blood worms, thawed and rinsed
before being put in the tank. I feed green peas about once a week.

Devin

wrote in message
...
there is no one salt level that is perfect, anything up to 0.1% is fine (1
tablespoon
per 5 gallons).... but it is best to slowly move up to that salt level and
1 teaspoon
is fine when a person doesnt KNOW what the natural salt level is in their
water!
people often have salt levels of 0.05% naturally, so adding less is
better.
salt tests are very important to prevent "salt creep" which is the
accumulation of
salts to higher and higher levels in the tank. example:
10 gallon tank, 2 gallons water evaporate but salt doesnt
remove water leaving 5 gallons behind, add 5 gallons + salt for 5 gallons.
that is salt creep. no salt should be added for the evaporated salt. not
to mention
natural salt levels will creep faster. it is even more likely to occur
with small
water changes. without a tester good idea to do big water changes once in
a while
and add no salt at all.

charcoal is just useless after a couple days in a tank with GF because GF
produce so
much wastes. it just isnt needed.

Batting loaded with biobugs looks brownish. you are throwing the colonies
away just
when they are forming up nicely. only toss batting when it begins to cut
down on the
water flow. and then only 1/2 and put in new to cycle before tossing it
all.

what is your alkalinity?



"Devin" wrote:
Salt levels are at just over 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons.
Why no charcoal? Just curious.
NEVER replace the batting, or just once a month? After 3 or so rinsings,
it
becomes pretty stained.


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