Some Questions

When I can persuade my husband to drive me somewhere that sells them  I don't drive.

hi all, starting to run out of seachem prime water conditioner and its very expensive now like £100 for a 500ml when it only used to be £20 or so few years back ( yes my bottle has lasted that long )

so i am looking for alternatives can i have some advice on this please http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tetra-Aqua-Safe-Water-Conditioner/dp/B002SQER4Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396282681&sr=8-1&keywords=seachem+prime


also when i was looking at things last night for my tanks health i saw this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tetra-Balance-Water-Change-Conditioner/dp/B0034YOE74/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1396282985&sr=8-8&keywords=tetra+aquasafe


it says you can do 1 water change every 6 months which i doubt i would wanna only do 1 in 6 months but maybe once every month or so?  i also want my water to be sparkling clear which is anyway but just to give it that extra cleaness whats your advice on that?


also i once got advised to use this http://www.amazon.co.uk/100ml-interpet-liquisil-general-tonic/dp/B002I6OFR8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1396283140&sr=8-1&keywords=interpet++tonic

once by a person in MA and was thinking of using it again as its supposed to keep your tank healthy and less likely to have any disease or things in the water to harm fish


i also want something to help the filter aswell as when i clean it i want extra help for me and the tank to keep it in even more top condition i just want the best for my fish so wanna stock up on some things that would help

any advice would be great or even other recommended things instead of the ones i have posted thanks again

what is or what do i need for mechanical filtration mate? and what or where can i get filter floss?

is the tetra aqua safe easy to measure for my buckets? or how much do you put in your buckets seeing as you use it?

yes i do a water change every week 3 out 3 back in if i miss it like half way through the week i take 5 out and 5 in

can you recommend me some plant food to mate?


also is it ok to start using the tetra aqua straight away when i get it even though it will have seachem prime in it because thats all i have ever used

Seachem Prime detoxifies ammonia and nitrite but the effect is only temporary. A lot of other dechlorinators also detoxify ammonia - it will say on the bottle or in the description on-line - but Prime is the only one that claims to detoxify nitrite. The thing is, they don't say how it does that and they don't publish what's in Prime so no-one knows if it really does work.
You can swap over any time. The ingredient that removes chlorine is the same one in all dechlorinators, and some people even just buy the actual chemical and make their own dechlorinator.

I use API tap water conditioner as I have chlorine in my tapwater not chloramine. The dose is 1 drop in 3.8 litres. My bucket holds 7.5 litres of water so I add 2 drops per bucket (can't lift anything heavier).

I know that tetra easy balance says you only need to do water changes every six months but I would still do weekly ones. Water changes do more than remove nitrate. Fish and plants excrete other things besides ammonia and both fish and plants use up trace minerals in the water so water changes remove all the other things the fish make and top up the minerals.

You can buy rolls of filter wool, also called filter floss, at most fish shops especially the ones that sell things for ponds. It's a bit like pillow stuffing only in flat sheets. You just cut it up to the right shape to fit in the filter and put it on top of the media last in the water flow. It catches particles smaller than sponges etc can.

thanks sue which one shall i get then do you think? the one you use or the tetra one? or if the tetra one is less money i may get that i dunno, so i put the wool in the same pockets as the white cylinders ? and what are these particles exactly? what do they do?

Then go somewhere else.

i think i will get the one you use sue as its much cheaper

Not allowing sales on EBay or Amazon sounds like retail price maintenance - prohibited under UKJ law since 1964, also prohibited under EU law which takes precedence.
Water conditioner is the only thing I add to my tanks. Having bought used tanks off EBay, I've also been given part-used bottles of all sorts of stuff, for none of which can I see a real need. If I had soft water, maybe I would have to add something, but otherwise I reckon the less stuff you put in your tank the better, and the cheaper.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

sue, i am unsure what to buy as i read somewhere both the api and the tetra safe dont get rid of ammonia, i always thought i needed that atleast in a water dechlor, what am i best doing?

In America they mainly use chloramine in tapwater to kill bugs. This is a chlorine and an ammonia joined together. All dechlorinators split chloramine back to chlorine and ammonia then remove the chlorine but they leave the ammonia part still in the water. So they add another ingredient to the dechlorinator which detoxifies ammonia for up to 24 hours. During this 24 hours the filter bacteria eat the ammonia so that by the time the detoxification wears off, all the ammonia has gone. Since a lot of dechlorinators are made in the US, they contain the detoxifier for the American market.
In the UK we mainly have chlorine in tapwater not chloramine, though some water companies are starting to use it. With chlorine, the dechlorinator removes that but there is no ammonia to detoxify so if your water company uses chlorine you don't need that second ingredient. My water company uses chlorine which is why I use a dechlorinator that doesn't detoxify ammonia as I don't need it.
A lot of dechlorinators also contain aloe vera, and the one I use doesn't - I don't want aloe vera in my tanks, just a personal preference.

So if you have chlorine in your tapwater you can use dechlorinators that do contain the ammonia detoxifier or you can use one that doesn't. If you have chloramine, you need one that does detoxify ammonia. Your water company's website might say what they use or you could always ring/email them to find out.




You often get very fine particles in your tank which make the water look a bit misty. These are so small that they go right through a sponge. Filter wool is fine enough to catch most of these tiny particles. This kind of thing. You cut it up to the size that fits your filter then lay a piece on top of the media in the last basket with an external. It isn't very thick so it doesn't take much room. Filter wool is not a very good home for bacteria, it clogs quickly if you have messy fish and it goes into holes and shapeless after a couple of washes. Because it doesn't hold many bacteria it is safe to change it frequently.