Water change myth

[Jay]

I am unfamiliar with links posted/deleted by louistheloach.

I did look at this web site and came away with the impression that it was not a competitive community forum, but rather a very focused blog site. I personally do not have a problem with the link.

If members have a problem here, I would suggest posting in a different thread for discussion and not hijack or sidetrack this one.

Jay

[Judge]

Uncle Jed's link was not to a forum of any kind. If it was me (I do not honestly remember) then it was because it was another forum link which is not allowed. If it was me, please let me know and I will be happy to go back and check. I have no double standards. If it is policy, I follow it.

[jzmckay]

Originally Posted by unclejed

Well, it seems most have missed the point.

I just wanted to say that I understood the original point, and I didn't mean to hijack the thread. That said, it has been bothering me for a while that if you type in "water change nitrates" or something like that into Google, one of the first links is to the page that was originally cited here. That's why I emailed author of that site, and since this thread had mentioned it, I figured I'd post my conclusions here. (By the way, I haven't heard back from the site author.)

I think a reasonable reader of that page would conclude that there's no point in doing water changes to control nitrate levels. As I noted, that argument is patently false.

That said, I of course agree with the original poster's assertion that people recommend water changes as a band-aid for just about anything, and it isn't always appropriate.

One last thing -- as a newbie (I've long used these forums, but never posted before), I don't know whether it would be okay to repost some of this information (particularly the nitrate equation) in a more appropriate discussion forum. For example, for freshwater aquarium keepers, who tend to trend higher with nitrate levels and have fewer resources for reducing them other than water changes, this information could be very useful. I haven't found it anywhere else on the web, but it's basic math once you do it.