Water Changes in the home aquarium, Why, How Much, and How Often?
Once upon a time, not really so long ago, there lived a lovely theory of the "Balanced Aquarium". You had this glass box, with stainless steel edges, a slate bottom, a...
Math for water changes in the home aquarium – General
In another note Water Changes Why, How Much, and How Often? I have talked about water changes in general terms. This time we'll look at some numbers and (gasp!) some...
The Salt of the Earth, the Salt from the Sea . . Using salt...
We say (or at least my grandmother said) that someone is "worth their salt" or perhaps "not worth their salt", meaning that the person under discussion justifies their existence (or not)...
Aquarium Filtration Basics: Part 2: Chemical Filtration
Part 2: Chemical Filtration
By: Robert T. Ricketts
Part 1
Part 3
Part 4
This is my weakest area in filtration, so this section of the series is not going to offer as much...
Vegetable Filters for aquarium filtration
Vegetable Filters
It is generally accepted that healthy plants have a beneficial effect on the water conditions in fish tanks. They absorb minerals including some metabolic waste products from the water, converting...
Biofiltration-only Canister Filters, An Alternate Technique for aquarium filtration
Canister filters have been in the hobby for a long time now, more than the lifetime of many of our current hobbyists. They most commonly are not directly attached to the...
Aquarium Filtration Basics: Part 1, Introduction, Current, and Mechanical Filtration
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Introduction:
There is a good variety of equipment in multiple formats sold for aquarium filtration, most of which will do the job when properly used. But...
Old Tank Syndrome, OTS: What is it, and what do we do about it?
At the other end of the line from "New Tank Syndrome" (NTS) is its opposite, "Old Tank Syndrome" (OTS). OTS can take several forms, a couple of which we will briefly examine...
Water Change Math, OTS And Other Mismatches Between Tank and Source Water
This note assumes that you have read the note on what OTS is itself as well as the article on general Water Change Math, if you have not yet read those,...
Aquarium Microbes: Part 2: Other small critters
In part 1, I talked about the bacteria that handle the nitrogenous wastes from the fish. Fine, ammonia is dangerous in tanks. But ammonia is just one waste product. What about...
