'Animated' discussion at home, input appreciated.

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wbrown

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The lowdown;
The little woman picked up a bottle of Phyto- something or other and insists it's the cats meow. Dosing according to label is DAILY, at a rate that really, REALLY clouds the water, drives the skimmer nuts for a day or so, and doesn't appear to hurt fish, but will send them into hiding for awhile.
I think the stuff is pure hype, and have pitched a royal fit after finding a couple gallon puddle on the floor after the skimate container overflowed, and having to change filter socks for the second time in two days...
Am I overreacting, or does the stuff have merit?
Help before we end up in separate rooms. :)
 
phyto CAN be very important to a system that depends on stuff that would eat it. I dose a couple of drops of live phyto about every other day to insure my pods are fed, because my pipefish eat pods. Dead phyto (I assume you have that) is like pouring phosphate & nitrates directly into a tank which will eventually destabilize it as algae is sure to take over soon. Throw it away!

That is, unless you have live phyto (refrigerated) and have seahorse, pipefish, mandarin fish, & leopard wrasses!
 
........just be glad the wife takes an interest in the hobby

I poured it in my refugium when I had one, but saw little need to dose the tank.....
 
All the stuff that was labeled on the phyto-crap is also listed on the flake food we feed the tangs..
I wanna start gloating, but thats probably what got this discussion 'animated' in the first place.
 
Dakota9;313648 wrote: ........just be glad the wife takes an interest in the hobby

I poured it in my refugium when I had one,
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dang! I thought you were talking about your wife--lol
 
Dakota9;313648 wrote: ........just be glad the wife takes an interest in the hobby
Click to expand...
She'd have a FOWLR tank in a heartbeat, especially for predators.
She knows the score with freshwater, salt is starting to come to her, but she has yet to tote several 4 gallon buckets after mixing salt and aerating and matching it..
I gotta learn her that before I go on the road again..
 
Just be glad she has an interest in learning and helping ... or maybe not... my interest resulted in the addition of a 24 gal and a 300 gal to Chris's system :)
 
I managed to coerce her into doing a 12G WC to make amends to the tank.
Now that she sees how much work is involved, I don't think She'll be as eager to get sucked in by hype and creative verbiage on a label anytime soon.
I got her to tote water, mix salt, setup a circulating pump, test salinity, temp and PH prior to draining off and ended with her pumping the new water into the tank.
I wish I'd had my camera.. priceless! Especially having to tote the spent water to the pond out in the backyard.
At least I know she'll call me when it's time to do the next WC if I'm away from home. Teaching her restraint with her feeding habits is still ongoing..
 
:eek: .....Especially having to tote the spent water to the pond out in the backyard.:eek:


That's never, ever a good idea! It puts salt in a fresh water system, plus there's a risk of adding to your local bio-diversity unknowingly and unwantedly.......

The toilet is much closer, thats where I pour my old water......
 
wbrown;314164 wrote: I managed to coerce her into doing a 12G WC to make amends to the tank.
Now that she sees how much work is involved, I don't think She'll be as eager to get sucked in by hype and creative verbiage on a label anytime soon.
Click to expand...


That's really a great response to the situation -- I like it! The "horse whisperer" guy used that tactic in training his horses. He made it more work for them to do what they wanted than to do what he wanted -- so they ended up doing what he wanted out of their own free will -- no argument necessary.

If you align yourself against her, then you could win the argument and lose the battle, and have to be in a "battle" situation, but by allowing her to buy the stuff and put it in, but having her help with the maintenance, both of you are on the same side, and no battle.

Brilliant!
 
Dakota9;314218 wrote: :eek: .....Especially having to tote the spent water to the pond out in the backyard.:eek:


That's never, ever a good idea! It puts salt in a fresh water system, plus there's a risk of adding to your local bio-diversity unknowingly and unwantedly.......

The toilet is much closer, thats where I pour my old water......
Click to expand...
we have a creek fed pond of about 1/2 acre. There is salt content in it from natural sources, I doubt the few gallons would make a huge impact. Besides, I'm kinda hoping it might reduce the weeds a little..
Toilet is not a good option, we aren't on municipal sewer, we have a septic system. If it craps out, I get to spend a buncha money I didn't budget, and get to relandscape the yard.
While you folks in the ATL had a lack of water, we've had a surplus. The creek always runs at about 6 MPH, and we've never seen it slow in 30 something years.
 
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