First, thank you (I am being sincere, not facetious here) for this post. It will allow us to explore this issue the correct way, through research and discussion.
Byron, here you go on your high horse again.
I can't seem to make a statement of fact without you seeing something else behind it.:-(
I have come to enjoy your debatable comments so let's get it on and I will try my best to keep things civil for the sake of forum members because hopefully we can all learn from these debates
Likewise.
1. Most people, including myself do not even know what TDS are. I had to look this up. I have the link below for others to hone up on.
I have written on this in various threads, but will put something together and post it in this one. The Wiki synopsis is fine as far as it goes, but it obviously doesn't go far with freshwater, so I will get into this momentarily in a separate post to avoid bogging this one down. I'll track down some reliable FW sources.
I trust Seachem products and have many years of successful experience with them and have fish friends with more years of experience than I have to back that up. If Seachem is not concerned about the TDS in their product... then neither am I. I trust Seachem that much.
I trust them too--but only as far as one should trust any business that exists to make money. I buy some of their products regularly. But one is not absolved from questioining and researching. They have a product called Excel which is a liquid carbon supplement for planted tanks, intended to provide an alternative to organic carbon which is does--but the actual chemistry of how it does this no-one, including SeaChem, knows. I will not use this, nor will I recommend it, because it is frankly toxic and dangerous. It's only ingredient (apart from water) is glutaraldehyde: an antimicrobial, bactericide, fungicide, and virucide, commonly used to sterilize medical instruments in hospitals. It is also used as an embalming fluid, as an ingredient in Anti-Freeze, an antibacterial agent in cooling towers, a leather tanning agent, a biocide in water treatment, a sanitary solution for portable toilets, and is used to sterilize ballast tanks in ships moving from one water source to another (to kill off pathogens and critters that may be transferred in the tanks from one water way to another). I don't want this in my fish tanks. Admittedly, it needs overdosing to achieve these toxic effects, but such substances do not belong in an aquarium. And regardless, some plant species (Vallisneria for one) are usually killed by this even at the recommended dose.
The fact that Seachem is not concerned with TDS doesn't mean it is not significant. They also don't fully understand how Prime works in dealing with nitrite or nitrate.
Obviously we and others who have successfully raised fish without the concern of TDS... have not had to be concerned with TDS's.
2. Since I am just researching TDS's... only because you keep making such a big deal about it... I realize why I have not been concerned with them and most of the fishkeepers I know are just like me and have never heard of TDS's.
3. Just wondering, how often do you test your water for TDS's? What type of device do you use for this?
I don't, because first I can't afford the equipment. But I also know there are ways of keeping TDS low so it is safe not to have to worry. I never test for ammonia or nitrite, because I know they will never be present in my tanks--unless something seriously goes awry, and then I do test just to ensure these factors are not involved. I sporadically test for nitrates, maybe once every 4-5 months (or when something affects the fish, again as a preliminary step), and in 15+ years the nitrates in my tanks have never wavered. This is not to say one shouldn't test for this or that, if periodically, but the point is that establishing stability is the key, and to do this we must understand the science to some extent.
Like any aspect in life, from our health to the health of our fishes, as discoveries are made we learn more, and hopefully benefit by learning ways to make our fish healthier, which is my prime objective. Fish don't need to be dying to be unhealthy, and avoiding pitfalls that can cause stress is always wise, because all fish disease and premature death can be linked back to stress. Thus, preventing stress as much as we can should--and will we now know--ensure healthier fish. TDS is a fairly new aspect but already we know it affects fish [more later].
we are not trying to introduce a new species from the wild and trying to ascertain what kind of water the fish lives in.
The concern over water parameters is relevant to all fish, not just wild caught. Another thread discussing nitrates has a comment that our commercially-raised fish are different from wild with respect to nitrates, but this is incorrect thinking. Nitrate is on a par with ammonia and nitrite, they are forms of nitrogen, and all are toxic, and all will kill at differing levels. It defies logic to think that tank-raised fish that cannot adapt to higher ammonia or higher nitrite will somehow mysteriously adapt to higher nitrates.
There is sufficient scientific evidence now to show that fish must have an environment that is as close as possible to that for which they evolved, if we are concerned about keeping them in their best health. I'm sure you share this aim, as hopefully all members do. Healthy fish are happy fish.
4. Can you explain TDS's and the cause for so much concern?
This will be in a separate post, as mentioned above. This one is already becoming a novel.
Byron.