Chelsea

a scholar. a linguist, a dad and a poet too? very sweet poem mr fisher. happy easter.

how is your tank doing now riverpirate?

this occurs through evaporation and land run off when it rains. chaos occurs when this order is either subdued or interupted. so did you find this printed on a cereal box top or a double-bubble comic maybe? seems you rely on what's stable in nature more than you give yourself credit for. i bet you count on the sun rising every morning, and water flowing out of the tap when you turn the tap on. how many times do you move your dishes and sliverware? how many times do you paint your house or change cable or internet provider? families, hobbyists, even you can point to stable elements in life that you count on. when those things are interupted you get anxious. once in a while normalcy is interupted. but normalcy is the goal. nature is quite predictable, as you already dmonstrated. that's what informs us what normal is. predictability is precisely why the ei index/water change regiment works. environments that never change and extremely stable is realistic and desirable. if it is not possible for people to "control everything else" then barr's no/low w/c method would not work. but it does. your plants and your fish live because nature is predictable. you don't have to control anything because regular w/c accounts for what you don't control. your tank will remain stable, until you decide to do something different. that's not called unrealistic, that's called boredom.

lighting?

i don't take a partisan position on water change. my intent is to bring the reason why water changes are done to the fore. Furthermore these "everything elses" are not mysteries, there are natural products/byproducts that occur through logical or physiological functions. Water evaporates - leaves behind its hardness. I am not a Doctor ( or an arrogant ignorant idiot) but I do enjoy the odd alliteration; and I certainly know what water scale looks like. the "every thing else" i was referring to is from ei overdose; the logical byproduct of adding what isn't physiologically required by the tank inhabitants. water hardness is caused by metal bicarbonates, sulphates and chlorides. which of these do you presume are a natural product/byproduct of any other function than fine motor skill?

30" is the height of your cabinet. were you originally thinking about a surface mount?

i looked at two diy conduit light stands. one was mounted to the wall behind the tank. it doesn't use counter space. it wouldn't sway if something bumps the tank stand. but the builder had her tank flat against the wall. the other project was built to straddle the tank stand like a horizontal bar in gymnastics. that puts the conduit in plain view of little eyes and easy grasp of little hands. i wondered how you would deal with the angle and the reach from the back corner. well done! so tell us how many pieces of conduit you wrecked in the process.

leave for a six weeks and look what happens. your handy work is very distinct. but i do not understand how will cars will get to the top level.

it's obvious that you regret the way you chose your social circle. however, this topic is tom barr's non-co2 method, and his light limiting growth management method. so if you want to vent, start your own topic. i promise i'll listen. regular w/c has always been the fool-proof way to manage the "every thing else" that gets left behind. ei is not concerned with dosing beyond uptake because weekly w/c is part of the regiment. regular w/c doesn't require the hobbyist to do something about the problems you list, so the hobbyist doesn't have to figure them out. ignorance isn't bliss in tom's non-co2 and light limiting methods. the hobbyist must think about where the "every thing else" comes from and how to control those influences.

i'm glad we can agree that methods really are different, that understanding the variables is vital, and that plant selection is a variable. you also did a wonderful job destinguishing between planted tanks. tanks. tom's thesis is directed towards physical weed control methods of cell destruction in aquatic systems, one in particular. but in some circles, his current level of contribution to aquatic science would garner him a d.d. the difference between mr and dr is purely academic. he will be a doctor in title, but in practice, he's a doctor already.

a 25 is almost a 1/13 of the shear strength of those screws. and it's apparent this isn't the first stand he's made. one end of the uprights will touch the floor and the other end of the uprights will touch the cabinet top. spf has no relevant linear compression so the circumferential framing holds no weight. unless he's building with spaghetti, there is no shear. if i'm reading the dimensions on his plan right (with revisions), the area of the top frame is 351in2. a 30gal tank is 400lbs at best. that's 1.14psi on the wood. which is less pressure than you use to squeeze a lemon. enjoy your holiday and thanks for sharing your project!

the last time i bought dry ferts in edmonton was at all season garden centre. i'm sure they'll give you current prices over the phone.

ah, new baby and new babies. a good segue!

if the methods are the same, then there would be no exceptions, and you identified two; light levels and plant selection. the science behind each method is the same; the methods vary based on which variable the hobbyist manipulates, knowingly or not. dr barr is simply restating history to the reader (exactly what quetzalcoatl pointed out); ei/co2 augmentation isn't necessary for healthy plant growth. vary light and plant selection and you must alter the aquarium enviornment accordingly. light levels moderate co2 demand. growth rate moderates nutrient demand, and nutrient demand (keeping plants fed) is the premise behind ei because there isn't an aquatic plant food guide. i learned that regular w/c 'was the right thing to do' like changing the cat box, cutting the grass or taking a shower - w/c was also necessary to reduce the symptoms of overfeeding fish. dr barr explains that water changes in the ei regiment are a symptom of intentionally overfeeding plants. he also indicates that water changes (the subject of this thread) is not necessary to be a good hobbyist. it actually takes good husbandry to get to that point.

doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results? i posted two methods. which one you are referring to?