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Clove oil is effective, but a sufficient amount is required for the fish not to suffer. Since any quick death is preferred, another alternative is flinging the fish against a hard surface like a sink or concrete floor which will result in instant death. Some suggest hitting with a hammer or...

Okay, but I doubt that the fish in the river, pond, or lake 'complains' that his world is too large. Just more free swimming space and places to forage for food.

I'm not sure I can believe a source water with ammonia of 5.3???

When you think about fish in nature, in most cases, the volume of water is HUGE...especially compared to the typical size of our tiny glass boxes. The only 'issue' I see is that a tiny fish in a big tank, unless it's a large school of fish, would simply disappear - and what's the point of having...

There are many, but check this out too.... https://mjvaquatics.com/videos/ Aquarrum Co-Op Rachel O'leary Pectech The King of DIY LRB Aquatics Father Fish Michaels Fishroom That should get you started!

Wrong. Water is fresh when it's free of all contaminants whether it's from evaporation/condensing or filtered through fine membranes (RO-RO/DI). So setting aside air pollution (e.g. acid rain) rain water is pure and is further filtered through the soil and obtains necessary minerals. Aerating...

Before I set this thread aside I'll just add that in 50+ years of fishkeeping, including breeding, raising, and selling hundreds of fish, I have never had a tank with zero nitrates... and this includes heavily planted tanks, deep sand, denitrification using Seachem Matrix/De*Nitrate (pumice...

I'll just merely add that if one of the two regents (or both) becomes compromised, the test results may easily be consistently inaccurate. Consistency does not mean accuracy. I just can't buy that an overstocked tank with just anubias and java fern can yield zero nitrates after a month with no...

Not to rain on your parade, but I have to question your nitrate test results. Regent #2 of the API freshwater test kit is notorious for separation that requires vigorous shaking and/or rapping on a hard surface to ensure a good mixture that prevents false readings. Anubias and Java Fern are slow...

Although it's parroted a LOT, the statement "There's no such thing as too much filtration" is FALSE. The Dirty Truth about Filters is that they merely aid in water clarity, but do very little for water purity. Detritus trapped in the filter decomposes to pollute the water. Although some fish...

You can add conditioner directly to the tank and refill from water from the tap. Modern chlorine/chloramine neutralizers act immediately. Here are some other tips: https://mjvaquatics.com/partial-water-changes-fast-and-easy/

:hi: Since you're new to the hobby, I hope you find the following useful: https://mjvaquatics.com/newer-hobbyists-primer/

You're entitled to your opinion, but at the end of the day,again, Joey Mullen has 1.38 MILLION subscribers and has done a LOT to promote the hobby in a positive way.

Clearly you're uninformed. Joey Mullen (The King of DIY) has 1.38M loyal subscribers and likely growing. He's been around on Youtube for many years (about 15) and is hardly 'one sadistic tuber'! When he built his gallery, he raised $50k on GoFundMe in less than 48 hours...so he has a lot of...

Baby brine shrimp can be great for fry and are very nutritious, but as @Colin_T points out the adults are time consuming/challenging to grow out and not as nutritious. I'm not particularly a fan as the eggs are not inexpensive and there's little production yield for the effort. I prefer more...

Different species in the same genus can sometimes produce offspring hybrids which are sometimes sterile. It's unlikely that the two you mention are breeding, but perhaps going through 'pre-progammed' motions.

Seachem Matrix and De*Nitrate are just pumice stone (a type of lava rock) with large claims about micro pores supporting anaerobic bacteria that will convert nitrates into nitrogen gas. As I indicated in my article, I experimented with a mix of Matrix/De*Nitrate for a long time but never saw any...

My drilled well is 110 feet deep with 40 feet of casing. As I mentioned, the field across the road is 95 acres. They grow hay now and since they've switched from chemical to manure as fertilizer I believe that my nitrates have decreased. (However, I have read that nitrates in ground water...

We've all been somewhat conditioned to think that our tropical fish must have 76°F - 78°F constant temperature. In reality, water temperatures in nature, even in the tropics can vary quite a bit. Now extremes in temperature can be very bad, but generally speaking, a dip down to what we'd...

Many, many years ago with failing fish in Abbey's 10g tank I came to realize that I had high nitrates...really high nitrates. Old school, this was before I did any testing. Now it began, I thought, because of an undergravel filter that didn't get vacuumed anywhere near enough. Along with...

Commercial Fish Foods these days are really great. In the old days when many reading this were mere tiny weedhoppers most fish foods were made from low quality fish meal (cannery waste) with lots of grain and grain starch. These days, many/most fish foods are made from whole fish meal so it has...

Large scale breeding can produce some of the best...and some of the worst fish sometimes the result of overcrowding and inbreeding. And at times, in all species, there are runts of the litter so the speak. There can also be deformities and freaks of nature. I breed swordtails and often there are...

How big is your tank because unless it's really huge, an Oase Thermo 850 combined with a 600 is way over filtering. The Dirty Truth About Filters is that although they make water clearer, they don't make it any cleaner. Trapped detritus just decomposes and pollutes the water. It's a hobby myth...

I have a pH of 7.6 and do nothing to attempt to alter it.

https://mjvaquatics.com/cycling-a-new-aquarium/

Assuming that a tank is properly cycled - that is there is enough beneficial biology to support fish, then any fish should do just fine AS LONG as they are introduced one or two at a time so the BB can keep pace with the bio-load. Also, when starting a new tank, the new tank itself is a...

My turtles love it as a supplemental food. You might dry it and crush into smaller pieces and mix with quality flake food.

I'm wondering if he'll charge an admission to the new gallery and once it's put together, what his videos will be like since the plan is that the established tanks won't change much. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out. :)

https://www.fishforums.net/threads/regular-partial-water-changes.471488/

Aquariums can be addicting. As Nancy Reagan once said.... "Just say no!" :rofl:

INTERVENTION! It's a great hobby, although I almost hesitate to call fishkeeping a hobby. We have a dog. My daughter has a couple of rabbits and a Ginnie Pig, but they're not hobbies. Anyway, it's really fun at first, but as one tank leads to another, then another, even when you find the most...

Yes. I don't use a conditioner because I have untreated well water (although I keep Seachem Safe on hand in the event of an ammonia spike) however I almost always add a modest amount of plant ferts after each water change. So aside from conditioner to neutralize chlorine/chloramine, modest ferts...

I agree with @kribensis12 & @Colin_T. In the wild, many species of fish often spawn in the spring which is signaled by cooler rains. Some think it's the temperature, but I tend to think it's the influx of larger volumes of fresh water that just happen to be a bit cooler. In any case, a somewhat...

Frankly you don't need or want the API Stress Zyme. A bacteria supplement like the Fritz Zyme 7 can benefit a new startup if you don't have an existing aquarium (although I'd likely recommend Dr. Tim's first), but chemical aquarium 'cleamers' like the API product can be very hard on fish gills...

I think it's relative to the volume of the water change and/or the volume of repetitive water changes in addition to other negative factors (e.g. compounding negatives).

Yes, I discovered very high nitrates in my well water, most likely due to the (well fertilized) 95 acre farmers field across the road. I documented this in My Nitrate Fight where I describe a filter I made/repurposed to pre-filter water using API Nitra-Zorb for water changes (that I still use...

I've seen it parroted over and over...."there's no such thing as too much filtration". But this is WRONG...at least as it applies to mechanical filtration. To a degree, filters merely help with water clarity, not purity (see The Dirty Truth About Filters) as trapped detritus decomposes and...

I believe that the objective of the routine periodic partial water change is to replace as much polluted water with fresh water as is necessary to maintain a high water quality. That being said, the volume and frequency required may vary greatly in different tanks (not even to mention plants and...

Just look at nature....fresh water is CONSTANTLY renewed by rains and snow melt. Consider the creeks, streams, and rivers that flow constantly towards the sea. For the aquarium, the fishkeeper makes the rain with routine periodic partial water changes....and there is rarely too much thing as too...

It's true that many SW fishkeepers tend to do few partial water changes. I have a Nephew with a SW tank with deep sand, live rock, and a refugium and he does very few partial water changes, just top offs. Then too, many SW systems use a protein skimmer and some leverage algae scrubbers. It's a...