Final Part (forgotten the numbers)
Well, the time has come, I ended the initial part of this ‘trial’ on Friday night. I’ve had a couple of things to report – so to these first, then it’s on to the conclusions.
The poor Cory got to a stage where it only had a stump left – I had removed it and treated its new quarters with Sterazin, after an initial partial dip of the rear end of it in a strong salt bath (my usual ‘answer to most maladies of that type) and after a week the problem had become even more acute so I euthanized the poor soul as it was headed that way anyhow – it was just lying on the bottom, on its side…really only a matter of time anyway.
The two small Discus really didn’t seem very happy from the start – to be ruthlessly fair, they were hardly what you would have called ‘top’ stock and, apart from when the Shiners were removed which brought them out of their hidey hole in the Anubias (as reported previously) they never really looked as though they would settle in. I probably shouldn’t have actually bought them, but I had ordered them so would not let down the shop which had held them for me.
They are still alive, but really not looking like they will make ‘old bones’.
I removed the Krobias on Friday as they had doubled in size over the month and really needed to go into a larger tank.
Also on Friday night I did around a 30% water change, adding an appropriate amount of ‘Easy Life’ and put in, in place of the airstones two twin-sponge air-driven filters.
At first I was going to use sponges from ‘active’ filters, but decided against this and used two brand new ones – straight out of the packets.
The reason for this decision was in order to attempt to replicate the potential conditions as outlined by Derek in his articles – i.e. that this trial should, as far as possible, have been run as if by a newcomer to Fish Keeping but who would want to set up a tank and by-pass the cycling procedure (for reasons best known to themselves). To this end the whole ‘experiment’ has been directed.
This afternoon I tested the water and got the following (relevant) results:
Ammonia less than 0.5ppm, but slightly above the ideal of 0ppm
Nitrite
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(The
"s are meant to be underneath the comment above, but for reasons best known to themselves they have all bunched up at the beginning) [perhaps they got lonely]
Nitrate a little under 10ppm so all readings have room for improvement but considering the filters have only been in place for less than 48 hours it’s very encouraging.
Unfortunately I avoided taking test readings during the course of the trial as I had been told these would be ‘off the scale’ – actually I really wish I had monitored this also.
So, at the end of this part of the ‘trial’ my conclusions are very much inline with those of Derek – the tank was started a little over a month ago with only the Organic Aqua and – barring the mishap of losing the (already very poor-conditioned) wild Angel and the poor Cory – both of which were added in quite bad ways to see if the ‘Health Treatment’ would work something like a miracle, not one fish as originally stocked has gone to meet its maker. All the other Corys are ‘fit as fiddles’ and the LDA16s have now spawned – as I had hoped and expected they would.
I have even added a further six Corys – young Green Lasers, for which I have high hopes in the future. They settled in immediately
This part of the Organic Aqua has very much proved to me – and no-one has openly been more cynical about it than I – that Organic Aqua is a valuable commodity for both newcomers and ‘old hands’ alike.
As stated, newcomers can use it to start up a tank from scratch and immediately stock some fish, a problem which often besets family folk – the youngsters are often very impatient to get a tank home, filled and see some fish in it the same day. I would still caution against a full stocking immediately, but OA works in conjunction with fish, there have to be some for it to actually work (at least that’s my understanding). Then, at the end of the first month they could choose to either continue using OA by buying a new supply – or, as I did in this experiment, simply start conventional filtration.
For an established ‘older (and “wiser???”) lad’ like myself I could see its best usage to be if a sudden and unannounced batch of fish became available these could be bought and a new OA tank could be set up for them. I would now have the confidence to use it for such a purpose.
If I do manage to obtain a “breeders’ pack” shortly I plan a further test with tanks ‘side-by-side’ – one doing the same as this trial but with the whole test extending for six months (and doing weekly water tests to find out how ‘off the scale’ they really do go, while the other tank will just be a ‘conventionally-cycled’ (for want of a better description) one doing parallel water tests.
I also feel that this will not be complete until I can find a damaged (or similar) fish and give the Health Treatment a full try-out too.
For Derek to be so enthusiastic about it, it must bear further investigation.
That’s about it then – at least for this part – but I’m looking forward to the next trials already.
John
now if we're really really luck, johnh might even post a picture or three for us 
