Pretty sure Paul probably tests his water cuz like he said, he s been a devout student of AA. You can t be on here more than 5 min without reading about cycling & API test kits.
Dude, I know what you were saying & I m really happy for you. I feel the same way.....I have 3 beautiful tanks THANKS TO AA. Don t wanna think of what a train wreck I d have otherwise.
It s ok to enjoy & share your enthusiasm , it takes a lot of work & time to get to this point ( oh & $!!). Nothing to defend here !
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Thanks so much .... you got it right. Because of this forum, I did NOT buy the next step up 55 gallon to service my addiction to tropical fish. Reason: since I must use bottled water vs tap ...... (and it costs me $1 a gallon) for changes and because I must use the old fashioned "hauling water and doing the siphon and bucket method" to do water changes & substrate vacuums, I know if I had a third tank about equal to water volume to both my current tanks, my hobby would become a chore instead of a source of joy.
I now do 25% water changes & vacuum substrate 3 times a month ... which is triple what I did when I joined this forum. Of course I have an API Master test kit. After getting chewed out here for only doing twice a month water changes ....... I realized I was in fact "living on the edge" as far as nitrate goes so I upped it to every ten days. Current nitrate reading is 10 ppm. Ammonia & Nitrite readings have been zero for so long I quit testing fir them.
As for clarity, I stumbled onto crystal clear polished water by accident thanks to trying to get my water parameters correct. Hey ...... we might all take pride in different things .....
For some it's mostly about the plants ........
For some it's mostly about creating a natural looking salt water reef .......
For some it's mostly about beautiful angelfish or discuss ...
For some it's about perfect parameters including a nitrate reading close to zero .....
Compared to the others whose tank photos are on this site, here are some of the grades I'd give myself.
1) Natural looking aqua-scape: D
2) Unusual and beautiful centerpiece fish: D-
3) Healthy with vibrant colors fish: A
4) Gorgeous live plants: F
5) Hidden canister filter that does not show a bunch of tubing and plumbing ...... N/A
6) Water changes and parameters B+
7) Environment that gives egg layers the ability to spawn ..... D-
8) Crystal clear polished water ... A++++++++++++++++++
EDIT: the one thing I learned elsewhere about polished water (that I always try to share in the aquarium forums) is 100 micron non-woven polishing pads. The person in charge of the tanks at Petland - Pensacola FL told me that 100 micron polishing pads are kind of an "industry secret" that professionals use to polish water. Note however, they are not for everyone because they can clog in a matter of hours ... especially when first used.
The little "red button" that signals restricted flow on my Fluval C3 pops up every 3-5 days. I buy the pads in sheets and do the "cut to fit" thing in advance. The debris they catch is so fine and embedded in the pad ...... it cannot be rinsed out. The pads are only 1/12th inch thick and require constant replacements to keep water super crystal clear. To get the same result with floss probably does take a canister filter .... although Thumper828 from this forum does seem to get the same HOB result as mine by using the blue bonded polishing pad + floss.