When starting up, products you bought but don't use

[Country joe]

I purchased Easy life Easy Carbo,liquid carbon fertiliser, CO2 in a bottle, and Aqua Care Bio Boost, I think I used them a couple of times then stopped, are these products worth using, are they beneficial to your aquarium which I have live plants.

 

[MattW]

For me it's medicine. I bought eSHa 2000 for my betta, when it had its tumour/cyst a few years back. I only used it twice and never used it again. I've been quite fortunate to not have encountered Ich, dropsy, flukes, worms etc. Of course, I've had fish die since then but from what I can tell it was either from physical injuries, developing fry affected by TB, overeating and old age.

My first instances of using CO2 were the ones in the bottle, it did ok in my aquarium. But I went the DIY route and managed to have a month's supply for around £4-6. Plants will always benefit from CO2 IME. I'm not sure about the other products you've listed however.

 

[Uberhoust]

Charcoal. I have a bag of charcoal that I have had for more than 20 years that follows me around, don't use it anymore. Various liquid fertilizers, I find the fish provide enough fertilizer for my plants so I no longer fertilize them, with the exception of root tabs.

 

[GaryE]

Have filtration media that came with various filters I immediately modified. I had a bottle of water clarifier that came with a kit, but in time, the lettering on it faded.

Sometimes I think some aquarium stores try to sell us things people would need to regularly renew if they didn't meet other fishkeepers and learn how useless some products are.

 

[Fishkeeper123]

I purchased Easy life Easy Carbo,liquid carbon fertiliser, CO2 in a bottle, and Aqua Care Bio Boost, I think I used them a couple of times then stopped, are these products worth using, are they beneficial to your aquarium which I have live plants.

I have used the aqua care bio boost and found it absolutely useless and didn’t help or speed up my tank cycle, then I used the api quick start which really helped the cycle of my tank and helped my filter get going and began to start lowering nitrites. I would class the aqua care bio boost as something the people at the fish store think you need but it doesn’t help or make an impact.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

It's the modern way to do things: There's a gadget and/or chemical for everything. I find more and more that the answer isn't a gadget or a bottle; it's setting things up properly and letting nature do with nature does.

That said, I have a rather impressive collection of powerheads, tubing, and pumps. I really like powerheads and pumps.

 

[Magnum Man]

I have 4 big totes in my shed... I should have an aquarium based rummage sale, one of these summers

 

[gwand]

Charcoal and a bottle of API Stress Coat. I never used either but can’t seem to getting around to tossing both.

 

[Fishfunn]

Definitely, I dont use the different types of liquid fertilizers I bought for the aquarium. It was wasted money.

 

[Back in the fold]

Charcoal and a bottle of API Stress Coat. I never used either but can’t seem to getting around to tossing both.

That API Stress Coat with the aloe vera in it isn’t good for your fish . Gunks up their gills .

 

[MaloK]

I have a panoply of medications to treat nearly all the common stuff...
That I bought in hope that I would never use them. Good part of them are still untouched

And for the snake oil, I got caught by more than one nitrate reducers that did nothing... Even recently.. I tried again and it failed.

When starting up and not knowing much... I also bought the Stress Coat and the Waste Control stuff... And a number of alleged bacteria starters that where closer to placebo than anything else. Waste Control did a pretty good job clearing my kitchen sink's drain.

But today I was really surprised how some bacteria starters where really effective and rendered even a fish in cycle going wild to a non stressing experience.