Guy at the LFS

[Salt Freak]

NH3 is NH3 it is the same thing and you don't need to be messing with the Ph like that the only was like that he was just trying to make a sell. And cycling with a fish is cruel. when I was doing freshwater I never saw any cycle if it did it happened overnight. If you mess with the Ph like that your messing with stuff you don't need to be messin with. Unless your using RO distilled water and C02 thats a little different. sounds like that guy is full of BS

 

[BettaMomma]

Before I knew what I was doing with fish (or was mature enough to care, I guess) I had 2 bleeding heart tetras, a pictus catfish and some mollies in my 10 gallon tank. I never paid them any attention except to throw food in there every day. Didn't change thier water much - they ended up with an infestation of worms, blah blah.

Turned out I had to throw the entire tank and all decorations out (after the worms and poor water quality had already killed the mollies and then the pictus). Well, my tetras by this time also had a terrible case of finrot.

SO - (I'm getting to the point here, very soon)... I had to go get a whole new 10 gallon tank - knew NOTHING about cycling, had never even heard of it. I set up my new tank and threw in the tetras. They were extra happy in their new home. They started eating like crazy again and were back to somewhat normal fish-like behavior, so i went out and bought a little algae eater for clean-up duty. Those poor fish - when the spike hit, the poor little tetras must have suffered horribly. They breathed heavy for a day or two, then they started somersaulting around the tank. The tetras were found one morning stuck to the intake tube. The little guy on the bottom just flopped over on his side and he hung on for a few days - but I hadn't yet discovered this forum and therefore had no idea what to do for him. He died. I cried.

I watched them suffer HORRIBLY and would NEVER, EVER EVER want to see another fish have to endure anything like that. I do realize that had I been doing water changes and such like I should have, they'd have possibly made it thru the new tank cycle, but to have seen what they went through just breaks my heart.

 

[Raechal]

Yea, I figured he was just trying to sell me something. Why mess with the PH when I am cycling a tank anyway? My PH is 8.5-9 right now which is extremely high but it is from the pure ammonia I am guessing because the PH of my tap is like 7.2-7.4. Why try to buffer the PH to 7.0 when it is going to go back up when I add the ammonia back in? I didn't get it but he just liked to tell me I was wrong because I am a "kid" and he is older and he "knows better" oh well. I told him I'm not buying any fish to cycle my tank with.

I knew he was desparate to get a sale because every 5 minutes he would come up to us and say, "Find some fish?"

I kept saying, "No, we are not getting fish today."

So he talked to my mom without me there and loaded her up on some BS and how she had to buy all of these "wonderful" products. This is how the trip went:

-Me, my mom, my little sister and my boyfriend walk into the LFS, we look around at fish and blah blah blah-

Fish guy: "Anything I can help you with?"
Mom:"Yea, we are looking for a background for the tank. It is a 120 gallon."
Fish guy:"6ft?"
Mom:"I am not sure of the measurements."
Fish guy:"I'll go check on my chart for a 120 gallon."
Mom:"Okay."
Fish guy:" Okay you'll need this much and it comes to about $14"
Mom:"Okay, Raechal do you like this stuff?"
Me:"Yea, it's good."
Mom"Okay, we'll take it."
Fish guy:" Need anything else?"
Mom:"Raechal, do you need anything else?"
Me: "I need a new test kit for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates, but I will get it later."
(It was too expensive at the place we were at and we could get it cheaper somewhere else.)
Mom:"Okay."
Fish guy:"Not getting any fish today?"
Mom:"No, she is cycling her tank right now."
Fish guy:"Well a tank CAN'T cycle without any fish in it."
Mom:" Well she is doing a fishless cycle with pure ammonia."
Fish guy:"What? You need fish to cycle a tank."
Me:"Well I am doing a fishless cycle where I just add pure ammonia to the tank to bring it up to around 3-4 ppm a day. I don't want to hurt any fish making it go through a cycle."
Fish guy:"Well ammonia doesn't create the same bacteria fish do. It is a different bacteria and you will end up losing fish in the long run."
Mom:"Well do you just want to get some fish then Raechal? What fish do you cycle with?"
Fish guy:"Well you can go with..."
Me:"I am going for a more aggressive tank so anything I got would have to be able to be in a tank with an Oscar."
Fish guy:"Well then get some danios, they can live through ANYTHING."
Me:
Mom:"Do you want to get those Raechal?"
Fish guy:" They are ONLY $2.00 each. You could get a couple of them."
Me:" No. I am going to keep doing my fishless cycle."

Then I kind of pulled my mom to the side and walked away to where we could talk in somewhat private. That is when I told her I couldn't use small danios they would just end up being expensive feeders for my bigger cichlids. So my mom walked around the store a little while I finished up looking.

Fish guy:"Are you putting any plants in the tank?" (my mom was looking at the live plants)
Mom:" I think so. She has a small plant in there now and it just looks so funny because it is such a big tank then there is a small skinny plant in one corner. "
Fish guy:"Well if you want to add plants right away you need to get this PH buffer and this PH test kit. It brings the PH to 7.0 so plants can be added."
MomTakes everything he is giving her that she "needs"
Me:"Mom what is all that stuff?"
Mom:"Well you need this stuff if you want to add plants right away."
Me:"No I don't. I wasn't even going to add a whole bunch of plants because I am getting semi-aggressive cichlids. What's the point in buying a whole bunch of plants when the cichlids will rip them out of the ground and tear them apart?"
Mom:"Oh, I didn't know."
Me:"I know...Where did you get this stuff, I'll put it back."
Meuts everything back.-
Momays for background and talks to the fish guy about the ramones and that he knew them.

Then we all walked out and I explained to my mom how that guy was a total nut and didn't really know all that much about fish and how he tried to act like I was an idiot just because I was younger than him.

Ugh, sorry for the rant but that really pissed me off today.

 

[littlefishie]

Fish guy = moron.

 

[Mr Miagi]

Fish guy = moron.

Totally agreed. If he doesnt know u can cycle a tank without fish, he doesnt deserve to be working there.

 

[Raechal]

It just made me feel dumb you know? He had to "correct" me infront of my mom, my little sister and my boyfriend and tell me I was "wrong" and my cycle will take a really long time and just to do it with fish.

Plus, since I already have pure ammonia in my tank, wouldn't adding the fish into that water kill them? He wanted me to take some danios home that day and stick them in my tank to cycle it.

I also explained to him how I ran my filter in the 29 gallon for a few days to collect some bacteria and am using an old filter pad from my cycled 29 gallon in my 120 gallon along with some "good bacteria" gravel from my 29 gallon. He said it didn't matter.

Since I am 17 and he was much older than me, I didn't want to call him out and disrespect him I guess. So I just nodded and walked out. I guess he suffered in the end because I didn't buy anything except the background I needed.