Newbie Argues With Lfs About Fishless Cycle

[boost]

i know what he is saying, our local pets at home when i asked them where to get ammonia they didnt have a clue why and what i was going to do with it, luckly the local aquatic new more and pointed me in the right place, pets at home just wanted me to buy the £14 bottle of Cycle/filter start.

Btw warehouse clearance shops are doing ammoian for a quid a bottle now

 

[Tropical_Fish]

Shop 2) When I asked for Ammonia the guy here said "Why do you want to put Ammonia in your tank", when I said I was trying to start a fishless cycle I may as well have said I was trying to breed Ammonia Fairies for the look I got. "No no no" he said, "You don't want to put that in, it's poisonous, you mean this" he then showed me bottles of bacterial tank starters. I then mentioned the Nitrogen cycle and got some more blank looks. I'm afraid I wasn't very polite and laughed at him and thanked him for telling me all I needed to know to ensure I never bought anything fish related from him.

Tbh you sound like a very rude narrow minded person.

You could have A ) explained to him that you are using a new method to start off a tank that you found on the internet, and are convinced that the evidence points to bottled bacteria products being inferior, or B ) simply walked away without being a smartass about it.

To be honest it sounds like you are the rude and narrow minded person,

These people in the LFS's are dealing with live animals - they have a responsibility to know the basics.

We had a similar situation in what is supposed to be the 'best' shop in our local area. The staff member laughed when we mentioned using ammonia and said that it kills fish - I tried explaining how it worked and they continued to laugh and made me out to be an idiot in front of other cutomers. Their customer service is also terrible, they answer the phone infront of customers then make fun of the person at the other end, they even pratted about and put one customer on hold for about 10 minutes whilst they laughed about how they couldnt be bothered to look for what he wanted and how he was such an idiot for asking.

I now never go to that LFS, I now travel 20 minutes to go to two MUCH better stores where the staff know more about fish and aren't so narrow-minded to not listen to new methods such as fishless-cycling.


Well done HappyGeorge - hopefully if enough people go in and act like this - eventually they will get off their lazy backsides and actually research what you had mentioned

 

[Dave Spencer]

On the other hand I did go and buy my filter media and some pipe for my filter from another larger shop earlier in the day and was very impressed, the girl who claimed not to know much about Malawis gave all the right answers, advice which was in line with things I have read on here..........

Bear in mind that there is a fair amount of misinformation around on forums, so we don`t have the right to enter an LFS with a holier than thou attitude. Personally, I have never carried out a fishless cycle.

Dave.

 

[leeroy]

happy george... go to homebase in sittingbourne for your ammonia. got mine there, its in the household cleaning products area up the back and is in a white bottle with blue writing. think its bout £1.50.

what lfs did you visit?? i've been to the majority locally (none on the island though) and yeh most of them seem to just play ignorant about the fishless cycle to try and sell you 'cycling' products and rob you off your dollar. i cannot see how a 'specialist' wouldn't know about it but at the end of the day they are in business to make money i guess and sell more poducts and fish. Its really easy for us to criticise them for not 'informing' people about fishless cycling but most and if not all of us dont rely on selling these products or fish to make a living.

Maidstone aquatics seems to be a good place to visit for quality of fish stock, some of their stock is more expensive but i've yet to see a tank there in poor condition or even a fish in poor condition come to think of it.

 

[HappyGeorge]

happy george... go to homebase in sittingbourne for your ammonia. got mine there, its in the household cleaning products area up the back and is in a white bottle with blue writing. think its bout £1.50.

what lfs did you visit?? i've been to the majority locally (none on the island though) and yeh most of them seem to just play ignorant about the fishless cycle to try and sell you 'cycling' products and rob you off your dollar. i cannot see how a 'specialist' wouldn't know about it but at the end of the day they are in business to make money i guess and sell more poducts and fish. Its really easy for us to criticise them for not 'informing' people about fishless cycling but most and if not all of us dont rely on selling these products or fish to make a living.

Maidstone aquatics seems to be a good place to visit for quality of fish stock, some of their stock is more expensive but i've yet to see a tank there in poor condition or even a fish in poor condition come to think of it.

Thanks Leeroy going there tomorrow, the fish shop in question is the one in Rose St, called Sheppey Aquatics or something similar.

Is Maidstone Aquatics the Notcutts one?

 

[leeroy]

[/quote]

Thanks Leeroy going there tomorrow, the fish shop in question is the one in Rose St, called Sheppey Aquatics or something similar.

Is Maidstone Aquatics the Notcutts one?
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na the notcutts 1 is ark pets, i popped in there today to get a thermometer. their not to badly priced on equipment but im not sure if i's buy fish from there.

heres a link for info on maidstone aquatics.
http/www.tropicalfishfinder.co.uk/shops_detail.asp?id=101

did ya find ammonia??

 

[HappyGeorge]

Didn't get to Homebase today

Thanks for the link know the place you mean popped in once briefly.

Agree regarding Ark have had mixed responses from them, the younger lads are pretty poor and often seen dead fish in the tanks.

 

[NathanS]

Both LFS's that I have been to have known about fishless cycling, they just don't actively promote it (obvious reasons - they are out to make a living, naturally). The guy I have been speaking to a lot said that if he was allowed to reccomend and promote it, he would - I think that realistically we can't expect many LFS's to be actively promoting the method to customers.

 

[Tropical_Fish]

They could use it to their advantage and cash in on it, perhaps find a cheap supplier of white label ammonia and brand it as there own. Make up a kit with a test kit, ammonia, a syringe and a log sheet along with instructions - and sell it as a pack. Offer it as an alternative method to cycling the filter

 

[OohFeeshy]

Yes, but you also have to remember the audience, as it were. Given that the majority of people who go into the shop just want a room decoration and something for the children to look at, they don't really want to be lectured about chemicals and remember all the adding, measuring and testing when their prior knowledge and, probably, other places will tell them ye olde 'let it stand empty for a few days then add fish'. And the shop down the road will sell them whatever they fancy.

 

[Ian H]

They could use it to their advantage and cash in on it, perhaps find a cheap supplier of white label ammonia and brand it as there own. Make up a kit with a test kit, ammonia, a syringe and a log sheet along with instructions - and sell it as a pack. Offer it as an alternative method to cycling the filter

I've been wondering why stores dont do this? seeing as it is the "right" way to do it, makes you learn and understand whats going on and i bet if they sold it for £10 - £20 people would buy it.

If you own a fish store you should at least know how the cycle works, from the sound of it the guy you spoke to had no idea! just thought something magical happened in the water and everything would be ok

 

[yasinullah]

Yes, but you also have to remember the audience, as it were. Given that the majority of people who go into the shop just want a room decoration and something for the children to look at, they don't really want to be lectured about chemicals and remember all the adding, measuring and testing when their prior knowledge and, probably, other places will tell them ye olde 'let it stand empty for a few days then add fish'. And the shop down the road will sell them whatever they fancy.

totally agree with the whole audience thing, considering the number of things that can go "wrong" during a fishless cycle, pH crashes for example, and the fact that its not a by-the-book process. I reckon shops should just sell mature media, and the selling point to the general public could be that quite soon after they could introduce most of their stock.

 

[IceyBlack]

I read a little on this site before going to my local fish store (which is a respected store in the leagues of stores rated in the fish mags) - I spoke to a guy there who said that in the 10 years he had been working in the shop I was the first customer to talk about fishless cycling and (in my opinion) tried to convince me that I was at best misguided and misinformed. When I mentioned about ammonia he told me it couldn't be sourced in this company as the government had banned it since it was used to make bombs. He went on to tell me that his marine biology students didn't have access to that type of thing so I would have no chance. He told me it was normal to put the fish in after 24 hours after preparing the water with the bottle of stuff he was to sell me.
I took a polite raincheck on his suggestions and got a bottle of ammonia from our local hardware store but saw Boots sold it online too. Just shows to remind us that the fish shops are shops ...pet shops...who clearly seel things of use to use but with an entirely different agenda to us.

 

[HappyGeorge]

I read a little on this site before going to my local fish store (which is a respected store in the leagues of stores rated in the fish mags) - I spoke to a guy there who said that in the 10 years he had been working in the shop I was the first customer to talk about fishless cycling and (in my opinion) tried to convince me that I was at best misguided and misinformed. When I mentioned about ammonia he told me it couldn't be sourced in this company as the government had banned it since it was used to make bombs. He went on to tell me that his marine biology students didn't have access to that type of thing so I would have no chance. He told me it was normal to put the fish in after 24 hours after preparing the water with the bottle of stuff he was to sell me.
I took a polite raincheck on his suggestions and got a bottle of ammonia from our local hardware store but saw Boots sold it online too. Just shows to remind us that the fish shops are shops ...pet shops...who clearly seel things of use to use but with an entirely different agenda to us.

That is fabulous, would love to meet him. Particularly funny thought that a few bottles of the stuff from a shops shelves would yield any kind of result in explosives manufacture.

I visited Maidstone Aquatics Leeroy, and was very impressed, ever so clean and friendly owner and staff. they are currently setting up what looks like a very impressive website with live video hosting via you tube so that you can view their current stock by going to each tank and viewing the available fish.

 

[crazychris]

The owner and only person in my LFS doesn't mention fishless cycling to customers. He sells the tank, equipment and fish at the same time. I asked him about fishless cycling and he said "not necessary when you can buy water conditioner as that does it for you" As he says, if he sells the tanks and tells them to come back for the fish in a week they may go elsewhere for them!!!