Water and growth

[Sturiosoma]

Recently read an interesting article from a fish breeder who was getting a lot of questions about water changes, he was doing 30 percent a week,he decided to do an experiment and went to the aquaculture department of a big university they set up 4 tanks, one with sponge filters, one with trickle system, one with 50 percent daily water changes and the last with a flow through system with all the bells and whistles the fish used were discus, all fish were fed the same ,did not say what food was used growth was tracked in all tanks ,the best growth came from the tank with the flow through filter system the worst from the tank that got 50 percent daily changes the fish were then analyzed (toxicology ) what they found was the fish with good growth had low blood cortisol levels while the poor growth fish had high levels of cortisol which is a hormone that is produced when stress is present they concluded that the poor growth fish were suffering from water change shock in that they were being constantly disturbed so he said your best to have excellent filtration and with that you can do less water changes and create less stress so my question is do I go sump or no sump and if I do what do I do with all the stuff in my aquarium cabinets. Jeanne

[Sturiosoma]

I think