Best For Polishing Water

[Sprucegruve]

Filter floss is a must. Take a 40% off coupon to michaels and buy the polyfil bag it's 8$ normally so itll run you about 5$. I usually keep at least 3" of semi-packed polyfil in my eheim 2217 at all times right before the output hose. Every month or so (less if I did a lot of fussing about that month) I take the bottom half and throw it away cause it's the most dirty and then add in new stuff for the top half. Massive change for barely no money.

this seems cost efective

[jvision]

IME, when NLS comes out and it's still bright red (same color as food), I'm feeding them too much.

[Ron]

IME, when NLS comes out and it's still bright red (same color as food), I'm feeding them too much.

I don't think this food is ideal for the Sterlets as I don't think they can digest any plant material but it's the only pellet food close to their protein and fat requirements other than Hikari Sturgeon, which I am currently trying to get my wholesaler to order in for me.

I feed them just enough to keep their bellies full and not sunken in, I don't want to go back to Mysis shrimp as I've read that it can be difficult to switch them on to pellets if fed live or frozen too long.

Ron

[Sprucegruve]

this is not always correct but,for the most part it works for me.

healthy fish and clean tanks.

i usually feed the same amount of food as the size of their eye.

if the fish has a small body and very small eyes then i dont feed them much at all(galaxy rasbora for example)

but lets say they have a small body and large eyes i feed slightly more(such as a pea puffer for example)

i had the same experience as jason in the past,if your over feeding the fish they do poop out whatever color dye that is in the food.

like i said in the last post,it sound like you have enough filtration in your tank.

if you want clearer water maybe you could do a 10% daily water change a couple hours after feeding time.

[Jayba]

Basic sterlet food is different benthic organisms, mostly insect larvae of Plecoptera and Heleidae, small mollusks and other invertebrates. During the spawning period of other fish species, significant part of sterlet diet are eggs of those fish.

I would try smaller and bigger sized pellets and see if there is difference in mess. Smaller more frequent feedings may be key. I have used Hakari carnivore small wafers and earthworm sticks with carnivore fish.

I wonder if the fish beg not because they are hungry, but eating is something to do? Try using a measuring spoon to see just how much you are putting in. It may be surprising to see how much food is going in.

[ckmullin]

I'll put in my hat to this ring.

I will recommend Purigen. Been using for a while and it kicks butt. What I had done is to go to the local fabic shop...grab a yard of Organza (a tight weeve fabric that will hold the small spheres of Purigen) and made my own pockets to hold the filter material. You can make any size and shape this way. I had choosen Organza because it's a very tight weeve and since it's poly based...the bleach will not react with it...such as a cotton. Make sure to use poly based thread aswell...hate for that work to be done when a cotton thread is used. I guess it helped since my wife sews.

Another thing that I recommend to people for a quick fix on water clarity...don't waste expensive floss or the like. Let's say if your throwing in new substrate or vacuumed and the water is quite a mess...add a sheet of paper towel...yes you heard right...paper towel to the filter at the top. Change it every hour or so and that will get rid of most of the solid. Works like a charm and have been doing this for years. I would recommend though don't use paper towels that have ink prints etc...just the plain jane bounty etc. will work great !! Someone might respond saying NOOOOOO...your adding some werid voodoo to your water column. To that I'd say no. No ammonia, nitrate or any voodoo is added to the water column.

Hope this had helped someone.

ck

Edited February 28, 2012 by ckmullin