BenEadir wrote:


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?

Yes they are mutually exclusive, they negate each others effects.
They are both "Correct" methods of filtration.
All media must be kept clean, by clean I mean tap water. any buildup of Nitrafying bacteria will negate OA, You cannot have both and have a stable system. It's one or the other.


BenEadir wrote:

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?

One of the huge benifits of Organic Aqua is its application in cycling a tank. you symply stop cleaning the filter and carry out te last of your OA water treatments without water change at the end and there will be a nice hand over of OA to the newly established traditional bacteria.
By the way OA has been around for nearly 40 years, they aint going bust anytime soon!

BenEadir wrote:

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?


As another user mentioned above, condensation trays are not part of the filter system. They should be either removed or have holes drilled in them in order to let the Nitrates escape.

It's about time I spoke up about my experience with Organic aqua as I may have preformed one of the largest tests in Ireland and probably anywhere outside of Africa. 5500 Litre system, 12 months. 100,000s fish, 10,000 at any one time with a turnover of 3000 a week. Losses from previous tradtional system were between 15 and 30 percent a week of newly delivered fish, 150 to 300. Losses after switching to OA were down to 1 - 3 percent. Thats between 10 to 30 fish a week, out of adding 3000 fish just arrived from foreign suppliers!!! test performed on large retail outlet by myself and Steve. And yes Marines too. I will go further into my experiences when I have more time. Ie a review of where it works best.

One incredible experience I have had using organic is as follows: I person came into me one day with a large, about 10 inch shubunkin goldfish, longfinned variety. He said that he had attempted to put the fish into a cichlid tank (African) after being told by the person in the garden center in which he bought it a few days before, that it would be fine with cichlids... He wanted me to take it because the fish was in a terrible state.

The Caudual Peduncle, the fleshy part before the caudual/tale fin was completely eaten away on one side, to the point that the spine was visible, the wound was large and badly infected covered in fungus and the fish itself had cloudy eyes and was barely alive. It was also missing allot of scales and had large nips taken out of its other fins. I said that I would take it off his hands and put out it out of its misery as it was suffering, if he wanted me to. He said plaese, as he wouldnt be able to bring himself to do it. Steve and I had just converted the coldwater tanks to Organic aqua a day or two before. After the customer left I happened to be talking to Steve and he suggested I put the badly wounded fish in the Organic water, saying he would be fine. I was very skeptical but agreed to give this fish a chance.

3 Weeks later I gave the fish to a friend with a pond, fully healed (Although still showing scars) and healthy as any goldfish I have seen. I could not believe the turn around.

I found organic worked best in Coldwater, showing absolutely stunning results. It also worked incredibley well with tropical community fish, tetra, barbs, livebearers etc showing a massive decrease in weekly losses from delivery. I did have some initial problems with Discus untill I upped the air pressure to the airstone, realising that the higher temperature in the discus tank required more oxygenation as warm water loses air fast.

African Cichlids thrived, showing full colour and no incidence of disease or death, except by the occasional fish being killed or wounded by another fish which is just part of the nature of Cichlid keeping, as some individuals just show very aggresive streaks. I was delighted with the marines using Organic aqua, It cut the work load in half when it came to water care. All fish thrived. Organic Aqua works great and allows you to keep an enormous amount of fish in a relatively small body of water. which is great for retail trying to meet the demands of the growing fish hobby.

I remember someone ordered 10 large Koi, and was to collect them on delivery. Unfortunatly he never showed, even though he had payed half the cash. We were unable to reach him by the number he gave us and were landed with 10x 10-12 inch koi. So we put them in the only coldwater tank we had available at the time, A four foot 210 litre tank. They lived there for 4 months untill the guy finally showed. Without incident and feeding/looking great, water was still crystal clear.

The Only filtration was an airstone with organic aqua. I could ramble on and on about the virtues of this product having first hand experience with it. Lets just say that one day in the future it is gonna catch on (in the States probably first), and then it will eventually become a normal method for keeping fish and fishkeeping books will have sections devoted to its usage just as they now have devoted to using stress coat and zyme etc. Thats my opinion, and once you have used it for any lenght of time you will see where that opinion comes from, the solid fact that Organic Aqua is an excellent, and in many ways superior way to keep healthy, happy fish.

I do not understand the skeptisism of people who say its hocus pocus without trying it first. It works, end of story just ask anyone who uses it. How many people here can tell me exactly how traditional systems work? Im talking the science here, not in laymans terms but in chemical terms? Not many I am sure, and yet these same people will say they would not use or try it because they dont understand how it works when they barely understand the basic science of the traditional method. Fact is the science has been done,tried tested and tweaked. the product works and is a huge jump forward in bio tech compared to the traditional methods which have barely changed in decades.

For those who take issue with Steve posting about Organic aqua. Well one day you will realise that Steve is doing a huge service to fishkeepers worldwide by letting people know about this way of fishkeeping. Just because it doesnt have a Tetra, API or Nutrifin stamp and comes from an obscure family run company in the middle of S.Africa does not mean that it doesnt have merit.

The reason why you will never see an article about it in a magazine such as practical fishkeeping or a sponsered website is because these publications are sponsered by the aquatics industry Giants such as Tetra, API etc. and they are not gonna let some little Product from Africa put them out of business! (I have actually met the owners of this company and they were extremely nice people who were very interested in my experiences with OA)

I have been banned from Practical fishkeeping forum for writing a product review of Organic Aqua and my posts on it deleted. It was in the same forum section that contained reviews about stress coat, Blackwater extract and such. and Mine was deleted!

For those of you who are not afraid to try new things and think in a new way about the science of water chemistry I highly recommend trying Organic Aqua.

PS: I am not affiliated to Organic aqua in any way, nor do I still work in the same aqatics retailer. I Have never made a cent from the Organic aqua.I'm just a fishkeeper who had the pleasure of trying this out for myself on a massive scale and am still awed by the results. Anyone needs any OA advice I can help, as I have allot of experience and training (By Steve!) on its usage.

I am surprised your post was removed from the PFK site. After all if i remember correctly there first pod cast (or what ever you want to call it) was about organic aqua.
I agree it is very good and would recommend it to anyone starting a tank. Even if it was only to get them past the cycle stage.

Trimax have you tried it on very soft very acidic water? I mean a really low ph. If so what did you think?

Good discussion. Any marine tank keepers using OA? I only have spoken to 1 guy using OA for marines on a new fish shipment and he lost alot of fish. pretty sure you cant blame OA but i'm not jumping into this blind with liverock in the tank worth 1000 euro alone never mind the fish stocks.

Hi all,

Thanks to everyone for the great advice and in particular I want to give a big shout out to Dimitri from Fintastic Aquatics in Dun Laoghaire. When I went to him last week I had just lost three fish and could see that at least one more was on it's last legs. He listened patiently and was spot on with his advice. He introduced me to OA, suggested I install an Internal Jad SP-2300III submersible filter and re-install the TetraTec APS400 air pump I had taken out some months ago and the effect has been instant and amazing. The tank looks better than ever and the fish are really active and healthy looking.

Cheers to all, don't know what I'd do without ITFS and Fintastic Aquatics in Dun Laoghaire.

BTW here's a link to some photo's of my tank taken 6 months ago. It now looks much much better!!

www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...mit,10/limitstart,10

Ben

One more thing. After installing OA and the air pump and removing the condensation trays I've noticed that the temperature in the tank has increased to 28c from what was a very stable 26.5c. I had expected the temperature to actually drop when the condensation trays were removed not the other way around. Is this a common side effect of altering the setup to OA? Is the rise in temerature due to the air pump introducing air which is a higher temperature than the water?

I guess I could have accidentally changed the setting on the heater when I was doing the water change the day I introduced the OA.

Any ideas?

Ben

Hi Ben,
Thank you for all of this.
the rise in temperature is probably related to the location of the air pump as you suggested.
If the pump is inside the hood for example,the accumulation of heat from the tank itself and
the light unit might be the explanation.
let us know anyway.
all the best.
Dimitri.

Dimitri,

The pump is actually located beneath the tank in one of the cupboards so there is no way heat from that is permiating back up into the tank. the cupboard is well aired and doesn't feel hot at all.

What temperature should I be aiming for in the tank? 26c?

Ben

Hi Ben,

Thanks for all of this

The temperature rise is probably due the location of the air ump as you suggested.
If the pump is on top of the tank and inside the hood,the accumulation of heat from the tank itself plus the lights could be the explanation.
You could try different locations for the air pump.
Let us know how you get on anyway.

all the best,
Dimitri