The positives of doing...nothing?

[Tannin Aquatics]

Remember I was talking a few days back about he disruptive, yet necessary "deep cleanings" that we give our tanks now and again?

My hypothesis was that these were sort of analogous to seasonal and/or weather-related events, such as monsoonal rains, influxes of water into streams, etc. etc., and that they are probably more "traumatic" to the aquarist than they are to the fishes, which have evolved to handle them over eons.

Well, going back to this topic, I was looking at my office tank the other day, "recovering", if you will, from the thorough cleaning it received days before, and sort of marveled at the progression of things that happened. I kind of think I was spot-on in my thinking here for a change.(click to read more)

 

[rsanz]

Hey Scott, I'm definitely in agreement with you on this one.

While I do weekly maintenance and typically a biannual deep cleaning, I've always found that "less is more" when it comes to fiddling with my tanks. For example, when I first started up my 125g planted, I was trying everything to get the plants to grow. Lighting photo periods, premixed fertilizers, dry fertilizers, 20% water changes, 50% water changes...the plants just weren't responding.

Then...I left for a 2 week vacation. Obviously, I couldn't fiddle with the tank while I was away. When I came back, the plants had exploded with new growth. I left with the amazon swords around 3-4 inches tall. I returned to nice, healthy, green swords that were 8-10 inches tall. That was just in 2 weeks!

So, in general, I try not to mess with levels or additives or anything like that as in my experience it seems to do more harm than good. I do my weekly light maintenance with 50% water change, which I think is extremely important to the health of the system, and I just let the ecology take care of the rest. I do root tabs under all the plants, and that appears to be enough for the plants to thrive and look beautiful. Only if I observe a change in the behavior or overall appearance of the fish do I take action.

 

[Tannin Aquatics]

Awesome points! I recall, years ago, when I was breeding killies...specifically, Ps. annulatus Monroviae, which were tough because they had tiny fry.. I couldn't get fry. I tried everything...then I just sort of maintained the tanks and little else for a few months...Lo and behold...fry. Like, lots of 'em!

I never forgot the lesson from the killies...sometimes you need to let nature take its course, and not to overly-intervene.

I love your maintenance philosophy- give the tank what it needs- nothing more, nothing less..and it finds its way somehow.

Good stuff...thanks for sharing!

Scott