[Witfull]

OTS happens to long established tanks that suddenly and "without cause*" crash. many of these tanks are kept by dedicated hobbyists and has happend to "experts". many things have been blamed on OTS from long term low level electical current to heavy metal poisoning.

with our tanks we try to mimic nature, but this is in appearance only. we create the look of nature, but in truth the science is different. nature is an open system with billions of gallons of diluton, depths of miles and cold, and think mud/silt bottoms to lock cubic tons of toxins. creatures (many still unknown to man) that live and feed on these toxins.where we have a drop in the poverbial bucket in our homes. WE HAVE A CLOSED SYSTEM.

everything we put into our tanks literally stays there. many are bound in the matrix of living organisms or precipitated out of the water and bound in rock and substrate. but it doesnt stay there. sooner or later it wil leach back into the water column and then suddenly there are problems. this can appear in many forms. the most common and usually first is cynobacteria. but there can be other issues that go unseen for yrs,,,internal damage to our fish' anatomy, ie liver damage, gill deteriation, tumors.

so what do we do?

chime in folks~