- Location
- Connecticut
Determining water change frequency
I read a paper by David F. Gruber, Jean-Paul Simjouw, Sybil P. Seitzinger, and Gary L. Taghon titled "Dynamics and Characterization of Refractory Dissolved Organic Matter Produced by a Pure Bacterial Culture in an Experimental Predator-Prey System". Basically, it says that bacteria, as a result of their consuming nutrients, are the primary producers of refractory organic compounds. For aquariums, this would mean with little or no consumption of these compounds, they will accumulate. These compounds might be the ones that give aquarium water a yellow tint. At higher levels thaeymight be harmful. Might the accumulation rate of these compounds be used to judge when to perform a water changes? Since a desirable level has not been established for these refractory compounds, an arbitrary level would have to be selected to trigger a water change to bring down the level.
With the Salifert Organics test kit, I will use the test results to trigger water changes in my fish only aquarium. I will use the suggested criteria of 1-3 drops of reagent as indicating low pollution, using two drops as my trigger to perform a water change. I will then compare this frequency of water change to the popular frequencies used by other aquarists and report my findings.
Determining GAC change frequency
There is something else that the Salifert Organics test results might be useful for: determining when GAC is exhausted. Here is how it might work.
Perform the test on the aquarium water. Then perform the test on a small amount of water, 5 ml, after it is slowly passed through 2 gm of fresh GAC. If the tank water level is higher than this amount, the GAC is exhausted. I actually performed this test but in my case the problem was not exhausted GAC but the flow was too slow in my carbon reactor. By tripling the flow rate, the aquarium water organic level was reduced over night to that of water sample treated with fresh GAC. This procedure might be a little more work than most aquarists would like, but it's a start. Maybe Salifert can improve upon it.
In the coming months, I will be using this methodology to determine whether I need to change my GAC or perform a water change to bring down my organics level.
I read a paper by David F. Gruber, Jean-Paul Simjouw, Sybil P. Seitzinger, and Gary L. Taghon titled "Dynamics and Characterization of Refractory Dissolved Organic Matter Produced by a Pure Bacterial Culture in an Experimental Predator-Prey System". Basically, it says that bacteria, as a result of their consuming nutrients, are the primary producers of refractory organic compounds. For aquariums, this would mean with little or no consumption of these compounds, they will accumulate. These compounds might be the ones that give aquarium water a yellow tint. At higher levels thaeymight be harmful. Might the accumulation rate of these compounds be used to judge when to perform a water changes? Since a desirable level has not been established for these refractory compounds, an arbitrary level would have to be selected to trigger a water change to bring down the level.
With the Salifert Organics test kit, I will use the test results to trigger water changes in my fish only aquarium. I will use the suggested criteria of 1-3 drops of reagent as indicating low pollution, using two drops as my trigger to perform a water change. I will then compare this frequency of water change to the popular frequencies used by other aquarists and report my findings.
Determining GAC change frequency
There is something else that the Salifert Organics test results might be useful for: determining when GAC is exhausted. Here is how it might work.
Perform the test on the aquarium water. Then perform the test on a small amount of water, 5 ml, after it is slowly passed through 2 gm of fresh GAC. If the tank water level is higher than this amount, the GAC is exhausted. I actually performed this test but in my case the problem was not exhausted GAC but the flow was too slow in my carbon reactor. By tripling the flow rate, the aquarium water organic level was reduced over night to that of water sample treated with fresh GAC. This procedure might be a little more work than most aquarists would like, but it's a start. Maybe Salifert can improve upon it.
In the coming months, I will be using this methodology to determine whether I need to change my GAC or perform a water change to bring down my organics level.
