Its probally silly, hey in any case the owners look fairely honest looking, perhaps they live on the farm, and as you know most farms do not have addresses , I guess when they reg their website on "whois" they just made this up.
Or perhaps this adresse is real and they with hold it from there site, for sure some silly reason.

Owner Contact:
Luke Davidson
Organic Aquariums
30 Heath RD
Cape Town, 7750, ZA

Punycode Name: organicaqua.com
Unicode Name: organicaqua.com

Admin Contact
Luke Davidson
Organic Aquariums

30 Heath RD
Cape Town, 7750, ZA
phone: +27.825863224



Website Record expires on: 2009-04-26 07:11:51

It is a shame to see this thread brought to such a low level, who cares what the proprietor of the business looks like, it has absolutely no relevance to the effectiveness of the product or not.

The thread was started with someones actual experience with the product, any posts with positive or negative comments based on use would be welcome. If someone chooses not to use the product for whatever reasons, that’s fair enough too, there is no need to go to childish lengths to discredit it without trying it.

So anyone else out there with any comments on Organic Aqua?


Daragh

Hi all,

I've had a 450L Malawi tank for just over 12 months with +/- 36 Cichlids in it. This is my first time keeping fish and it's been a great experience/learning curve.

A few weeks ago things started to deteriorate and I lost 3 fish in one day. Long story short is my LFS introduced me to Organic Aqua and suggested the addition of an Internal Jad SP-2300III submersible filter to take some of the pressure off my TetraTec 1200 external + it would add some much needed flow to the tank and they suggested I leave my TetraTec APS400 air pump on 24/7.

I did a huge water change, cleaned the ex1200 filter (used tank water NOT tap water) and introduced the OA starter kit.

I can't believe the results in such a short time. It's now 3 days on and the tank is absolutely flying. The fish are really active and happy, the water is crystal clear and all is well.

I know its a product which requires monthly commitment (€'s) but if it saves me doing 3 x 150L water changes a month, imporves the health of the fish and improves the look of the tank then it's well worth it.

Even though the instructions clearly stated that the media in the ex 1200 should be washed in tap water I simply couldn't bring myself to do it so washed them as usual in tap water "to be on the safe side" but having read all of this thread it seems that was a mistake. I was always warned to NEVER wash out filters in tap water so it seems un natural to do so but I think I understand why with OA you have to.

Could someone advise me what to do? Should I leave well alone until it's time for the maintenance kit in 3.5 weeks time and then wash all out in tap water or should I do it now?

Regards,

Ben

Hi Ben, I've been using OA for 3 years and only recently have learned about cleaning the filters in tap water.Up to six months ago I was cleaning them in tank water without any mishaps. I am now cleaning in tap water but half in tap and half in tank water

I know it's hard to bring yourself to washing the media in tap water but the idea is to kill of the bacteria that would normally take care of fish waste and let the OA do it's thing.
So i would say clean the filters in tap water.
It is important to keep the water aerated 24/7 and to vent the air from the tank. By that i mean keeping the lid open slightly. Even if it's just opening the top of the aquarium at night. This way the nitrogen gas (from fish waste) gets expelled and not reintroduced in to the water.

Thanks platy.I've to do a monthly water change on Saturday,hopefully I'll have the bottle to use the tap.Are you saying that you can have too much bacteria.

Thanks Louis and Platty.

I'm lucky in so far as my tank was custom made with two 'panels' slotting onto the top of the tank over 8 inches over the condensation trays and each panel has two holes about 4cm in diameter to slot your fingers into to lift off so by pushing the condensation trays together to leave 6 inch gaps at each end the 4 holes in the two panels will (I hope) provide enough for the gasses to escape.

Can I clarify a few things?

1. OA and the traditional biological filter methods are mutually exclusive, it's one or the other. Correct? This is why we have to wash the traditional media in tap water to kill off the normally 'good' bacteria?

2. If all the 'good' bacteria in the external filter are killed off and for whatever reason I don't want to continue with OA or the people supplying it go bust (pure speculation) will the tank gently return to the traditional method or will there be a period of massive disruption where the OA runs out but there isn't enough bacteria in the external filter to revert to the traditional system?

3. From my description of my own system above can/should I remove the condensation trays all together? What exactly are they designed to do and in an OA set up are they still needed?

Regards,

Ben

The bacteria is different. Normally you would have Nitrosomas that convert Ammonia in to Nitrite and Nitrobacters that convert Nitrite in to Nitrate which is removed during water changes.
With Organic aqua i dont know what the bacteria is or even if it works solely by chemicals. But i do know OA recommend killing of the normal bacteria by washing the media in tap water.

Hi Platty,

Thanks for clarifying that.

Can you (or anyone else) shed any light on the other questions I asked about reverting back to a biological system from OA and my condensation trays?

Regards,

Ben

Hi Ben,

condensation trays have no other purpose but preventing evaporation and eventually saving fish from suicidal jumps(since your tank is custom made the hood itself should avoid this).
You can remove those trays which would be beneficial to OA but your tank would experience some loss of water due to evaporation(topping up with fresh tap water would then be necessary).

I have set-up and maintained many OA tanks with or without external filters.both have proved to be working perfectly and this with or without biological filtration in external or internal filters.
In the eventuality that you decide to go back to more frequent water change,weaning off OA is possible and not so complicated as long as you stop washing your filter media in tap water and start water changing more frequently(if that's what you decide to do that is )

hope this helps.

Dimitri