Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)
Hi,
John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.
I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.
With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.
I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.
If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.
I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.
I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.
Thank you
Darragh Sherwin
Cycling an Aquarium Methods
- alan61979 (Alan)
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But,
I'm about to set up a tank for a friend again. I did this for him a few years ago and he went against all my advice and it turned into a disaster for him.
I know he won't have the patience to wait 28 days and test his water, before adding fish, so I'm looking for alternative methods.
Is there a quick fix solution nowadays? I'm aware of the Organic Aqua, but I don't think it's suitable for my friend. He'll forget to add the solution every week and I can't see him being regimental when it comes to water changes. He'll do them but maybe not at the designated time.
I'm hoping there's a magic bottle of instant filter or something out there.
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- Ski (Alan McGee)
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Has worked twice for me without any fish loss
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- Ski (Alan McGee)
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- alan61979 (Alan)
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- Esoxluciouss (denis goulding)
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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Instant stocking is ok.
Just regular additives each week and a 25% monthly water change
I used it for my little fellows 190litre and its worked a treat..... no issues at all
Either that or take a squeeze of a mature filter and speed up his cycle big time.....
Ive also ran a filter in my matured tank, then taken water and filter out to setup a smaller tank that way??
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- alan61979 (Alan)
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There is another product called Organic Aqua that might be right up his street....
Instant stocking is ok.
Just regular additives each week and a 25% monthly water change
I used it for my little fellows 190litre and its worked a treat..... no issues at all
Read the FULL opening post

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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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I jumped the gun a little but then i edited my post

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- Ski (Alan McGee)
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- gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
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"Safestart" is good bacteria in a bottle...
Be very careful with feeding when establishing a tank this way...One little feed every other day is enough until the tank is established...
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- paulv (paul vickers)
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- Ski (Alan McGee)
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- Esoxluciouss (denis goulding)
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- paulv (paul vickers)
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well done, now im jelous, ive just looked them up online, if yours colour up like ive seen, they will be realy beautiful fish, if you ever wanna rehome 1 you know where I amHey Paul, managed to get my hands on some channa pleuro so these bad boys are in my new 60 liter grow out tank

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- Ski (Alan McGee)
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well done, now im jelous, ive just looked them up online, if yours colour up like ive seen, they will be realy beautiful fish, if you ever wanna rehome 1 you know where I amHey Paul, managed to get my hands on some channa pleuro so these bad boys are in my new 60 liter grow out tank
Yeah delighted with them now alright. Have been trying to get them for years
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- alan61979 (Alan)
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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However, they do not protect against someone overfeeding during the initial period and they do not fully mature a tank either.
Hence, I would recommend a small amount of PolyFilter added to soak up that slight overloads (or an ammonia adsorbign zeolite can do the trick).
No matter which way you attempt to mature a tank, it won't be mature until quite a long time after fish are added.
The methods above are just a quick-fix emergency means.
ian
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- alan61979 (Alan)
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Is it as simple as that? I use bio balls in my filter. If I took a few of them and put them in his, would that give him a kick start and enable him to add a few small fish early on?
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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The draw backs maybe that there is enough difference in water chemistry between the tanks that much of the transferred bacteria die, the source tank may have a disease (and a new tank is more likely to fall apart under a disease), and someone starting out may not find an easy source of a filter squeezing (now....I know that here the OP is offering a sample of filter, but that is not always available to all newbies).
ian
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