# Best value for money fish food



## Frenchi (1 Jul 2014)

Hi ppl
I usually buy tetra pro energy for my fish and jmc high protein .. 
What do you guys feed ? 

Thanks 

Mick 


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## Sacha (1 Jul 2014)

I feed new life spectrum small fish formula Thera + with garlic. 

And I feed frozen food 3-4 times a week: daphnia, bloodworm, brine shrimp, cyclops, Rotifers, tubifex. 

I also feed JBL Novotab for the cory, and new era catfish pellets.


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## James O (1 Jul 2014)

Fishscience tropical fish flake & algae treats, tetra prima, jmc catfish pellets and courgette, bell pepper etc, then there's  frozen bloodworm, frozen daphnia, frozen lobster eggs, live daphnia and live bloodworm 

Varied diet = happy healthy fish


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## Maurits (1 Jul 2014)

Dr Bassleer biofish , Hikari and Frozen fish food


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## dw1305 (1 Jul 2014)

Hi all,
Mainly live food and vegetables, but as variety:
"Astax red crumb", "Freeze dried Arctic Copepods"  and Earthworm & Spirulina flakes, all from TA aquaculture  (Tim Addis has moved to Malta, but is still trading) <http://www.ta-aquaculture.com/>.

cheers Darrel


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## James O (1 Jul 2014)

Yeah I'm gonna be hitting TA aquaculture as soon as I'm running low.  So many options for a mixed healthy diet


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## Frenchi (1 Jul 2014)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> Mainly live food and vegetables, but as variety:
> "Astax red crumb", "Freeze dried Arctic Copepods"  and Earthworm & Spirulina flakes, all from TA aquaculture  (Tim Addis has moved to Malta, but is still trading) <http://www.ta-aquaculture.com/>.
> 
> cheers Darrel


Just ordered 4 100g spirl, earthworm, black worm and bloodworm .. I will just mix them all together ... That way it will feed every fish I have  
I must say they look impressive and a very healthy mixture  cheers for that 


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## Brian Murphy (1 Jul 2014)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,
> Mainly live food and vegetables, but as variety:
> "Astax red crumb", "Freeze dried Arctic Copepods"  and Earthworm & Spirulina flakes, all from TA aquaculture  (Tim Addis has moved to Malta, but is still trading) <http://www.ta-aquaculture.com/>.
> 
> cheers Darrel



I heading over to Malta on the 5th August for 10 days (getting married), think I will call in and have a nosey


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## NC10 (1 Jul 2014)

I suppose it depends on fish, but I've made my own beefheart recipe which should last a good 3 months, maybe even more. All in its cost me about £5. Good value in anyone's eyes


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## parotet (2 Jul 2014)

Flakes once a day, frozen larvae/Crustacea mix once a week, fresh vegetables once a week... And lately my son is hunting every mosquito, fruitfly (Drosophila), Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis) and any bug he find, obviously with the aim of dropping them into the tanks. He enjoys it and fish too.
Definitely, like you and me, fish love eating different things.

Jordi


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## Frenchi (2 Jul 2014)

Brian Murphy said:


> I heading over to Malta on the 5th August for 10 days (getting married), think I will call in and have a nosey


Congratulations on the wedding  


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## Edvet (2 Jul 2014)

Standard: frozen mosquitolarvae (red, white and black), frozen artemia, frozen daphnia and algae tablets (hikari. large and small ones). Now and then: live Daphnia and live mosquito larvae, if there are plantlice on the garden i put a stick with those in the tank.
Further i have started live cultures of white, grindal and microworms, Daphnia, Moina and brine shrimp. Asellus went wrong, but will try again.


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## parotet (2 Jul 2014)

Edvet said:


> Standard: frozen mosquitolarvae (red, white and black), frozen artemia, frozen daphnia and algae tablets (hikari. large and small ones). Now and then: live Daphnia and live mosquito larvae, if there are plantlice on the garden i put a stick with those in the tank.
> Further i have started live cultures of white, grindal and microworms, Daphnia, Moina and brine shrimp. Asellus went wrong, but will try again.


I want to live with your fish


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## sciencefiction (2 Jul 2014)

parotet said:


> I want to live with your fish



Lol, if I were a fish I'd still like mine served on a plate  Chasing all that live stuff around the tank, naah..


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## Alan Fluxion (2 Jul 2014)

Edvet said:


> Standard: frozen mosquitolarvae (red, white and black).


\

I tried mosquitolarvae once but my problem is that 80% of the larvae was sucked in by the filter... how do you acomplish the feeding?


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## mlgt (2 Jul 2014)

Turn the filter off during feeding time?


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## dw1305 (2 Jul 2014)

Hi all,





Alan Fluxion said:


> tried mosquitolarvae once but my problem is that 80% of the larvae was sucked in by the filter... how do you acomplish the feeding?


Put a sponge on the filter intake, every filter should have one.





> if there are plantlice on the garden i put a stick with those in the tank


 I still feed my fish any aphids (green-fly) I can find, it used to be "a trick" for feeding sticklebacks, when I was a child.





> Asellus went wrong, but will try again


 Ed I must be able to send them to Netherlands successfully, I usually just post them in some wet moss or similar and they should be good for at least 5 - 6 days. I can find out how much it would cost.

cheers Darrel


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## Sacha (2 Jul 2014)

What kind of sponge can we use to put on the filter intake?


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## Frenchi (2 Jul 2014)

Sacha said:


> What kind of sponge can we use to put on the filter intake?


I use very coarse sponge, just chop a piece off and put it in the cage of your intake .. Make sure it's quite a bit bigger so it's a snug fit  


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## Alan Fluxion (3 Jul 2014)

Seriously? I


dw1305 said:


> Hi all,Put a sponge on the filter intake, every filter should have one


 I have a net, but as soon as they're sucked onto the net the larvae are as good as gone because the fish wont nibble it out.... I guess the best resolution would be turning off the filter... :\


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## dw1305 (3 Jul 2014)

Hi all, 





Alan Fluxion said:


> Seriously?


 Yes, I know they can be unattractive, but the advantages of a pre-filter are that they stop debris, fish food, fry, shrimps etc ending up in the filter. 

The things you really want in the filter are ammonia and oxygen.

If you have a pre-filter sponge that you clean regularly  filter maintenance is reduced.

Have a look here: <http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/which-filter-for-a-60l-breeding-setup.23884/#post-244864>

cheers Darrel


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## sanj (3 Jul 2014)

TA Aquaculture - various foods, good quality and reasonable prices.


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## Alan Fluxion (3 Jul 2014)

dw1305 said:


> Hi all,  Yes, I know they can be unattractive, but the advantages of a pre-filter are that they stop debris, fish food, fry, shrimps etc ending up in the filter.
> 
> The things you really want in the filter are ammonia and oxygen.
> 
> ...


 I'll see what I can do... should the filter be pourus or fine? I have a old internal filter I no longer use, and might be able to fit the sponge from that...

The problem with stopping debris is how to get it out afterwards when you turn off the pump? My intake from the filter is tucked in the left corner ...


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## dw1305 (3 Jul 2014)

H all,


Alan Fluxion said:


> should the filter be pourus or fine?


 I use coarse (PPI10), or medium (PPI20) sponge. Fine sponge (PPI30) needs cleaning every couple of days. 





Alan Fluxion said:


> The problem with stopping debris is how to get it out afterwards when you turn off the pump?


 Syphon it out.

cheers Darrel


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## James O (3 Jul 2014)

dw1305 said:


> the advantages of a pre-filter are that they stop debris, fish food, fry, shrimps etc ending up in the filter....The things you really want in the filter are ammonia and oxygen.
> 
> If you have a pre-filter sponge that you clean regularly  filter maintenance is reduced.



I fitted some open cell foam wrapped around my intake to my 2213.  Filter maintenance has gone from weekly to monthly.  I just turn the filter off pull off the intake end and give it a rinse out once a week.

As for ugly, I just stick it behind some plants/wood in a little open space


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## Alan Fluxion (3 Jul 2014)

James, can you post a pic? You guys say open cell foam and I have no idea what that is... my hamburger language is different than your fish n' chips [DOUBLEPOST=1404388571][/DOUBLEPOST]





dw1305 said:


> H all,
> I use coarse (PPI10), or medium (PPI20) sponge. Fine sponge (PPI30) needs cleaning every couple of days.


ah, that's more like it/... now i know what's needed 


> Syphon it out.


I'll try it... this weekend I was planning to play around with the filter, so I'll see what I can do  will take some tries I think


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## Sacha (4 Jul 2014)

Do you think you could post a link as to what sponge you mean? I don't know what PPI10 means.


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## Alan Fluxion (4 Jul 2014)

the higher the number the more fine the sponge... http://media.teichpoint.de/Artikelbilder/Shop800px/10127000-30.jpg


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## Sacha (4 Jul 2014)

Ah right. So those ones in the photo are specifically designed to wrap around the intake pipe of the filter. Where can you buy them?


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## James O (4 Jul 2014)

Not specially designed.......Any old PPI 10 foam will do.  I bought a 6ft long, 1ft wide and 3 inch deep block off ebay for £8 

Black disappears best I find


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## Sacha (4 Jul 2014)

I would want black for sure. 

But the one in the picture looks like it is shaped to fit around a pipe?


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## NC10 (4 Jul 2014)

They're just sheets laid on top of each other.


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## Sacha (4 Jul 2014)

What the hell. The photo has changed now. That's a different image to the one I saw before.


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## NC10 (4 Jul 2014)

lol Zoomed out:






Is it something like this you mean?


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## Sacha (4 Jul 2014)

Edit:

Yes, that's exactly what I mean. Where can you buy that cylinder- shaped sponge?


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## NC10 (4 Jul 2014)

The cylindrical one is from All Pond Solutions, but I think it may be too big, sure you could find a smaller one though. The square one is 4x4 so the hole may be ok? It doesn't tell you the ID though.

http://www.discountleisureproducts.co.uk/pond-supplies-c1/4-x4-x-x12-foam-filter-sponge-block-p310

Any local half decent pond/aquarium shop should have things like this in.


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## Sacha (4 Jul 2014)

That's great, thanks. I'm going to buy some of this PPI-10 foam. Let's just hope I'm not mis- sold it


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## Fern (4 Jul 2014)

Frenchi said:


> I use very coarse sponge, just chop a piece off and put it in the cage of your intake


That's what I do too, using coarse black sponge, works just fine.

As for food, I feed Hikari algae wafers/sinking wafers/micro pellets, spirulina, Nutrafin Max, Tetra Prima, froz bloodworm/cyclops/daphnia and in summer, mosquito larvae and bloodworm from a tub i have ouside. Oh and vinegar eels I have in jars. Also courgettes and sweet peppers.
I guess the best value foods are the ones that you culture yourself


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## NC10 (4 Jul 2014)

Sacha said:


> That's great, thanks. I'm going to buy some of this PPI-10 foam. Let's just hope I'm not mis- sold it



lol


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## James O (4 Jul 2014)

You'll get longer service intervals if you wrap the intake with foam, rather than inserting it in the cage.  Larger prefilter = longer cleaning intervals.

 Hiding it away is another matter.........


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## Mortis (5 Jul 2014)

+1 for TA Aquaculture. And also Repashy Gel Foods


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## Frenchi (5 Jul 2014)

Fast delivery too.. Well pleased  





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## sciencefiction (6 Jul 2014)

I use coarse prefilter sponges too, but man...is it hard to get all those tiny shrimplets out of it when cleaning it. They live literally inside of it.  If I put less coarser sponge then the filter flow slows down way too fast for my liking.
But yes, they really help reduce the amount of cleaning needed of the filters themselves.

My next food shopping is definitely going to be ta-aquaculture as well. Nice stuff.


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## Alan Fluxion (7 Jul 2014)

When you guys were saying bloodworms, I was thinking live bloodworms.. but you guys are using sticks :O


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## James O (7 Jul 2014)

I use Live and frozen


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## dw1305 (7 Jul 2014)

Hi all,





Alan Fluxion said:


> When you guys were saying bloodworms, I was thinking live bloodworms.. but you guys are using sticks :O





James O said:


> I use Live and frozen


 I only use "grow your own" live ones. I'd be wary of both commercially produced live blood-worm and frozen. 

cheers Darrel


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## James O (7 Jul 2014)

Oh no Darrel, now the clouds of fish health paranoia are gathering.

Please enlighten/scare me


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## dw1305 (7 Jul 2014)

Hi all,





James O said:


> Oh no Darrel, now the clouds of fish health paranoia are gathering.
> Please enlighten/scare me


 It is anecdotal for me, because I've never fed frozen or commercially produced blood worms, but we've had a bit of a discussion about this on both the "BCA forum" & "Apistogramma forum" where some of the participants are very experienced fish keepers and breeders. <http://www.britishcichlid.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=57&t=4352> & <http://www.apistogramma.com/forum/threads/i-killed-my-apistogramma.7600/>.

cheers Darrel


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## NatureBoy (7 Jul 2014)

I'm completely paranoid about any live food, even stuff I've cultured in back garden. Last summer I introduced an internal parasite through either daphnia (starter was a bag from MA)/ mosquito larvae / earthworm or blood worm. It took out diamond tetras and neon tetras one at a time. Since then I've gone completely homemade using this recipe:

http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/home-made-fish-food.28643/#post-297991

the results are awesome, I've been feeding it exclusively for nearly a year and the fish go crazy for it everyday. It works out ridiculously cheap too!


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## NC10 (7 Jul 2014)

Nice recipe Natureboy. I recently made my own recipe too and like you say, the fish go mad for it, not like with regular commercial food. It's a feeding frenzy! Silly cheap as well. Like you it's cost me about a fiver for an easy 4 months worth. It was mainly meant just for my discus but they all love it. I recommend anyone giving homemade a go anyway.

My recipe, if you (or anyone for that matter lol) wants to give it a go. I was going to add paprika, but went in the cupboard thinking I'd got some and hadn't.

350g Beef Heart
150g Prawns
32g Spinach
20g Flakes
10g Oatmeal
2 Cloves of garlic

I trimmed all the beef heart of sinew, fat and all the nasty looking bits and passed it through a grinder once. Finely chopped the prawns, garlic, oatmeal and spinach, then added it to the beef heart along with the flakes. I then passed it through the grinder once more. 

I put it into ice cube trays thinking one cube would be one days supply, this ended up being far too much. I ended up chopping the frozen cubes into quarters. I just put it in a little pot to defrost and serve using a little piece of a bamboo skewer.


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## Sacha (7 Jul 2014)

So I stuffed a small cutting of coarse sponge into my filter inlet cage yesterday. Today the filter has a lot more air in it than usual. If I shake it around, loads of air bubbles come through the spray bar. Is this caused by adding the pre- filter onto the intake?


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## Sacha (7 Jul 2014)

NC10, I think your fish have a healthier diet than I do.


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## Frenchi (7 Jul 2014)

Sacha said:


> So I stuffed a small cutting of coarse sponge into my filter inlet cage yesterday. Today the filter has a lot more air in it than usual. If I shake it around, loads of air bubbles come through the spray bar. Is this caused by adding the pre- filter onto the intake?


You didn't compress it too much did you?


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## Sacha (7 Jul 2014)

No, it fits snugly but not forced.


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## James O (7 Jul 2014)

Sacha said:


> So I stuffed a small cutting of coarse sponge into my filter inlet cage yesterday. Today the filter has a lot more air in it than usual. If I shake it around, loads of air bubbles come through the spray bar. Is this caused by adding the pre- filter onto the intake?



It's cavitation due to lack of flow.  Anything that reduces flow like dirty pipes can do the same thing.  Try wrapping foam around the intake cage - it should be less restrictive


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## Sacha (7 Jul 2014)

I will probably just remove the sponge entirely. I am going away on holiday for a week in about a week. I can't risk the filter stopping running if the sponge clogs up. All the fish would die if that happened.


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## James O (7 Jul 2014)

I understand the concern.  A bigger pre filter should actually buy you more time due to increased surface area.  Try it when you're back from ya hols


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## Sacha (7 Jul 2014)

I will do that, thanks for the advice


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## parotet (8 Jul 2014)

NatureBoy said:


> I'm completely paranoid about any live food, even stuff I've cultured in back garden. Last summer I introduced an internal parasite through either daphnia (starter was a bag from MA)/ mosquito larvae / earthworm or blood worm. It took out diamond tetras and neon tetras one at a time. Since then I've gone completely homemade using this recipe:
> 
> http://www.ukaps.org/forum/threads/home-made-fish-food.28643/#post-297991
> 
> the results are awesome, I've been feeding it exclusively for nearly a year and the fish go crazy for it everyday. It works out ridiculously cheap too!


When I tried this I found it left in the tank too many little pieces of food ( it was not frozen, jus the fresh jelly). I added the vegetables I had, frozen live food, standard fish food, etc. Next time I will dehydrate it, this way fish will probably will finish the pellet before it gets broken into tiny pieces. Have you tried it?

Jordi


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## NatureBoy (8 Jul 2014)

Hi

haven't needed to, everything gets eaten. did you blend your mix in a food processor?


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## parotet (8 Jul 2014)

Yes, I use the food processor. I think the point is that the jelly is too weak and gets desintegrated once it is introduced in the water. I use agar-agar instead of comercial powder jelly... maybe I just have to put more agar-agar to the recipe.

Today I have tried another recipe and I have dehydrated the jelly... it works but what I get is a kind of dry pellet that shrimps love. Fish seem to ignore it but this is probably because pellets are too large and sink, or maybe because it is nearly a veggie pellet (spinach, courguette, beans, a bit of flakes, two blood worms little ice cubes) and probably my fish (white minnows and rummy nose) prefer animals' proteins... not sure

Jordi


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## NC10 (8 Jul 2014)

When you two use a processor, does it not just turn everything into a mush?


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## James O (8 Jul 2014)

Blender = liquid mush 
Processor = sliced, diced, grated and many other tricks 

Mrs O has trained me in the way of kitchen appliances, got me to buy them but wont let me use them.......

I'll take off my pinafore now


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## parotet (8 Jul 2014)

Yep, use the processor and count 1, 2, 3... At least shrimp enjoy finding little pieces of different things


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## NatureBoy (23 Jul 2014)

dw1305 said:


> The things you really want in the filter are ammonia and oxygen


Hi, Liking more and more the concept of keeping the filter purely working on biological, limiting input to ammonia and oxygen, in keeping with this wonder what your thoughts are on positioning the filter intake tube towards the top of the tank to prevent sucking up detritus / more oxygen?


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## dw1305 (23 Jul 2014)

Hi all,





NatureBoy said:


> Hi, Liking more and more the concept of keeping the filter purely working on biological, limiting input to ammonia and oxygen, in keeping with this wonder what your thoughts are on positioning the filter intake tube towards the top of the tank to prevent sucking up detritus / more oxygen?


 I think it is a good idea, that is partially why wet and dry sumps with a weir, or surface intake, work so well, they are sending the surface layer of fully oxygenated water down to the biological filtration media.

I'm not too worried where I put the external filter intake, mainly because I have a PPI10 or PPI20 sponge on the intake and I always have lots of plants, so I can hide even quite a big sponge. What I do in larger tanks, where I have any internal filter or power-head (again with a sponge on the intake) as well as an external, is aim the flow from the internal filter at the external filters intake sponge. If it has a venturi on it even better, because air bubbles will adhere to the intake sponge.

I had quite a few years when I didn't keep fish, so when I came back to fish keeping in early noughties there was a lot of new kit. We'd been doing waste water work in the lab. and following this I was absolutely amazed that people were using their, now fashionable, external filters as syphons.

All the scientific interest was in oxygen and BOD, and systems were designed to separate solids out of the waste flow as quickly as possible, and then ensure that the liquid waste remained in constant turbulent motion to increase atmospheric oxygen diffusion and CO2 exchange. In situations where this didn't supply enough O2, systems were developed to inject oxygen into the waste (in much the same way that they use the oxygen barge on the Thames).

Against this, and at the same time, the aquarium filter manufacturers were stuffing their filters full of chemical and mechanical filtration media, and then saying having areas in the filter that were de-oxygenated was a good idea because it allowed the anaerobic breakdown of NO3. The first time I read this I really didn't believe it, and I had to read it several times before it eventually sank in, it was just so bizarre.  

Once I started talking to L. number keepers (a lot of whom were much better fish keepers than I'll ever be) it quickly became apparent to me that the unexpected "symptom-less" fish deaths (usually large fish, often in the summer when there was thundery weather and all other fish in the tank absolutely fine) that they experienced were likely to be as a result of oxygen depletion, and that was why I wrote: <"*Aeration and dissolved oxygen in the aquarium*">.

cheers Darrel


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## NatureBoy (24 Jul 2014)

really useful thanks, I've positioned intake near the top


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## parotet (27 Jul 2014)

My fish will be happy tonight... I found them this morning



Chironomid larvae if I am not wrong

jordi


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## BigTom (27 Jul 2014)

Best value for money at the moment is just leaving the window open, I'm getting a constant supply of fresh mosquito larvae laid straight into the tank.


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## Edvet (28 Jul 2014)

BigTom said:


> Best value for money at the moment is just leaving the window open


 Somehow the missus doesn't agree strangely enough...................


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## sciencefiction (28 Aug 2014)

I ordered fish food from TA aquaculture 3 weeks ago and haven't received it yet. Is that normal?


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## sciencefiction (10 Sep 2014)

After a month I finally received my order from TA-Aquaculture this morning. The seller said they sent a second package as the first "seems" lost but I hadn't yet received it so I asked for a time frame last night via e-mail.  In his response he was implying the fault is mine saying that something is not on, in other words calling me either a thief or a liar. Well, not pleased at all with the service, but the fish had a nice breakfast today at least.  I had to open a paypal dispute and


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