[fredpb]

After six weeks of cloudy water, and losing some fish, I got a UV sterilizer, in 18 hours water was crystal clear!

Will see how the fish do now.

All that crud about "cycles" and "water changes" is nice I suppose. But The UV did the job the rest could not.
"Good bacteria will do the job". NOPE.
The fact that the UV worked, showed that something was in the water. I think it was a bacteria bloom.

 

[BWG]

After six weeks of cloudy water, and losing some fish, I got a UV sterilizer, in 18 hours water was crystal clear!

Will see how the fish do now.

All that crud about "cycles" and "water changes" is nice I suppose. But The UV did the job the rest could not.
"Good bacteria will do the job". NOPE.
The fact that the UV worked, showed that something was in the water. I think it was a bacteria bloom.

Is this a troll attempt? If not I think I might need to write a long post about that "crud".

 

[fredpb]

Is this a troll attempt? If not I think I might need to write a long post about that "crud".

I raised fish decades ago, two different times. Never had the problems I am having now, and "cycling" was not the "in" thing.

Much is written about this already, and it is simple enough.

I am just frustrated at all the "crud" store "experts" say, and everything posted.

Since the tank cleared up quickly, it was something "cycling" was not going to cure.

Sorry if I impinged on anyone's expertise or general knowledge. LOL

 

[BWG]

I raised fish decades ago, two different times. Never had the problems I am having now, and "cycling" was not the "in" thing.

Much is written about this already, and it is simple enough.

I am just frustrated at all the "crud" store "experts" say, and everything posted.

Since the tank cleared up quickly, it was something "cycling" was not going to cure.

Sorry if I impinged on anyone's expertise or general knowledge. LOL

Are you seriously questioning whether or not the nitrogen cycle occurs? I can only go back to the 80s for my fish keeping experience, but that's decades so let's compare. There was cycling back then! Fish in cycling is still cycling.

Bottom line is, you need to do some research. Sorry, but it's true. Run some tests and you can watch a tank cycle yourself. Do you have a test kit? If your fish were dying from ammonia or nitrite poisoning then all the UV did was kill the bacteria bloom. You did nothing to solve the underlying problem.

I really have no clue if a UV sterilizer is merited on a freshwater tank. I've been fine without. The issue I'm having is that you think cycling of any sort is myth.

Sorry just my expertise and general knowledge. LOL

 

[jaysee]

Welcome to the forum

I don't think you understand the nature of the problem you had. Glad your water cleared up, but water clarity has nothing to do with water quality.

 

[Tolak]

Cycling is hard!

 

[fredpb]

Are you seriously questioning whether or not the nitrogen cycle occurs? I can only go back to the 80s for my fish keeping experience, but that's decades so let's compare. There was cycling back then! Fish in cycling is still cycling.

Bottom line is, you need to do some research. Sorry, but it's true. Run some tests and you can watch a tank cycle yourself. Do you have a test kit? If your fish were dying from ammonia or nitrite poisoning then all the UV did was kill the bacteria bloom. You did nothing to solve the underlying problem.

I really have no clue if a UV sterilizer is merited on a freshwater tank. I've been fine without. The issue I'm having is that you think cycling of any sort is myth.

Sorry just my expertise and general knowledge. LOL

Cycling is not a myth. Seems like it is a "catch all" for every problem there is. I had my tank cycled in two weeks. Then I got "new" information from forums, etc. The magic water tests. They are ok. But again, not a "catch all". Did some "recommended" stuff for test results.....hell broke loose.
Now I had to recover from all those suggestions, expertise, and general knowledge, LOL.
Or my fish did.

Fortunately I keep on going. Discovered aquarium UV sterilzers, and that worked...so far. I don't know the long term effects of this, but will find out. I keep mine on all the time now. I was thinking of putting it on some sort of timer to just "periodically maintain" nasty stuff levels in my small aquarium.

The UV is fixing something. But I don't really know the exact cause of the problems it fixed. But so far the results are impressive. No fish losses. Fish seem happier, if that is possible.

I suppose a UV can be fix fix for some bad owner habits, but I have to fine tune myself.

My aquarium knowledge is out of date a bit. But I am learning again. Got my first BS in two years, so I can learn pretty good. I love to keep and observer creatures. I am limited, being disabled. But I have a dog, five birds two guinea pigs, and now fish.

I have found that on this topic that written documents online by experts in the field, and the bibliographies of their articles are far more helpful then forums now.

 

[BWG]

Cycling is not a myth. Seems like it is a "catch all" for every problem there is. I had my tank cycled in two weeks. Then I got "new" information from forums, etc. The magic water tests. They are ok. But again, not a "catch all". Did some "recommended" stuff for test results.....hell broke loose.
Now I had to recover from all those suggestions, expertise, and general knowledge, LOL.
Or my fish did.

Fortunately I keep on going. Discovered aquarium UV sterilzers, and that worked...so far. I don't know the long term effects of this, but will find out. I keep mine on all the time now. I was thinking of putting it on some sort of timer to just "periodically maintain" nasty stuff levels in my small aquarium.

The UV is fixing something. But I don't really know the exact cause of the problems it fixed. But so far the results are impressive. No fish losses. Fish seem happier, if that is possible.

I suppose a UV can be fix fix for some bad owner habits, but I have to fine tune myself.

My aquarium knowledge is out of date a bit. But I am learning again. Got my first BS in two years, so I can learn pretty good. I love to keep and observer creatures. I am limited, being disabled. But I have a dog, five birds two guinea pigs, and now fish.

I have found that on this topic that written documents online by experts in the field, and the bibliographies of their articles are far more helpful then forums now.

The first part loses me as I have no clue what happened, what advice, etc. I will say that without any used media or perhaps bottled bacteria that a 2 week cycle is a bit unlikely. I can't say more than that though as again I don't know what happened.

Here's the thing about forums...anyone can post. Whoever feels like it can come and give advice. Sometimes the advice is good, some times it is
truly horrible. This part goes to everyone, but you should never just take it for the word of God because someone said. If you don't know for sure about the advice then make it the start of your research. You do see the irony of saying forums can be less than helpful on a forum right?

 

[jaysee]

Now I had to recover from all those suggestions, expertise, and general knowledge, LOL.
Or my fish did.

Fortunately I keep on going. Discovered aquarium UV sterilzers, and that worked...so far. I don't know the long term effects of this, but will find out. I keep mine on all the time now. I was thinking of putting it on some sort of timer to just "periodically maintain" nasty stuff levels in my small aquarium.

The UV is fixing something. But I don't really know the exact cause of the problems it fixed. But so far the results are impressive. No fish losses. Fish seem happier, if that is possible.

I suppose a UV can be fix fix for some bad owner habits, but I have to fine tune myself.

I have found that on this topic that written documents online by experts in the field, and the bibliographies of their articles are far more helpful then forums now.

One of the pitfalls people new to the hobby can fall into is taking advice from PEOPLE. What I mean by that, is you can have 10 different people telling you things, and so you incorporate various parts of the different peoples advice and form your plan that way. NOT saying that that is what you did, but it happens a lot. There are many roads that lead to the same end in this hobby. The best thing someone new to the hobby can do is pick and follow one persons advice. Pick someone that seems to understand your situation and seems knowledgeable about the topic. Through discussion, those people will stand out. The problem with taking advice a la carte is that it won't necessarily all blend together like you think it will. People do this ALLLLLLLLL the time with regards to disease treatment, and it usually ends up a disaster for them.

I run UV filters on my tanks - I run them 24/7. There is no detriment to doing this, except for shelling out $$ on new bulbs.

It sounds like the UV cleared a bacterial bloom in your tank. Exposure to the bulb kills the organisms that are too small to be filtered out with media.

I don't think a UV is a fix for any bad habits. It can be a fix for bad decisions, like setting up the tank where it gets a lot of natural sunlight which can lead to green water. I suppose there may be bad habits on the plant side of things - that's something I know nothing about.

Bibliographies aren't going to sit here and answer your questions, or help you search for solutions to your problems. But to each their own ;-)

 

[jaysee]

information + understanding = knowledge

Information is only good if you can correctly apply it to situations at hand, and so many people find it helpful to engage in dialog because without proper perspective, information can be dangerous. And as they say, experience is the best teacher. It's wonderful if you can just read a paper written by an expert and innately understand it. If that's the case, I have to wonder what you are doing here... But most people can't. All the technical jargon is great, but it can make people forget how easy it is to keep an aquarium.

 

[Tolak]

All the technical jargon is great, but it can make people forget how easy it is to keep an aquarium.

I agree with this. UV seems a bit overkill for from what I can see is the setup of a 5 gallon tank. You'll find just as much disagreement among the experts in this field as you will among hobbyists if you look long enough. You can overthink it to death, or just have some non-expert send you some mature media for the price of postage & save your money for something of more use than UV. If the expert advice you're reading didn't mention cloning your reading the wrong stuff, I set up 5's this way without a thought. No muss no fuss, no testing, no blooms, none of that. 5 gallon fry tanks are the smallest I run, cake job setting them up, cycled tank is 5 minutes away. No reason yours shouldn't be either, crack open a box, rip open a bag, toss the media in your filter & it's a done deal.

UV does have its place, usually in an aquarium with more sensitive species especially if you're working on breeding. Some commercial hatcheries will use them, as will wholesalers who get in fish from numerous & often somewhat unknown locations as far as disease control is concerned. For a startup 5 gallon & getting your toes wet in aquatics it's like putting a hood scoop on your stock Honda Civic; fun stuff but doesn't make it run any different.

 

[fredpb]

Yeah. People are people. Some are desperate for answers, some are desperate to give answers.

But I am a bit compulsive and obsessive about anything I take on. Especially about finding answers.

I know something "bloomed". It could have been algae. I am looking for proper low lighting now. I also cut down on time on my lamp timer.

I thought what could have changed since my first fishkeeping in the sixties. Mot obvious now is the WATER supply. More pollution, more and different water supply treatments, and then my favorite culprit now....fertilizers and phosphates in our water supply. This would effect someone with OLD knowledge and experience, not the people familiar with recent water.

I did find some articles about dealing with free algae in an aquarium and how to deal with it. I don't have the types of algea that stick to stuff. Two fixes recommended, among others, are daphia... and UV.

When I put in my UV unit I also put in a "biobag" over my filter inlet. Good thing. It clogged fast and kept whatever was removed out of my main filter media. Now I am working on a new filter maintenance
routine for my Aquaclear 20. I am going to put a Fluval prefilter sponge on the intake, and cover that with the biobag (which is white), that way I can keep an eye on the filter intake by just looking into the tank.

I have been reading up on culturing live daphnia. I do remember the details in my ancient brain about raising brine shrimp, and will try that for live food.

I talk to a friend about the fish, and h says "they are justt fish". I hate that type of phrase. They are living things in my care, and I will do all I can to keep them healthy.