by the weekend my big RO unit will go on line... & I'll be pumping out water change water... with unlimited percentage of change possible, and the possibility, of either just a water change, or gravel vacuum with a change of the suction ends...
in my African Tetra tank, I'm getting wood fibers from several of the fish chewing up a softer piece of drift wood in the tank, resulting in dark water... ( in this case it's one of the highly recommended woods, that was staining the water heavily, so I boiled the crab out of it, until it quit staining the water so much... the boiling resulted in softening the wood, and I now have several fish that chew on it ) this gave me the idea, if your goal was a black water tank, wouldn't saw dust of the right kind of wood, be much more efficient, and effective, than adding a few leaves???
just some of the things I'm thinking about, as I work up the percentage of water changes... I don't currently supplement my "water" with anything, for the plants or fish ( I do add Bacter AE, to supplement my bio film, for the fish that eat that ) but I may have to add some of my hard well water in a small percentage to add back minerals, & my plants currently aren't very needy, and the fish take care of them... but a much larger percentage of water change, with RO water, may require something added back, for the plants as well...
Ideally I'd like to find a balance, where I can reach an except able water change percentage, for the fish, but still not have to add poisons back, just to grow plants...
anyway, on the saw dust question... what woods??? Oak, for starters???
in my African Tetra tank, I'm getting wood fibers from several of the fish chewing up a softer piece of drift wood in the tank, resulting in dark water... ( in this case it's one of the highly recommended woods, that was staining the water heavily, so I boiled the crab out of it, until it quit staining the water so much... the boiling resulted in softening the wood, and I now have several fish that chew on it ) this gave me the idea, if your goal was a black water tank, wouldn't saw dust of the right kind of wood, be much more efficient, and effective, than adding a few leaves???
just some of the things I'm thinking about, as I work up the percentage of water changes... I don't currently supplement my "water" with anything, for the plants or fish ( I do add Bacter AE, to supplement my bio film, for the fish that eat that ) but I may have to add some of my hard well water in a small percentage to add back minerals, & my plants currently aren't very needy, and the fish take care of them... but a much larger percentage of water change, with RO water, may require something added back, for the plants as well...
Ideally I'd like to find a balance, where I can reach an except able water change percentage, for the fish, but still not have to add poisons back, just to grow plants...
anyway, on the saw dust question... what woods??? Oak, for starters???
