Are water changes over rated?

[CHSUB]

Know next to nothing on terrestrial plants but have never smelled sulfur using them as filtration in both fresh and salt (macroalgae). Wife and mother in law keep plants. I stay away from them. The plants. Not wife and mother

I know you said they grow faster on dirt but is the Betta there because it's secondary to goal such as source of nitrogen? Just curious.

I’m guessing it’s more like a marsh or my home on the Peace River. The farther up the river you go it becomes almost all freshwater and will get smelly because of less tidal flow. Mangroves are trees and in freshwater grow surprisingly quickly and will outgrow pots. With such a large pot, deep dirt, and stagnant water, I expected some sulfur smell, but it’s minimal. The betta is more for fun and he is doing well. The soil should provide all the nutrient needs of the mangroves. Those are mangroves in my backyard on the Peace River.

 

[Lasse]

As I know and understand the allelopathy mechanism of aquatic organism - it is most substances that act as nettle venom - it needs a point of contact. Its not freely released out in the water column - correct me if I´m wrong. A point of contact can be the closest attaching area around an organism in order to ward off too close settlement of foreign organisms but a free release out in the open water would be an evolutionary dead end street and as I see it - a violation of nature's way of conserving energy. However - during stress - it could be otherwise - compare the accidents with palytoxin.

The smell you talk about is the result when both oxygen and nitrate is gone from the poor water in the sediment - next step is to use sulfate or elemental sulfur as electron acceptor and produce Hydrogen sulfide as a waste.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[CHSUB]

The smell you talk about is the result when both oxygen and nitrate is gone from the poor water in the sediment - next step is to use sulfate or elemental sulfur as electron acceptor and produce Hydrogen sulfide as a waste.

Yes, probably this. We can this “marsh smell”…

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

As I know and understand the allelopathy mechanism of aquatic organism - it is most substances that act as nettle venom - it needs a point of contact. Its not freely released out in the water column - correct me if I´m wrong. A point of contact can be the closest attaching area around an organism in order to ward off too close settlement of foreign organisms but a free release out in the open water would be an evolutionary dead end street and as I see it - a violation of nature's way of conserving energy. However - during stress - it could be otherwise - compare the accidents with palytoxin.

The smell you talk about is the result when both oxygen and nitrate is gone from the poor water in the sediment - next step is to use sulfate or elemental sulfur as electron acceptor and produce Hydrogen sulfide as a waste.

Sincerely Lasse

Well, some do not fit your description. I don’t think leather corals need to sting neighbors to deter them:

Ecologically, sarcophytoxide, usually found in sarocophyton species, is an allelopathic chemical used in competition for space with scleractinian corals

Isoprenoids from the Soft Coral Sarcophyton glaucum - PMC

Five new isoprenoids, 3,4,8,16-tetra-epi-lobocrasol (1), 1,15β-epoxy-deoxysarcophine (2), 3,4-dihydro-4α,7β,8α-trihydroxy-Δ2-sarcophine (3), ent-sarcophyolide E (4), and 16-deacetyl- halicrasterol B (5) and ten known compounds 6‒15, were ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

 

[SomeHappyFish]

IMO, water changes are like feeding you corals Nectar from the Gods...just trust me on this.

Or don't trust me...many ways to do this hobby...but if you want 1-inch frags to become colonies in 12 months, change your water...and if growth is looking slow, change more water. You'll thank me later. Happy Reefing!

How long in between pictures?

If Alk,cal,mg and nitrate & phodphase are perfect and let's say stable.

Should one still do waterchange (10%) weekly?

I do water change on my 45G Lagoon when I need to fix parameters or lower nitrate.

Currently my tank has low phos (0.02) and good nitrate (4ppm)

How do you tell when it's needed ?