truehle
Member
Equilibrium. One of my favorite words of all time. (It's the chemical engineer in me) I've learned through college that equilibrium is a mythical concept. Nothing ever becomes perfectly stable because of constant variations in the system and surroundings. If my aquarium was ever at perfect equilibrium, I could just leave it alone and never have to attend to it.
All we can do is try to minimize variables, and when things do start to go wrong, apply an appropriate control method to dampen the problem and prevent a crash. Unfortunately sometimes our control methods instigate the crash.
While I'd love to think of my aquarium setup as a magic box, and all parameters are equal throughout, its just not true. Temperature, pH, salinity, densities, chemical concentrations, etc. all vary throughout the system....sometimes significantly. Every time I feed the fish, put my hand into the water, turn on/off the lights, I introduce an oscillation into the balance.
This leeds to my most hated word. Assumptions
Assumptions, in my opinion, are the leading cause to the disruption of equilibrium. Here's a few of my assumptions (mistakes) that upset my system.
1. Tap water is safe to use.
2. That fish at the LFS is healthy looking enough to put right into my DT.
3. Chemicals can solve anything.
So yes, I constantly strive for equilibrium, but assumptions and lack of patience have always caused problems.
All we can do is try to minimize variables, and when things do start to go wrong, apply an appropriate control method to dampen the problem and prevent a crash. Unfortunately sometimes our control methods instigate the crash.
While I'd love to think of my aquarium setup as a magic box, and all parameters are equal throughout, its just not true. Temperature, pH, salinity, densities, chemical concentrations, etc. all vary throughout the system....sometimes significantly. Every time I feed the fish, put my hand into the water, turn on/off the lights, I introduce an oscillation into the balance.
This leeds to my most hated word. Assumptions
Assumptions, in my opinion, are the leading cause to the disruption of equilibrium. Here's a few of my assumptions (mistakes) that upset my system.
1. Tap water is safe to use.
2. That fish at the LFS is healthy looking enough to put right into my DT.
3. Chemicals can solve anything.
So yes, I constantly strive for equilibrium, but assumptions and lack of patience have always caused problems.
I agree that the tank would not reach an equilibrium. For me it simply is that if you left the tank alone, all the water would just evaporate. No further evidence for lack of equilibrium required
