[Roger Miller]

An interesting question, Nikolay. Before I go any farther, can you tell us what you think a "fat" system is?


Roger Miller

 

[Roger Miller]

That's interesting, Edward. I (and a lot of other people) have tap water with conductivity in the hundreds of uS/cm. We even grow some pretty nice tanks. Luis's "lean" tank that Nicolay was referring to almost certainly has conductivity in the 100's, since the stuff that comes out of the tap in Houston is hardly rainwater. In fact, by your definition, sea water would make an inherently and hugely "fat" system.

I thought Nicolay was referring to N and P levels.


Roger Miller

 

[Roger Miller]

You don't have to dose your tank to 10 ppm nitrate every week and do 50% water changes to keep salinity under control. In fact, don't dose anything to your tank unless the plants need it, and then only dose what is necessary to get healthy, attractive growth. If you think you need to add too much to keep the plants healthy, then reduce the lighting or get rid of the plant that is most limiting..

Once you figure out what the plants need then just maintain that routine. Stability is a good thing and using frequent small doses may promote stability.

The problem here is that setting up this sort of minimalist dosing procedure is a trial-and-error process based on reading and interpreting nuances. The trials are useful, but the tank might take a long time to recover from the errors. Experience helps a lot.

The big dose, big water change method is a cut-and-dried (but not simple), cookbook method that is less subject to problems. If you don't have the time to trial and error your way to a 'lean' dosing procedure then maybe the big dose, big change method is better.


Roger Miller