Everyones an expert

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Originally Posted by dabandit

Dude I keep fresh water planted tanks for 12 years and have scientific facts to prove me right.

Dude, I've been keeping fish for over 30+ years (fw since 1976 & sw since 1984) and I have 9 years at UBC studying aquaculture. Yet, I still don't know everything about fish.

Fish-keeping is still as much an art as it is a science.

What works for one, may not work for another. Telling people that they are idiots because they don't agree with you is not necessarily a good way to convince someone. As others have mentioned on this thread, there are several varieties of cyanobacteria, algae & other similar organisms. Some do great under one set of parameters (ie. low Nitrogen) while others need different parameters to bloom (ie. high nutrient levels). Therefore, what might stop the problem in one person's tank may not help in someone elses, simply because its a different strain of cyano.

While many reefers use RODI for their tanks, almost no fw aquarist does. Especially for planted tanks, since serious planted tank keepers add all sorts of fertilizers, CO2, etc. to their systems to help the plants thrive under high light. I keep both fw & sw & have only ever made RODI water for my reef tanks, never for my fw tanks. Don't even know anybody locally who uses it for their fw or fw planted tanks & I know a lot of local aquarists. I can see it helping in areas that use well water or the water is very alkaline & they need soft or neutral water for their fw tanks, but I'm not sure whether Victoria's water supply (where the OP is from) is bad enough to require RODI.

Just wondering if you use RODI water on your planted tanks in Surrey, since that's what you're recommending for the OP? I find it enough of a PITA making enough RODI water for my sw, let alone bothering with it for the fw tanks. Surrey's on that water metering system now so that must get expensive with all that wastewater produced by the filtration system. Wasting water is one major drawback of using RODI.

Peace,

Anthony

[dabandit]

Wow. Ok first no I never used ro/di on a freshwater planted tank except while successfully curing cyano.
Second the suggestion he had made was to overstock his tank surelly in all of EVERYONES vast experience this increases amonia to a lethal level in freshwater.
Do you really think overstocking your bio load is a better cure for a newbie than simplly cleaning your tank and running carbon,a perfectlly safe method which many have had success with including myself.

And lastlly I did'nt say that fella was calling me a liar,merelly answering to the fact that I do infact have a clue what I'm talking about.


Hey maybe overstocking can work, perhaps I'm wrong about that,I can admit sure. But I still dont think its a practical approach particularilly for a beginner when a perfectlly safe tried and true method works.

Take a deep breath.....