Akasha72
Warning - Mad Cory Woman
Hi,
As most of you know I got my Juwel Reckord for Christmas. I previously had a 2ft tank with a interpet PF2 filter running in it.
So I began setting up my Juwel and took all the media sponges out of the PF2 and crammed them any way I could into the Juwel filter and crossed everything and hoped it would be enough to move the fish straight in.
My Dad then announced he'd like my 2ft (57 litre) tank. I offered him the PF2 filter and my old gravel. He said no to the gravel but took the filter. He bought brand new gravel, 3 small pieces of bogwood, new plants and new filter sponges for the filter.
He got the tank as he wanted it then filled it up with water. By now my old filter had been out of water and without any sponge media for about 2 weeks. So I took him shopping to explain about de-chlorinating the water and bacteria and all of that.
My Dad kept tropical fish for a number of years when I was a child - I grew up with fish tanks in the house effectively. He'd now been out of the game for about 25 years so trying to explain about the need to de-chlorinate his water was tough going ...'never had any of that rubbish years ago' comments galore. But he purchased a bottle of API Stress Coat anyway and a bottle of King British Safe Water (bottled bacteria) and added it to the tank as per the instructions.
2 weeks later he got 5 gold barbs - they're about 4-5cm so not fully grown yet. He's fed them twice a day, every day for a week. Yesterday he changed one 5 litre bucket full of water and rinsed the sponges in old tank water - he said the white sponge was brown and slimy, and the carbon one also had a layer of slime on it.
I arrived about 2 hours later with my testing kit and nearly keeled over with the results
PH 7.6 (a bit high but we blame the bog wood)
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
How can this be if bottled bacteria doesn't work and any established bacteria in a filter starts dying off at around 12% an hour.
He set out with a scrubbed clean tank, brand new substrate etc and appears to be looking at a cycled tank already. It even has the established tank smell ...
Pure luck or is it the case that the bottled bacteria may well be doing something ... hmm
As most of you know I got my Juwel Reckord for Christmas. I previously had a 2ft tank with a interpet PF2 filter running in it.
So I began setting up my Juwel and took all the media sponges out of the PF2 and crammed them any way I could into the Juwel filter and crossed everything and hoped it would be enough to move the fish straight in.
My Dad then announced he'd like my 2ft (57 litre) tank. I offered him the PF2 filter and my old gravel. He said no to the gravel but took the filter. He bought brand new gravel, 3 small pieces of bogwood, new plants and new filter sponges for the filter.
He got the tank as he wanted it then filled it up with water. By now my old filter had been out of water and without any sponge media for about 2 weeks. So I took him shopping to explain about de-chlorinating the water and bacteria and all of that.
My Dad kept tropical fish for a number of years when I was a child - I grew up with fish tanks in the house effectively. He'd now been out of the game for about 25 years so trying to explain about the need to de-chlorinate his water was tough going ...'never had any of that rubbish years ago' comments galore. But he purchased a bottle of API Stress Coat anyway and a bottle of King British Safe Water (bottled bacteria) and added it to the tank as per the instructions.
2 weeks later he got 5 gold barbs - they're about 4-5cm so not fully grown yet. He's fed them twice a day, every day for a week. Yesterday he changed one 5 litre bucket full of water and rinsed the sponges in old tank water - he said the white sponge was brown and slimy, and the carbon one also had a layer of slime on it.
I arrived about 2 hours later with my testing kit and nearly keeled over with the results
PH 7.6 (a bit high but we blame the bog wood)
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
How can this be if bottled bacteria doesn't work and any established bacteria in a filter starts dying off at around 12% an hour.
He set out with a scrubbed clean tank, brand new substrate etc and appears to be looking at a cycled tank already. It even has the established tank smell ...
Pure luck or is it the case that the bottled bacteria may well be doing something ... hmm
