No water changes for years?

[theotheragentm]

And now I need to think about that mini Roomba - would that be too cool or what ???

It'd be like those floor sweepers in pools. It'd be like having another bottom feeder.

 

[squeekness]

Go and purchase a Python. That will save yourself time and energy.

Yup, I will be buying one of those when my fish guy gets them in. He was very nice and took me in back of the shop and showed me how to use one and it's so simple even a feeb like me can use it. This will make my life so much easier. I thought I wouldn't be able to use it because I do add chemicals to my water ( dechlorinator and the like), but I don't think that will be problem. Should have bought one years ago.

 

[rkilling1]

Go and purchase a Python. That will save yourself time and energy.

Yup, I will be buying one of those when my fish guy gets them in. He was very nice and took me in back of the shop and showed me how to use one and it's so simple even a feeb like me can use it. This will make my life so much easier. I thought I wouldn't be able to use it because I do add chemicals to my water ( dechlorinator and the like), but I don't think that will be problem. Should have bought one years ago.

When I purchased mine, I couldn't believe I hadn't gotten one earlier as well.

When adding water with the Python, make sure you match the temperature of the incoming water with the tanks water. I add the dechlorinator right before I start adding the water.

 

[joannde]

It'd be like those floor sweepers in pools. It'd be like having another bottom feeder.

YEAH, that's exactly it ! you know, its really quite doable; the model I have in my pool uses one of the outflows - applying the same method to a canister filter would do it for sure ! And it could be "disquised" as a little boat or a moving "sunken treasure" chest. Ok - I'm liking this idea - any inventors out there willing to do it ?

 

[sudz]

I want a python... My parents said no. They don't like the idea of a 50 foot hose full of water traversing the hallway. In reality, less water will drop by that, then sloshing out of buckets as i carry them back and forth from the bathroom. Such are parents. Their roof, Their rules.

 

[tropicfishman]

do what???? is it just me or does that not make sense to anyone else?? how else would the waste be removed from the gravel bed? unless could they be talkign abotu the vaccum that purifies the waste water and returns it back to your tank?

 

[richiestang_78]

Are water changes really that hard? I mean you can spend all that crazy money on different filtering systems or jsut spend a half hour once or maybe twice a week maintaining your hobby.

 

[trotty]

A friend of mine had a 300gal SWLR the whole kit and kaboodle, all he did was top it up and add nutrients for 12 months. no actual water changes. mind you he had a 180gal sump.
And when he stopped adding nutrients it went nuts. the corals grew twice as fast, the fish were even brighter and happier.

 

[hc8719]

I dunno about all of you, but I would hate to be stuffed in a 1 br apartment with 8-10 other people, and have all the doors and windows closed, no toilet, unlimited supply of food, and no way to remove the waste food and body waste.

All they do is pump in some fresh air once in a great while, not change all the air or remove the trash, but just pump in enough to keep us alive.


I "could" survive it. I'd probably even look normal, being there is food and enough room to occasionally do a push up or two.

But I would not be happy at all. And it would be really gross, even if the food and waste decomposed a bit.

very good analogy cats drool, thanks

 

[amosf]

Well, seriously. Regardless of the crowding issue, the 'fish' are always in the one room with no toilet and all the doors and windows closed. The waste is continually flushed into a hole in the corner of the room. For people it's not likely to be a real happy situation even if the room does get aired once per week, so the analogy isn't really that great. You might say there are things in the room that do build up over the years that will harm the 'people', but the day to day waste problems are there regardless...

I have a feeling people would never be happy in a 'tank', regardless of 'water' changes.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

my filter doesn't do much for sweeping over the ground and removing poop and food and stuff. i do a much better job with the gravel vac.

 

[hc8719]

Well, seriously. Regardless of the crowding issue, the 'fish' are always in the one room with no toilet and all the doors and windows closed.

while true. you get your "air" and "waste" changed weekly, and not just new air added

 

[amosf]

Actually I got threads crossed a bit there and thought this was an overcrowding thread

But even so, comparisons between tanks and rooms of people aren't great. Tanks do have water treatment systems that do remove most waste, so in the short term (months) there is no comparison.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

even with air conditioning or a pipe with fresh air, if i lived in an apartment with 1 bedroom and 8-10 people for a year even without manual waste removal, it would be disgusting.

not a bad comaprison at all, when you consider our fish friends also come from giant lakes, streams and rivers. and what we do, is the same. that is if you do not remove waste manually. to them, fish poop is comparable completely to human poop to us, and a flake of fish food is the size of a slice of pizza.

imagine. seriously. it is a totally objective comparison.

 

[amosf]

Yes, exactly. The fish come from rivers and lakes. They don't live in a room regardless of how often you clean it. No matter what you do it will still be a tiny little room as far as the fish are concerned. So the comparison is immediately skewed. Fish do not naturally live in a tank.

For example, why do you vacuum at all? Because the gravel is covered is waste. People would not do well even in a situation where there waste was only cleaned up once per week, and fish tend to go a lot more often than people do. Indeed 8-10 people would not do very well in the one room continuously even with a toilet and daily cleaning.

Many planted tanks are not vacuumed or water changed very often at all, and yet the fish do well. People would not do so well, unless you compare it to some other mini-ecosystem. If you want to compare a tank to a 'biodome' then fine, but comparing a fish tank to a room full of people then that only works well if you are talking about 8-10 goldfish in a 20g tank... Comparable biomass and size per area, etc...

Of course it's best to clean the tank regularly, but the comparison to people remains more of an emotional issue.

 

[MyCatsDrool]

*sigh* i give, you are right. I will stop cleaning the surfaces of my tank with my gravel vac, because it doesn't bother them, because i have plants.

edit: no comparison. I am wayyyyyy off.


edit one more time:

being a recovering agoraphobic, i can tell you, i lived quite comfortably for 2 years, 7 months and 13 days in a 1 br apartment with three cats, and 3 fish tanks. I had a garbage can, i vacuumed and i had a toilet. so i could remove the waste. And i was fine, albeit having problems not related to being in a "biodome". Astronauts live in the space station for 6-8 months, sometimes longer (look up Shannon Lucid if you doubt me) in a biodome called either Mir or the ISS. due to having waste removal techniques. And are quite happy.

Fish are no different really, they do live in a ISS of sorts, and we, as their keepers, by WAY of gravel vacuuming and filtration, remove their waste. It is exactly the same.

Wait, dang it, i almost started to sound like i know what i am talking about and there is a comparison, and i don't. oopsie!

 

[amosf]

Nope. you have to find them a lake if you want them truly happy

You don't need to be like that. We all know cleaning is a good thing, but if you want to compare to a human situation then you need to have a larger 'tank' to put the people in for a more realistic comparison. Did I say don't clean. Of course not. I just find the comparison somewhat unrealistic (unless, as I say, you are talking about 10 goldfish in a bowl).

 

[amosf]

Before leaving this I suppose I should look at getting a little closer to a comparison. Imagine 10 people. They can float in a space that is 30m (100ft) long, 15m wide (50ft), and 15m (50ft) deep. It's quite a big space, sorta like fish in a tank, and equal to the volume of several houses. Clean food floats in from the surface. Their waste drifts down into some boulders below. It breaks down there and looks a bit messy, and some is trapped in the plants there (like fertilizer), but the majority of toxins are taken away by a filtration system and converted to fertilizer for the plants. Most of the people don't go down there much anyway since they have so much clean space to float in.

Of course after a while it's nice it the mess down below get cleaned up as too much of that 'fertilizer' is making everything go green and there are some long tern toxins building up.

So my point is that it's not 8-10 people in an apartment. It's 8-10 people floating in a sports stadium.

Otherwise we are all on the same page

 

[BrianNY]

Not exactly amosf. There is a huge difference between an aquatic and atmospheric environment. What is easier to pollute, the air or the water?

 

[hc8719]

10 people floating in a stadium? it'd be real hard run into each other in a giant stadium where we can all float, and i guarentee all my active fish see each other more than several times daily.

try 10 people in a 5 bedroom house, you have enough room, it might be a bit crowded than what you prefer, but your not clinging on for life either