Monday 22 April 2013

Water change intervention

The following are pictures I took at the lab of my RPI1 fish:





The table below indicate the water quality levels of my fish experiment over the past 3 weeks.During the first week, when it was only one water change per week, my NO3 levels were so high that it was worrying. When the water changes were increased to two per week, it decreased to such a level that my water quality is almost perfect. This can be observed in the three photographs I took in the lab as my water seems clear.

This change can be observed in all the experimental set-ups. The water-change intervention decreased the amount of NO3 and NO2 in all of these. This means an increase in water quality for all the set-ups.

The decision to increase the water quality from one to two per week was purely adaptive management based. The 6-step process cycle of applying adaptive management starts with assessing the problem and then designing an explicit model of the system, It should be implemented by developing a management plan that maximizes results and learning. This should be monitored by developing a monitoring plan to test the assumptions, and these should be implemented. Evaluations should be done by analyzing data and communicating results. The system should be adjusted by iterating, which is using the results to adapt and learn. This 6-step process cycle was initially used and the data from the management and monitoring plans analyzed and communicated. From these results it was concluded that a once per week water change is not effective. This was adapted to and an increase to twice per week water changes was made. The data from the management and monitoring plans were once again analyzed and communicated, and these results showed that a twice per week water change is effective as it keeps the water quality levels high. By thus applying adaptive management we could learn that it is far better to change the water twice a week instead of once. We also learn that it is often only necessary to make small adjustments to the system to get the best results.


RPI1
NO3 [mg/l]
NO2 [mg/l]
GH
KH
pH
Week 1
10-25
0
<3
3
<6.4
Week 2
0
0
<3
3-6
<6.4
Week 3
0
0
<3
3-6
<6.4
 

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