Beckett bacteria starter????

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wizzin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2006
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East of Pittsburgh
Ok, so I was at Home Depot yesterday buying stuff, and since it's pond season, they had all their outdoor pond stuff setup. Right there with the liners and pumps and whatnot was a whole section of chemicals. This stuff was all branded as Beckett (makes pumps). There was a huge bottle of pond de-chlor for $5.96!!! I've been paying $11 for the same size bottle! Then there was a big bottle labled as nitrifying bacteria starter! Read the label and it sounded good. It is $24.00 for enough to jump start a 1200 gallon pond!

So I started looking around online. I found this (link below). I'm going to be kicking off the bio filter on my tank soon, and I was looking for a cheaper route than bio-spira. I actually have about 10 gallons of pot scrubbies all primed up. I have a 50 gallon that is being filtered by a 15gal tupperware container overhead trickle filter, and the scrubbies are filled with bacteria. I'm going to use that, but wondered if anyone else has used any of these pond bacteria starters.

I couldn't find anything on the Beckett product, but below is a link to another product.

https://www.shop.aquagardensupplies.com/displayProductDocument.hg?productId=104&categoryId=34
 
At the pond store I used to work at we sold Microbe-Lift (I think it's made by Aquarium Pharm but there are a number of equivalent products). I can't say that I would use it on my tank because it smells terribly of hydrogen sulfide. I don't want sulfur fixing bacteria smelling up my house.
I also don't have any proof that it actually does anything.
Brandon
 
Dr Joe;834897; said:
To start: http://www.888beckett.com/Index.cfm...CommerceCategoryID=3&CommerceSubCategoryID=15

I posted about their de-chlor last year, works great, only thing cheaper is buying the chemical from a water softener company (if they will sell to you).

Remember the Pond kickstart isn't near as fast as bio spira...takes atleast a week to develop, but still beats 6wks. or more.

Dr Joe

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Click to expand...

Hmm. Beckett's website huh? Maybe I shoulda looked there first :screwy: Thanks Dr. Joe... True on the speed. I think I can deal with a week or so... As for the de-chlor, that was like finding a gold coin in change. I'm all over that. Do you have a source to buy from once the Home Depot pond building season is over?

At the pond store I used to work at we sold Microbe-Lift (I think it's made by Aquarium Pharm but there are a number of equivalent products). I can't say that I would use it on my tank because it smells terribly of hydrogen sulfide. I don't want sulfur fixing bacteria smelling up my house.
I also don't have any proof that it actually does anything.
Brandon
Click to expand...

Cool. Thanks. Yeah, the working part is what I'm sorta curious about. I might just bite the bullet and go the bio spira route.
 
There's a pond season? :ROFL: (see my location)

The HD here stocks it year round. Maybe you can order it online in your off season.

Dr Joe

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Dr Joe;835153; said:
There's a pond season? :ROFL: (see my location)

The HD here stocks it year round. Maybe you can order it online in your off season.

Dr Joe

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Click to expand...

LOL. Yeah, I guess I mean for us Yanks that have that thing called: "winter"... We have a pond "off season". I found it online, but it's $9.00 vs. $5.96...
 
85* here since last week and probably won't go back down till late Sept.. Kepping the ponds cool is the concern now :screwy: .

Dr Joe

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Many ponds in MN freeze to the bottom in winter, there definitely is a pond season here. We simply murder our fish in the fall, then buy new ones in the spring. LOL Seriously, the fish come inside in winter, and are kept in tanks or holding ponds, usually in the basement. Problem is, people think of their Koi ponds here as decoration. They put the fish in a tank big enough to hold them in the basement, feed them, and do little else. Last month a guy complained his basement koi were sick. I checked the water and the pH was 5.0, the nitrates were over 100 and the ammonia was above 12 ppm. Asked about water changes the customer replied "Do I need to do that?"

I asked him if he still had live fish. Medical miracle, they still were. He had NO biofiltration, only a canister filter filled with zeolite and carbon, which was obviously used up and he had no idea what biofiltration was or that he needed to change the chem filtration. Many koi keepers in MN are practitioners of death and torture.
 
If we could get cheap/safe shipping, they could vacation their fish here for the winter :headbang2 . WooHoo I'm going to disnee wurld!!!
 
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