Oh I think it's great but a ph crash possibility to me means more testing than I had anticipated. Having a kh test and baking soda on hand could be very useful for best cycle?
Also I'm wondering if say someone gets a bad mini-cycle, I think it would be great if we could say by the way 'your low ph/kh means you may get a ph crash at x point as you bb re-establish'.
I am still perplexed how you perceive that more testing would be involved with this method, as it does not involve any day-to-day testing/evaluating for Ammonia and zero re-dosing of ammonia. I would think ammonia and pH could be tested offhand once every 3 days or so and otherwise not thought about at all. pH only needs to be boosted if it's dangerously low. Everyone has baking soda in their kitchen, but I don't think you need a kH test. The pH test from the master kit is all that would be needed.
What I perceive is, under the current system:
Day 1: Dose ammonia to 4ppm
Days 2-4: nothing
Day 5: test ammonia, dose back up to 4ppm if needed
Day 6: test ammonia, dose back up to 4ppm if needed
Day 7: test ammonia, dose back up to 4pm if needed
Day 8: test ammonia, dose back up to 4pm if needed. Start testing nitrites.
Day 9: test nitrites, test ammonia, dose back up to 4pm if needed.
Dax 10-X: Do it every single day.
Day X: Nitrites present! Now we testing ammonia AND nitrites every day .dose back up to 4pm if needed.
Day X+1: test ammonia and nitrites. dose back up to 4pm if needed.
etc etc etc etc etc
I see testing occurring EVERY DAY
My method I'm only testing all the time in my example for research purposes. In practice it really requires very little testing it's like this:
Day 1: Dose ammonia to 16ppm
Day 10: Test for nitrites, check pH, test ammonia
Day 13: Test for nitrites, check pH, test ammonia. If ammonia is obviously dropping, stop worrying about it and stop testing for it.
Day 16: Test for nitrites, check pH
Day 19: Test for nitrites, check pH
Day X: Test for nitrites, check pH. nitrites are gone. All done.
I am genuinely, sincerely curious how that isn't way easier from a work standpoint. There is no need to run a massive battery of tests every day, I'm only doing that to have a very complete picture of how this is going.
Edit: I'm not saying you have to like it! I just don't know why you think it's more work when it involves one single ammonia dose. It's ALMOST set it and forget it.
Keep in mind my tap water is MEGA CRAZY soft. TDS from my tap is 12-18ppm. People with hard water might not crash at all.