I thought I knew what I was doing. I thought wrong.

[STACY CURTIS]

I thought about getting the water changer hose but it won’t reach, even the 100 foot one...I’ve measured.

I’ve never thought Of garden hose. How would you treat the water before putting it in the tank?

 

[Retired Viking]

For my freshwater tank I fill up a large plastic storage tub/bin next to my tank then treat the water and then bucket it into the tank. My wife isn't wild about me dragging a hose thought the house to my tank so I put the hose though a window when the weather is nice and fill the tub. In winter I still fill the tub with buckets of water and then treat it. I get rid of the bad water out the window by hose. Where I live there is lots of snow and gets very cold in the winter. The tub also allows me to get the water to a even proper temperature.

 

[Byron]

Stacy has asked some pertinent questions in the last few posts and I will address these. Long-standing members have seen this before, but understanding this is critical to success in this hobby.

Unfortunately, anyone with the money can set up a website and promote him/herself as some sort of "expert." There are also a number of long-standing myths in this hobby that have been well and truly refuted over the past several years but they still get repeated. I only listen to those trained biologists, ichthyologists, microbiologists, and highly experienced (though non-scientifically trained) individuals.

All substances added to the water in the aquarium get inside the fish. Water is continually entering through the cells via osmosis as well as at the gills, getting into the fish's bloodstream. If anyone thinks something like Excel is "safe" for fish, I suggest they fill a syringe and inject it into their bloodstream and then tell me it is safe. It is not safe for fish nor humans. Same holds for water conditioner (if overdosed), liquid plant fertilizers, and all the other products the industry tells us we should be adding to the water. Some of these are needed, but always use less not more to achieve the goal, and as few as possible.

Water and nothing else is what fish live in, and the more water changes the better. Water changes are a prevention, but they also can be a cure for many problems. Yes there may be a CO2 imbalance; those tiny bubbles on every surface after a water change are generally CO2, and this depends upon the amount of dissolved CO2 in the tap water. It is not harmful to fish provided you have good surface disturbance, because it is at the surface where oxygen enters the water and CO2 can be driven off. In tanks with plants the CO2 is more rapidly used (depending upon plant species and numbers), and it is not uncommon to see "pearling" as a result; this is what we term the tiny bubbles that are emitted from the plant leaves as a steady stream [very different from the stationary CO2 bubbles] which are pure oxygen that is a by-product of plant photosynthesis and with the increase in CO2 can result. All good. And water changes will never shock fish provided the parameters (GH, pH and temperature here) are reasonably similar between tank water and tap water.

Nitrate. Like ammonia and nitrite, nitrate is poisonous to fish. Nitrate however takes much longer to act, and it depends upon the level of nitrate and the fish species. I went into this discussion with my friend Neale Monks a while back, and he said we should generally recognize that nitrate is slowly weakening the fish, and this leads to stress and other issues, more than there being a specific immediate effect. Nitrate at 20 ppm (using our basic aquarium test kits) is as high as it should ever be, and some fish like cichlids will begin having serious issues at this level. Keep it as low as possible. This brings up the point about the source...if it is in the tap water that is one issue (with its own methods to remedy); if it is occurring solely from within the aquarium, that should be easy to remedy--overstocking fish (numbers, also non-compatible species), overfeeding, insufficient water changes, inadequate substrate cleaning, insufficient filter cleaning--all these contribute to nitrate.

If the substrate is causing nitrate to increase, get rid of it, or remove the fish. There are many aspects of planted tanks that are frankly detrimental to fish. Adding CO2 (by diffusion), over-dosing nutrients (like the "Estimated Index" method), certain plant substrates, intense overhead light--all these are harmful to fish. People who say they are "safe" obviously define "safe" as meaning the fish do not turn belly-up within minutes. But the fish are still being negatively impacted, making their life more difficult, and that weakens them again leading to other issues that otherwise should never occur.

I think I've covered the questions, but feel free to question further.

 

[Byron]

I forgot the algae issue above. Algae is natural and will (or should) be present in any aquarium. But when it becomes what I term "problem algae," and increases to the point of covering plant leaves, action must be taken to halt its spread. The aim is not to remove what is there, but to stop it increasing further. And there is only one way to do this, by dealing with the cause.

The the cause is an imbalance in the light/nutrient factor. When the light and nutrients are balanced for the plants, algae is disadvantaged. But if the light or any one of the major nutrients become unbalanced, the advantage is to the algae because the plants can no longer use the light and/or nutrients.

Light involves the intensity, spectrum and duration. Each plant species requires a specific minimum level of light intensity to drive photosynthesis which is how they grow. Photosynthesis is also driven only by red and blue light, so these have to be high within the intensity; adding green to this mix improves plant growth for reasons I needn't bog this down with. Once the intensity and spectrum are suitable, duration factors in; there must be sufficient nutrients available for the plants in order to make use of this light. Nutrients come from fish (food becomes organic waste which is broken down in the substrate producing various nutrients), water changes, and plant additives.

If the nutrients are not sufficient, or if they are in excess, compared to the light, algae has an advantage. If the light is not of sufficient intensity, or if it is too bright beyond the available nutrients, or if it is on beyond the point where the nutrients (any one of them) become insufficient, algae has the advantage.

It is a mistake to attempt to treat problem algae in any manner other than finding and restoring the balance of light/nutrients. Because if this balance is not present, thee algae will keep returning. While it is a critical balance, finding it is not really as difficult as it might seem. Light is the over-riding factor since this drives photosynthesis.

I have battled black brush/beard algae a few times. I have had it begin to increase when the tank light became too weak (lighting such as fluorescent does weaken over time), when I have had the tank light on for too long each day (I use a timer now set for 7 hours daily), when I have increased the liquid fertilizer, when I have not used fertilizer, when the daylight becomes longer and stronger in summer months. Each of these things affected the balance, and correcting them restored it and thee algae stopped increasing.