Zero water change kit

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fishynewbie12

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 8, 2008
23
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Boston
Hey guys,

I just wanted to let you guy know I got around to setting up the zero water change filtration system. http://hiq-usa.com/55_Gallon_Eco_Magic_Filtration_System.asp
it was a little controversial in this thread http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1957349#post1957349 so i started a new one. But here's a quick shot I took with my phone.
I love it, it's working great!



Oh and by the way, other people in the office took the liberty to buy fish for it so i didn't even get to pick them. :cry:
 
Test your ammonia, nitrites and nitrates in a week and then try to send it back. They'll say you have to let it cycle so keep it for another couple weeks. It'll cycle up to the point of converting everything to nitrates and you'll STILL have to do waterchanges and then try to ship it back. They'll say its past warranty or you need live plants aswell.

I'm sorry buy you just got suckered into buying an expensive undergravel filter that was technology back in the 60-70s.

Hope you don't take my post the wrong way, but I'm just telling you whats going to happen.
 
Ill test it out and post it on here, I actually ordered over the phone because I wanted to speak with the guy from hiq-usa.com. His name was Michael, he seemed very nice and he straight up told me that if it doesn't work he'll give me my money back so we'll see.
 
Ahh.. so the whole thing relies on you changing the "clean magic" packs every other week. They supposedly remove nitrates.
I see a few problems though.
1) cost of replacing the packs
2) the part about also using live plants to remove nitrates tells me the packs probably don't work all that well.
3) what about hormones released by the fish? they will build up in the water without water changes.
4) why, for the love of god, would you hook these to an undergravel filter instead of a HOB?
 
atleast make a drip system and force water out if u wanna prevent waterchanges. and get a under gravel JET system too. not a bubble relyant system.

nice try, but if ur gonna be lazy either do better on filtration or pick another hobby
 
haha yeah, it does make the hobby a bit drab. i like knowing the work i put into maintaining
 
CichlidAddict;2020044; said:
Ahh.. so the whole thing relies on you changing the "clean magic" packs every other week. They supposedly remove nitrates.
I see a few problems though.
1) cost of replacing the packs
2) the part about also using live plants to remove nitrates tells me the packs probably don't work all that well.
3) what about hormones released by the fish? they will build up in the water without water changes.
4) why, for the love of god, would you hook these to an under gravel filter instead of a HOB?
Click to expand...


For me the cost of the cartridges isn't that bad considering the convenience it gives me in the office. I didn't put live plants in my tank so we'll see how those work, and the kit comes with a HOB filter. It's actually the only difference between
http://hiq-usa.com/55_Gallon_Eco_Magic_Filtration_System.asp and http://hiq-usa.com/zero_water_exhange_aquarium_filtration_kit.asp

If your having problems with your fishes hormones I suggest you look into a company called mirena.

Look guys I don't appreciate you calling me lazy. I don't mind testing my water and posting it on here but I work two jobs both which are affected negatively by todays economies and by no means do I have the time to test for my fishes hormone secretions..

I think as a beginner I'm not biased to try a new product but it seems like you guys are just trying to shoot me down no matter what...

I'll keep you posted on the conditions of my fish.
 
fishynewbie12;2020243; said:
For me the cost of the cartridges isn't that bad considering the convenience it gives me in the office. I didn't put live plants in my tank so we'll see how those work, and the kit comes with a HOB filter. It's actually the only difference between
http://hiq-usa.com/55_Gallon_Eco_Magic_Filtration_System.asp and http://hiq-usa.com/zero_water_exhange_aquarium_filtration_kit.asp

If your having problems with your fishes hormones I suggest you look into a company called mirena.

Look guys I don't appreciate you calling me lazy. I don't mind testing my water and posting it on here but I work two jobs both which are affected negatively by todays economies and by no means do I have the time to test for my fishes hormone secretions..

I think as a beginner I'm not biased to try a new product but it seems like you guys are just trying to shoot me down no matter what...

I'll keep you posted on the conditions of my fish.
Click to expand...

We aren't trying to shoot you down. When people enter the hobby they can have 1 of 2 experiences. They can have a decent time with it and decide to keep more fish, or they can have a horrible time with it and decide fishkeeping sucks.

We are just trying to get you started right so you will enjoy keeping your fish, and starting off banking on a filtration system like this isn't really good. You'll probably have some fish die-off that could be avoided and at the very best this system simply uses nitrate absorbing resins that aren't all that effective and ARE NOT the solution to water changes. They stall water changes for a couple days AT BEST, and usually they just help keep water SLIGHTLY better between water changes.

I'm always searching for ways to lessen waterchanges and maintenance in the hobby and that means trying new things, but nothing on that system you bought is new to the hobby and none of them are going to lessen what your water change schedule should be. Its simply a reverse under gravel filter (al la 1960), a power filter (1970 or so) and probably nitrate fixing resins (1990's). All old technology that hasn't solved anything in the past.

If this type of system completely cleaned the water so that no waterchanges were necessary wouldn't you think they'd use similar technology in waste water treatment? Well i can tell you they 100% DO NOT use anything like this. They use technology that actually works, and it is slowly working its way into the hobby even though its generally only for the larger scale tanks (such as JohnPTC's) or is completely diy and not quite perfected yet (chomper's ozone system for example).
 
you have a product that removes nitrate by absorption. check out the chemical filtration packs as they mention removing nitrates and you have to replace these packs every so often. juwel has had nitrate removing sponges out for years so this tech is not new. it also mentions about how plants are encouraged to grow in the gravel and how these help remove nitrates, again nothing new.

sorry to say it mate but you got stung $99.99 for an undergravel filtration system that could have cost you around $15, probably less, time you bought the pump, airstone, piping and undergravel plates.
you got stitched up bad. it happens to the best of us some times. the tank doesnt look that big so a bucket full every 3 days or so will do as a water change and it will take you the whole of 5 mins on your lunch.
questions to ask yourself - if these products are so great why arent they in every lfs like external and internal filters?
if this system works so great then why arent other companies, possibly the big guns like eheim and fluval, getting in on the act?
 
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