Maidenhead Aquatics.

[Smells a bit fishy]

Haha. Yeh indeed. You lost me at it's not just case of bunging in plants haha. I'll stick with my daily water changes.

On a slightly different note, I cant seem to keep my plants alive. I'm thinking of getting some fertiliser. Also do I need to turn my light on a little more? It's in a quite a bright room, but without direct sunlight. I only have my lights on for about 2-3 hours a day

 

[StandbySetting]

What's the tank volume, and how many Watt's of light are over it and what kind of tubes? It'll be one of the following problems:
Too much light, too little nutrients
Not enough light
Non-aquatic plants.

If you pick the right plants it can be done quite easily, you could run a tank filterless with just plants as the standard filtration, you'd need some form of circulation however.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

I think they are aquatic plants. The LFS does sell some non-aquatic plants but informed me of which ones they are. The main ones that are dying are these green long grass type ones. Some of the leaves have gone brown. However this purple and green one is surviving although it has been eaten a fair bit.

I'm not sure what bulb it is. I will have a look when I get home. It's a very lightly planted tank probably less than 10% of substrate covering. On a plus note my fake ones are doing fine haha!!

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

I have a 40w T8 bulb that stretches the length of the tank. As I said it's only on for a few hours a day. I could go out and get a timer so it turns on and off automatically. Would that help?

 

[Plecostomos Fan]

I'd just like to say that my local M/A staff are very knowlegeable on every subject to do with tropicals.
They wont sell fish until they are satisfied that you have a suitable set up etc, guess i'm lucky!

 

[MBOU]

I understand the using neat ammonia but it is more complicated than using shop products. Products arent designed and marketed for no reason, they wouldnt be around if they didnt work, the trouble is that with water, there are so many variables that you cant expect even a knowlegeable retailer to know every outcome and get it right every time!

I know i personally have about 6 customers now with a variety of tanks and filters that we just cant cycle the tanks, even the one i convince to use ammonia! It gets to a point where there is .25 ammonia and very similar levels of nitrite and nitrate and after 5-6 times of getting the tank to cycle this far (per customer) i recently gave up and gave the customer 3 silver tip tetras and ordered a water change, a load of bacteria supplement, my 'secret indredient' (cant actually remember its name but a virtually unknown pond bacteria supplement) and 3 small hardy fish in a 60liter tank and that did the trick.

But there are so many variables and about 80% of customers (if not more!) want the easy life. They dont want to go do researxh (sigh! i know!) they just want me to sell them a product that will work. That way... if it doesnt work... its my fault. If it does work.... then i am good at my job.

Thats pretty much the way it works.

-----------

Would be interested to know **which** MA peoples are visiting and what they think! I always wonder if one day people might be meeting me and i get to see a comment posted up and i get to feel happy! (i hope!!!!!!!). But im in one of the smaller branches, though we have just moved shop and had a serious refurb!

Everone seems to say they are going to their local MA like other people know which one it might be lol.

There are like... 110+ stores now!

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

Yeh I got side tracked when going in. I decided to ask him about marine instead haha!!

Haha. Yeh it has grown lots! I went into the Crawley branch today. Which branch do you work at?

 

[L_Plates]

I go to Maidenhead Aquatics in Blackpool and they are great and very helpful. I posted a thread here, http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?/topic/359942-maidenhead-aquatics-blackpool/

 

[MBOU]

Aylesbury

 

[nurglespuss]

Mine is Radyr, a great store, but they take things the sensible way:

They ask if you need advice about the fish you want to buy, if you don't, they just sell you the fish.

I think thats the best way forward. if someone 'wants' to know the facts they will ask/take the offer, if someone does not, they could just lie anyway etc.

I agree the 'silent cycle' is what I use, plants and fish, seems the most stable method to me. I've read many posts regarding 'fishless' cycling where the cycle has crashed/later crashes as it can't cope with the increased volume of ammonia etc.

 

[Twinklecaz]

I don't have a local MA . The nearest one was Brighton but I have a nasty feeling it's been taken over by another company. Never been there yet anyway.

 

[Smells a bit fishy]

There are plenty in the south east. Where abouts do you live? I believe there is one in Worthing as well if that's any help. Also there is one on the A23. Havnt been to that one yet, they specialise in tropical and marine fish.