Nice To See

I ordered a new bottle of Ammonia online a few days ago.
 
Was delivered today, now, the reasons why I wanted to post a thread about this, it was packaged well and securely using a suitable sized box that was sealed, and had sme great recommendations on instruction leaflet
 
And the bottle of ammonia inside was sealed also, so that made for a decent delivery package with safety in mind.
 

 
So that was a nice start.
 
The bottle itself, perfectly fine, but ont he back it contains a good tip to help those unawares of the percentage strength of Ammonia present in the bottle.
 
     
 
And finally, the best thing was, a recommendation to use this site for further info about cycling and the forum calculator.
 
This is the first time I've seen any recommendations for this forum
 

 
 
So all in all, this has truned out to be a good purchase, I truly hope that the supplier continues to provide this sort of excellent service

That's who I have recently purchased dechlorinator from.was a good service.

I agree Cha4lie, nice to see the link. Unfortunately much of what is in the beginner resource center is outdated and some of it is factually incorrect. Some of it even contradicts what is in the cycling article i wrote which is now in use. Finally, there is a good amount of information on how to cycle with fish in. I hate seeing that because it makes new keepers reading believe they can do this successfully. the problem is none of it discusses ammonia toxicity or treating nitrite with salt. This information does exist on the site which is good.
 
I think it is time to make some changes to that beginner section. I believe that some of the articles need to be edited while other should be removed entirely.
 
Here are some examples:
 
The beginner section has a link to What is Cycling but when you click on it the article is entitled "Arrrggghhhh What's Cycling, New Tank And I've Already Got Fish". Now I wrote two articles on this which exist as independent links. Which one should be the 'official" site position on the topic?
 
And then that article as it stand now states; "The main things you'll need to test for are pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. This gives you an indication of the health of your tank it's mostly related to the nitrogen cycle often refered to as cycling." But my cycling articles says "We strongly advise you to own at least the kits for ammonia and nitrite, and the one for pH would also help a lot. In any case, make sure you know both the pH and the KH (carbonate hardness) of your tap water before you start. The test for nitrate is the least needed and the least accurate, but it can be useful since the final product of the cycle is nitrate."
 
Which statement do you think makes the most sense and offers the better information? Does it makes sense to have both statements? One says nitrate kits are needed and the other says they are no. One mentions KH and the other does not.
 
I am not trying to toot my own horn here. I would just think presenting a more consistent set of information is a good idea. I think changes are need to the beginner resource area to bring the information up to date. If the site is being given a boost from that link on the ammonia bottle, then lets make the information people will see as good as it can be?
 
As always, the above is just my opinion and site management is the group that must make these decisions.
 

 

All good points TTA, may be time to do updates of various sections, thanks for the heads up

That is very encouraging Charlie, good to see good support for fishless cycling from suppliers.
 
When I saw the link to our beginners resource centre I automatically assumed that it would be a link to TTA's guide.  If not then it should definitely be updated!

Well, I'll be honest, I had a go at cleaning up some of the stuff in the beginner's resource center a while back... but it is not a light undertaking.  

The fishless cycle article links to TTA's article, and has been since it was first posted.
 
The fish-in cycle article has been updated now.  And a bunch of other links there have been updated as well.  If someone finds something in the BRC that should be updated, please post it in the Board Announcements section, and if you have a better option in mind, please include that as well.

Because it is likely that new fish keepers will continue to put fish in un-cycle tanks it's important that we have information on how to deal with that. Even though we all understand that it is not ideal it is a reality of the hobby.

It doesn't help that when I bought my fish tank, it says to treat the water then put fish in 24 hours later.
Most people don't know simply because they're reading instructions somewhere. I had no clue that I needed to wait longer than 24 hours.
The literal instructions on the tank pamplet say wait 24 hours then enjoy

Really, that's one of the main reasons forums like this exist to combat the bad information given to new fishkeepers. 

I agree. How many fish lives were taken from lack of knowledge. Sad

AmtotheBurr said:

It doesn't help that when I bought my fish tank, it says to treat the water then put fish in 24 hours later.
Most people don't know simply because they're reading instructions somewhere. I had no clue that I needed to wait longer than 24 hours.
The literal instructions on the tank pamplet say wait 24 hours then enjoy

Click to expand...

 
That pamphlet isn't worth the paper it was printed on...  That sort of nonsense was accurate ONLY when fish-in cycling was the only known way to cycle a fish tank.

I come from the fish-in cycling days. The stores I worked in would gladly sell "starter fish" and buy them back at a modestly discounted price when the ammonia was zero. If the fish lived, we had loyal customers. That was back when there was at least one LFS in every town.

I think anyone who has been keeping fish for even as short as 10 years has done fish-in cycles. I've been keeping fish since I was 5 years old (so...that's a long time ago) and there was no thought at all about any other way back then, not even a hint of it. 
 
Now, we know better of course, which is great and the Internet has opened up all the information we need. Someone serious about keeping fish well does not have to make any mistakes if they take the time to visit a forum and hangout and learn.