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Looking to buy established filter media from established UKAPS members

S

SolarPear

Member
Joined
29 Jul 2018
Messages
49
Location
United Kingdom
I'm not sure at a price point, I guess the seller can determine that. However, I'm only willing to purchase from long standing members for obvious reasons.

Thanks.
 
I run 2 tanks established for years.

I seeded a 100 litre barrel pond for which I made filter system out of 3 layers of sponge media and lava rock. I literally used a single small piece of ceramic media nested in the lava rock and at no stage did the barrel pond show signs of cycling. I tested for ammonia and nitrite for weeks.

I can understand why you’d go this route as it took me around 6 weeks to get a tank cycled from scratch in the past.

I’d be concerned about sending out seeded media through the post. If conditions aren’t kept optimal, you’d likely have lots of the beneficial bacteria die in transit.

Why not approach your LFS? You’d only need a single bio ball or even a small rock from inside any tank.

If you’re still adamant about a supply from here, I can happily oblige.

Cheers


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I am quite sure Clive said something like: rip any well established plant from your garden and rinse the roots in a bucket. There are all the good bacteria you need in there and in good numbers. Let it settle and pour in your fresh tank.
 
Where you at? There is loads of local Facebook groups, sure somebody will give you some sponge from their media or swap out for a new one - probably for free
 
And it goes faster on its own devices as you might think or believe.. The whole concept is more of an urban myth from the old days commercialy kept alive with useless bacterial products from the shelf. Creating a make believe with the average customers propperty of beeing rather impatient, that it is beter, faster and or even necesary. Hence people looking for cheaper alternatives as you do with established filter media from somebody else to speed up a tanks cycling process. But actualy nobody was ever able to proof that any of this realy works faster.. The tank cycling concept also is rather an old mythical obscure term from past era. Mater a fact scientific studies revealed they also weren't able to proof, what ever product or method they tried to test, there was non conclusive enough to say it works faster or beter.

Bottom line its a wild goose chase with only 2 benefits.. 1: Your peace of mind, believing you are doing something beneficial. 2: It doesnt hurt. ;)
 
zozo said:
And it goes faster on its own devices as you might think or believe.. The whole concept is more of an urban myth from the old days commercialy kept alive with useless bacterial products from the shelf. Creating a make believe with the average customers propperty of beeing rather impatient, that it is beter, faster and or even necesary. Hence people looking for cheaper alternatives as you do with established filter media from somebody else to speed up a tanks cycling process. But actualy nobody was ever able to proof that any of this realy works faster.. The tank cycling concept also is rather an old mythical obscure term from past era. Mater a fact scientific studies revealed they also weren't able to proof, what ever product or method they tried to test, there was non conclusive enough to say it works faster or beter.

Bottom line its a wild goose chase with only 2 benefits.. 1: Your peace of mind, believing you are doing something beneficial. 2: It doesnt hurt. ;)
Click to expand...

I disagree.

I'm not looking for a commercial product as I don't see how the beneficial bacteria survive being sat on a shop or warehouse shelf until bought without a food source or oxygen. My understanding is that bacs we're interested in can survive a week without oxygen and a food source before you start to see a die off. That said in the past I offered and sent a fellow hobbyist a cut circular sponge from my ehiem filter and a handful of mechanical media in a bottle. After struggling to get a nitrite reading or a reduction in ammonia from 4ppm and starting over with the media I sent him he started to convert Ammonia to nitrite and nitrie to nitrate within

I recognize that not everyone is willing to give away filter media for free which is why I'm prepared to compensate them. I've never asked for a handout and so even if offered for free I'd prefer to pay. Also I don't think it's piece of mind as you can measure the effects of adding established media via a liquid test kit like api.
 
jagillham said:
Where you at? There is loads of local Facebook groups, sure somebody will give you some sponge from their media or swap out for a new one - probably for free
Click to expand...

I'm on the outskirts of London. I've never used a facebook group for this hobby so wouldn't really know where to start.

I could use my lfs but the amount of dead fish I've seen in them leads me to believe it's not worth it.
 
SolarPear said:
I disagree.
Click to expand...

I bet you do.. Enjoy the benefits, no pun intended. Didn't post a comment to start a discussion, but more to help, maybe.. :thumbup: You can do a forum search on it, it's discussed many times over and lots of valid data to find on it.. Not just opinions.. :)
 
SolarPear said:
I'm on the outskirts of London. I've never used a facebook group for this hobby so wouldn't really know where to start.

I could use my lfs but the amount of dead fish I've seen in them leads me to believe it's not worth it.
Click to expand...

Just search for wherever in London you might be fish. There is several groups that cover Medway for example where I am, sure will be one close for you.
 
I agree with Zozo all the way :thumbup: just start your filter up with a bucket/bin with some plant roots in and will soon kick start the bacteria off. Did something similar with my filter when I started my tank whilst doing a DSM. Had livestock in tank in a week.

But if you have your heart set on some biomedia I have about 4Kg of Biohome Ulimate not being used and can swap some out on next filter cleaning which will be next weekend.
 
Edvet said:
I am quite sure Clive said something like: rip any well established plant from your garden and rinse the roots in a bucket. There are all the good bacteria you need in there and in good numbers. Let it settle and pour in your fresh tank.
Click to expand...

I've never heard of this method before. Unfortunately my garden is paved but I do have two large (ish) potted plants. Is there some type of detailed how to?
 
Just go for a walk and pull up some weeds keep the roots damp till you get back. Stick in bucket full of water primed first OFC run filter for few hours and your media colinisation has massive kick start easy quick cheap and gets weeds up on walking path;)
 
Got a published paper that shows these (soil bacteria etc) are the same bacteria etc ... the papers I remember reading indicated they weren’t ;)
- that’s a main problem with the early “Cycle” bacteria starters, bacteria etc were isolated from non-aquaria & assumed to be the same
(of course some of the “big” names in aquarium products see no reason to change anything ... I guess they reckon science is for scientists not home hobbyists :confused: :p )

As to maintaining stable bacteria populations under “storage” conditions, this has been done successfully in microbiology etc labs for decades ... requirements for specific bacteria may take some R&D to sort out, but most are nicely resilient :cool:
 
How quickly do youwant to cycle the tank?

I usually go for the 'organic' method with urine .

You can cycle your filter by setting it up in a bucket of water . takes about 6 weeks though . Practically it takes about 3 months to stabilise.
 
rebel said:
How quickly do youwant to cycle the tank?

I usually go for the 'organic' method with urine .

You can cycle your filter by setting it up in a bucket of water . takes about 6 weeks though . Practically it takes about 3 months to stabilise.
Click to expand...
Used it myself whilst doing DSM to get filter media ready ;)

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