I think the biggest problem isn’t low nutrients, it’s that we as a hobby like to take one item out and fixate on it vs the overall system. Similar to lighting and bleaching, how often do you hear flow in that conversation but it’s absolutely related.
Here the missing item is the total input. Low nutrients are still my preferred goal, but only is there is a large influx and out flux- aka lots of feeding and heavy export. Yes low nutrients in a tank that has extremely low input is bad, seems common sense but have that extra detail isn’t how we like, overall in the hobby, to convey information. We want to shoot for hard numbers, not realize the greater context.
My old system. 0ppb phosphate, only hint of detectable nitrate color with salifert. And 8x small auto feeding a day plus manual feed. If phosphate even creeped to 4ppb or so some acros turned brown, I could easily tell the water levels by the color. Now this doesn’t happen with all acros. Some live just fine elevated, but it doesn’t mean it’s preferred or acceptable across all species.
Here the missing item is the total input. Low nutrients are still my preferred goal, but only is there is a large influx and out flux- aka lots of feeding and heavy export. Yes low nutrients in a tank that has extremely low input is bad, seems common sense but have that extra detail isn’t how we like, overall in the hobby, to convey information. We want to shoot for hard numbers, not realize the greater context.
My old system. 0ppb phosphate, only hint of detectable nitrate color with salifert. And 8x small auto feeding a day plus manual feed. If phosphate even creeped to 4ppb or so some acros turned brown, I could easily tell the water levels by the color. Now this doesn’t happen with all acros. Some live just fine elevated, but it doesn’t mean it’s preferred or acceptable across all species.
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