"Fantastic Derek" wrote in message
...
I've been to the one in Bracknell. They've got some marine stock there
which they don't have in Henley and they seem to have more staff, but
the guy at Henley's pretty good. I went to one in Iver today (was
roughly in the are on a customer visit) and that one's pretty big. A
few dead fish though.

So you've heard things about fishless cycling? I've only just started
reading this newsgroup. What problems have you heard about?


On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 07:42:27 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"Fantastic Derek" wrote in message
.. .
Looks like everyone comes from a Reading somewhere!

Caversham actaully (although not in Pennsylvania!). Yeah, he gave me a
deal on the filter. Got it all back today and set it up. I'm going to
put some ammonia in it to try this fishless cycle.

On Mon, 22 Aug 2005 00:18:00 +0100, "Gill Passman"
gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote:


"Gill Passman" gillspamattaylorpassmanspam.co.uk wrote in message
. ..

"Fantastic Derek" wrote in message
...
I'm in Reading. I think he will do a swap on the filters so I
might
jsut go for it.

Cheers




Small world :-)

Gill



I hope that he went for it....it has to be said that he has never
given
me a
bad bit of advice yet...and the fish are generally very healthy and
well
cared for - I've never seen a single spot on his Clowns....

Well obviously I'm not in Pensylvania as we shop in the same place -
I'm
guessing Victorian Terrace you are Cemetry Junction, Oxford Road,
somewhere
off Basingstoke Road or Caversham area....known a few Victorian
Terraces
in
Reading in my time....all very solid...

Gill


Snap again - thought you might if the Henley Maidenhead is your closest.

I'm never too sure about this fishless cycle thing having read some of
the
posts on this NG - good luck :-)

Apparently there is another good Maidenhead in Bracknell - not been
myself
but have a friend who has been over there. Got another friend who goes to
the Newbury one. I've been very happy with the Henley one - always
willing
to give good advice.

Gill

Check out Connie's posting "I'm about to give up...." or try a search on
Google on this newsgroup for fishless cycling. I guess it works for a lot of
people and is certainly kinder than risking sacrificial fish.

You said in an earlier post that you already have a tank. Another way of
doing this is to take filter medium and substrate from the existing tank
(plus some water) and you will already have some bacteria. This is how I do
it now we have a severe case of MTS in the house. It's probably best to err
on the cautious though and rather than going on the basis that you have now
created a fully cycled tank just add a very few fish at a time and keep
monitoring allowing the bacteria to increase as per the fish load. Generally
I add the fish and then the filter medium/substrate afterwards so that the
bacteria has something to feed on. I then check the water quality daily to
make sure that there is no ammonia/nitrite spike. I've only come unstuck
with this once which is my current attempt where I had a small nitrite
spike - I think the key is probably to add the fish a bit slower than I did
on this occassion but fortunately the fish coped.

If you really come unstuck on doing this I guess you could ask a fellow
Caversham fish keeper for some mature filter medium.

Gill