Miscellaneous Ramblings Feb 2026

[Dennis Wong]

Rambling:
After so many years, the industry can't even stop selling non aquatic plants as aquatic, what hope is there that folks understand more complex concepts such as algae

 

[BenB]

Rambling:
After so many years, the industry can't even stop selling non aquatic plants as aquatic, what hope is there that folks understand more complex concepts such as algae

Especially these days. Thirty years ago in the US, it was a challenge to find anything other than a sword plant, but today we have endless options. There's no reason to sell this crap.

 

[Aquajack]

Rambling:
After so many years, the industry can't even stop selling non aquatic plants as aquatic, what hope is there that folks understand more complex concepts such as algae

View attachment 14194

Ahhh yes the good old aluminium plant. I have seen this plant sold as an aquatic plant multiple times in my LFS's.....and the people working in the stores don't know any better either, so what hope has the average consumer/hobbyist got.

 

[BenB]

There used to be a plant people called a "Sandy" that looked like a corn plant. It was totally not aquatic. I haven't seen one in years, but recently I've seen them on a FB add for some vendor.

 

[JacksonL]

Question: Sometimes when I need to test my tank at a certain time, but I don't have time to do it, I just take a cup of water out and leave it until I have time to do the testing. For NO3 and PO4, I really don't think this is an issue, but a little paranoia in me says, well just ask what others think. Yeah, obviously for CO2, this isn't going to work. I feel like if there is any bacteria in the cup from the tank, they might take up NH4 and change it to NO3, but even if that happened, I don't think it would be a significant enough amount to alter our already not so accurate tests anyway. What do you think?

My amateur understanding is that, outside of evaporation, it can increase accuracy slightly for acid based titrations that can sometimes be affected by the many acid sources in our tank that dissipate when left to sit.
Either way, there are probably 100 sources of error of greater significance than leaving water to sit.

 

[JacksonL]

Determining ACTUAL tank volume with a water change and a TDS meter​

This will give you a far more accurate method than just estimating!

A nice little tip that makes so much sense once it’s pointed out by someone!

 

[BenB]

Either way, there are probably 100 sources of error of greater significance than leaving water to sit.

Yeah, this is how I was thinking about it. There is so much error introduced just by not being able to tell if tests are a little more blue or a little less blue, that the tiny bit they might be off from any other process is not significant.

 

[BenB]

This is the plant I was talking about above. Someone posted one on Reddit. I still see these being sold.