Water quality question

[Luis]

I would like some info on how the water quality mechanic works, in order to better choose from the different equipment when trying to improve the quality of a tank. Right now I'm doing a trial and error, when needed, but it would be interesting to have some understanding of how it works.

Is there a desired proportion of filter/skimmer/etc to try and reach, or does each tech work better at a given % range of water quality, or does it depend on the animals and the pollution they generate?

[Twice Circled]

Yes no problem, I try to explain this as you go through the campaign, but you might have missed (or not reached) the appropriate messages. A few extracts from the campaign:

From 3. Elmshorn
Filtering alone isn't enough to reach the high water qualities required by corals and delicate fish. You need Protein Skimming too. Add one to your Disco Mushroom tank and see the difference in water quality compared to filtering alone.

From 5. Napalos
Nitrate Reacting is a 3rd way to increase water quality. Combine filtering, protein skimming and nitrate reacting in equal amounts to achieve the highest water quality. But be warned, Nitrate Reactors are much more expensive than Filters and Protein Skimmers, you should only use them when you need a very high water quality.

From 8. Le Dufont
UV Sterilising is the 4th and final way to increase water quality. Combine filtering, protein skimming, nitrate reacting and UV sterilising to achieve the very highest water quality. But be warned, UV Sterilisers are the most expensive way of increasing water quality and they need skilled Fixers to maintain. Ensure you are only using them when you need the very highest water quality.

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TLDR: Combine the different types of filtering in equal amounts to get the most mileage out of each.

It's possible to reach 90% water quality with basic filtering alone but you'll need an awful lot more compared to if you mixed multiple types together.

Quick aside: you've probably already guessed this but the other side to the filter equation is the bioload the animals produce. The more animals you have in a tank, the more they push down the quality. It follows a linear law so 10x the animals will need 10x the filtering to hit the same water quality.

Hope that helps! :)

[Luis]

Thanks a lot!!

All messages tell us that it is better to have different filters, but I missed the part in the nitrate reactor that said "equal amounts". That's the key info :)

Since I couldn't find anyone asking this in this forum, I suppose most people found this info, but I would suggest making the "equal amounts" part more evident, if possible.

[stlnegril9]

I missed "equal amounts" also. Knew to mix them somewhat but not "equal" for best efficiency from equipment.

Dev thinking: "I'll put in this message when unlocking new equipment to teach players the mechanics of the game!"

Player thinking (mine anyway): "oh look, a shiny new object!!! and some message ... blah blah - OK let's play with the new thing!"

[Twice Circled]

Yeah, after reading Luis' post it got me thinking that I should probably add this information to the tooltips on the filter icons themselves, so it is there for easy reference. :)