Small, frequent water changes can reduce the amount of chemicals and microorganisms that consume oxygen. This is the time of year when fish are growing rapidly, developing color, and beginning to store body fat to get them through the long winter, so good nutrition is important. As always, it is better to feed several small feedings per day, instead of a single large feeding. Fish naturally tend to graze all day, rather than to gorge themselves for ten minutes, then waiting 24 hours until the next meal. It s also best to introduce unfamiliar foods slowly, possibly by mixing it in with their standard diet at first.
Uneaten food creates unhealthy conditions, as seen in the previous section.
Plants are also in high gear during the summer months, cranking out luscious foliage, creating beautiful blooms, and in the case of some of our winter-hardy varieties, storing energy in tubers or rootstocks. In order to perform all these biological duties, plants require a handful of major and trace amounts of minor elements. If even one of these elements is exhausted, the plant will suffer, and if denied for too long, the plant may perish. New leaves may come in deformed or discolored, older growths may wither rapidly, and blooms may become disappointingly few and far between. If plants begin to show any of these symptoms, the addition of fertilizer tablets may well get them back into shape.