let's compile the ultimate list of aquarium essentials.

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darwinvsjesus

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 5, 2010
130
1
0
Tonawanda, NY
i'm a cichlid keeper. they are messy. like, landfill messy. and so i've been pondering ways to keep my tanks in ship-shape. it got me to thinking....

how does everyone feel about API products? what do you guys like/dislike? how about we talk about:

1. general products like water conditioner, prepared food, frozen food, medications to have on hand, etc.
2. filtration - which does everyone use? post experiences, good and bad, for the filters used.
3. best media combinations for said filters.
4. which brands seem to make good stuff, which don't (kent, seachem, api, etc)
anything else we can come up with.


basically, i'd like to really get a good discussion going about what we've all been using to keep our fishes healthy, what we've liked, what we've hated, what's essential, what's stupid. i don't want to hear stuff like 'eheim is the best and you suck if you disagree' or whatever. just a nice colloquial about what we use and how we use it, etc. maybe we'll all learn something.

personally, i like rena filters, aqueon lights (keeping it simple, sorry if it's spelled wrong) lately i've been using weco Dechlor, but i was using prime. i like seachem, but prime seems to be clouding my water. i'm seeding ceramic rings so i can replace my bio-chem stars. i can't think of much else at the moment, but hopefully we can get this going and talk about this sort of stuff.

i'm also quite interested in the api line of products. some seem sort of useless, but others seem like a little unnecessary. i'm still figuring out what i like and i've been doing this for 17 years!
 
1. General products:
Prime water conditioner - haven't found anything that rivals this.

Ed's Almost Natural Tropical Fish Food: This stuff is *really* good (and affordable for the quality you get) I guarantee its good for your fish, no crap ingredients (although some mystery ingredients) but I am living on a really tight budget so i didn't order any other than a sample i got from a contest on another site. http://www.almostnaturaltropicalfishfood.com/
Human consumption grade foods are used, NOT byproducts.

Other Foods: omega one cichlid pellets, omega one super color flakes, omega one super veggie kelp flakes, omega one blood worms. My fish are really brightly colored and i've been feeding them all these things in addition to Ed's blood worms.


2. Filtration:
HOB experiences:
Marineland - Penguin biowheel filters have gotten loud on me and the wheels stop turning entirely and ran dry. Flow was fine, wheel became unbalanced. The papery stuff tore.
Hagen Aquaclear - great filter, primes a little less easily as penguin but on the upshoot no wheel to quit turning. Quieter than penguin but less surface agitation.
Cannister experiences:
Rena XP4 - very clear water with stock foam pads and polishing pad. Durable hoses that come with it, though they are clear and they do grow bacteria colonies in them. DOESN'T prime well, gets air stuck in it and grinds the impeller even if you followed the directions... isn't self priming. It is Quiet when you get it going though.

Fluval FX5 - very quiet, excellent flow, hose that comes with it seems less durable than the rena XP4 hoses. They are opaque, god knows what is growing in them. Primes perfectly every time. Aquastop valves throw water all over when you unhook them from top of cannister. Have to use a towel to remove them. Lame.

3. BioFilter Media:
Microbe lift ceramic rings
http://www.microbeliftusa.com/prod390.html seems great. large size rings that come in bags. (i took them out of bags) I've tried other media like biomax and eheim substrat pro it's just too expensive.
3b. mechanical filtering - i go to a place called Bayside Quilting and buy 100% polyester quilt batting by the yard to use as my mechanical media. Sometimes i find strings wrapped around my impellers but my water looks really clear.

4. Companies
Seachem - make good stuff. I only ever use the prime though. I feel like a lot of the water additives and filtration products these companies make to improve water quality on our test kits, can't actually substitute for large, frequent water changes. So the only product I stand behind is prime.

Marineland products - seem kinda not as great... (heaters and HOB both have failed on me) but marineland's customer service is SUPER they stand behind their products even though i find them to not be that great of products. Heater recall which is very inconvenient since i have to keep using the heaters, don't have a local store that carries big enough heaters of another brand. Loud, less customizeable HOB filters (in my experience) than Hagen.

Hagen - haven't had any of their stuff fail on me that wasn't my fault

aqueon - you can get a decent glass heater from fred meyer / kroger in a pinch
 
Cool idea for a thread.

1. general products like water conditioner, prepared food, frozen food, medications to have on hand, etc.

I always use prime as a water conditioner no questions asked

I tend to lean towards omega one and hikari products when it comes to fish food, also use some san fransisco bay brand frozen foods

As far as medication I really don't carry a whole lot on hand... I should probably get on that, I pretty much keep API aquarium salt and melafix on hand, other than that I don't have much. Really need to fix that..


2. filtration - which does everyone use? post experiences, good and bad, for the filters used.

I use Aquaclear hobs, i've had pretty good experiences though I have noticed a couple times that if sand gets to the impeller the motor will overheat and sometimes stop the filter, which could have been disastrous if i didn't have multiple filters running. I run 2 AC110s on my 75 and HAD 2 AC50s on my 45, but one of their motors just completely up and died on me. Haven't replaced it yet because a new motor costs more than a new filter does after shipping..

I also run a small Marineland bio-wheel on a 10-gallon which has worked well so far, and a fluval 303 on my 45 gallon that has worked really really well (my first canister)

3. best media combinations for said filters.

I tend to use 1 sponge for the aquaclears and double up on the ceramics, but when i get my xp3 for the 75 gallon I will be using 2 sponges to 1 ceramic pack as the canister will be full of ceramics.

4. which brands seem to make good stuff, which don't (kent, seachem, api, etc)
anything else we can come up with.

I tend to trust Seachem on just about everything, API to me is 2nd best when it comes to chemicals but still a good solution. I really don't like tetras products very much and top fin products are pretty much garbage.




-- I'd like to suggest adding a #5 to this list - heaters

personally I favor Fluval's new E-series heater but I do own a few marineland models (not from the batch that explodes)
 
Prime - Generally well supported by everyone on this forum. Works well, no complaints, and Seachem has reliable products.

Penguin HOBs: I have two 350s and one 330. The 330 is an old model I got from a tank on craigslist. I believe it's been discontinued for over a decade, but it is running in my bedroom tank and the impeller is very quiet. The two 350s are much nosier, but I did manage to squeeze 16 pot scrubbies into one of them along with the two biowheels(no filter cartridges).

Heaters: I've had a 3 y/o hagen in-line heater fail on me. To be fair, my tank is located directly above a real heater(heats my room) and it was during the winter, so maybe heat from the radiator messed it up.

Marineland stealth - Failed on me. This was before incidents about crappy stealths and the recall happened.

Old marineland(visitherm?) made of glass - Still works. Keeps tank temp 3 or 4 degrees above temp, but it is always stable. This came with my penguin 330...sort of surprising how the old stuff actually works :P
 
General Products:
Zip Drops: super concentrated dechlorinator (drop a gallon), cheap. I'd use prime but my LFS only has the 2 liters and wants 65$ for them, I get 16oz of Zip Drops for 7$.
Omega One Veggie Wafers: only wafer I can get locally that has not Fish Meal as the lead ingredient. Also, cheap.
Wardley Shrimp Pellets: I hate them for the mess and the poor ingredients, but I have a big can of them, so I use them, fish don't hate them.
Hikari bio-pure frozen: Fish love them. I just dislike the blister packs, I keep on beaking the foils I don't intend to when removing the cubes I intend to use, giving me the choice between overfeeding and freezer burn. Not cheap.
I have not needed any meds lately, I always have kosher salt and epsom salt around for cooking and soaking.
Filters:
Aqua-Tech HOBs: Eh, they came with my cheap Wal-Mart set-ups. Not great, but I have three running and have not had one break. The filter pads are meh, you think they could put a smidge more carbon in them... So, also running sponge filters on everything.
Heaters:
Those cheap heaters stuck on 78f that come with the cheap Wal-Mart set ups: got three of them, one broke, one that came for a 29g keeps my 5g at 76F most days. The other I got on hand just in case.
Tetra Whisper heater: No problems yet, it holds a constant temp even though my house sure does not.
 
Amquel + and Seachem Prime are used interchangeably for me, once you get toward the bottom of the Amquel it smells horrible (big bottle).

Filter - I was running an Emperor 400 on my 29g, but couldn't get the water as polished as I wanted, so switched to an AC110 and it was night and day. Love the filter, and have had zero issues with it.

Media - I stick with the standard Sponge, Carbon, Bio routine on my AC110, but am considering finding some way to incorporate Pothos plant into it, or another HOB to suck up nitrates (unless my plants begin to have more of an effect).

Lighting - AquaticLife 30" T5HO 48w fw fixture (love it, makes the tank look great and can grow my plants!)

Heater - I have a pre-failure Marineland Stealth heater, and it's been doing a great job. It's not one with a light on it, but I may still consider changing it out at some point. Keeps my tank (Rams and Cardinals etc) at a constant 84*, occasionally dipping to 81* if I leave my window open and it's freezing out (bedroom tank in college apartment).

My Rams and Cardinals (and albino bn pleco???) love New Life Spectrum Cichlid pellets.
 
I use Amquel water conditioner, which seems to work the same as prime.

I have a Marineland penguin 350, and I agree, it's noisy. It does still flow very strongly.

I use mag-drive & Eheim pumps.
The mag-drive is loud, but flows strongly.
The Eheim is silent, but the flow is well below what the pump is rated for, even though I clean the pre-filter often.

I use an older Marineland heater, and two Aqueon heaters. They work great.

I feed San Francisco Bay brand silver-sides to my gar.
Hikari sinking algae wafers & Tetra-color granules to my Geo/Loach tank.
Hikari sinking carnivore wafers to my TSN.
I bought some Massivore, but I haven't tried it yet.
 
I've been using API test kits and water conditioners for the past ten years at least.Nearly everyone on here seem to sing the praises of Prime,haven't tried it yet but will get around to it.........My power filters have mainly been Marineland products,namely the Emperors,both sizes.They can be a PIA trying to restart after shutting off and I've had to replace a few burned out impellers on some of my filters but I'm sold on the bio wheel hype so I put up with them.
 
Aquasafe for high levels of heavy metals in the water. I had issues when I first moved unti I started using this stuff again.

penguins are OK, Emperors are great. the bio-wheels are noisy but I have yet to find a HOB filter w/ comparable flow rates that can handle the bio-capacity of these.
 
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