RE: NANFA-- Re: nanfa V1 #1449

Crail, Todd (tcrail_at_northshores.com)
Thu, 14 Nov 2002 00:07:35 -0500

"My hipocracy knows no bounds...." :)

I usually put the water into my wet prairie gardens which are contained with a tarps to optomize moisture. I figure I already paid for the fertilizer within, why bother wasting it and some water. Sometimes, a patch of the turf will look bad, and since I'm completely against using commercial fertilizers on my lawn, I dump the water there. I'm not in a flood plain or anything like that (actually on top of a clay/sand dune heh)... That's what I tell myself. When it's yucky outside, well, that's when I get all fidgety and selfrighteously say a thousand times over "Well good thing you don't use antibiotics." and down the WC it goes. ;)

I have, however, used antibiotics in the last year. I brought home a fish that had some nasty guy worms. After arguing with Bruce Hansen that there had to be some better way than to nuke my biological etc etc and what if I don't do it right etc etc etc, he convinced me I should proceed. Fortunately, we'd had a discussion about how to do it conscientiously... I quarantined the fish (which was a lost cause and he met mr. alkaseltzer) fed him drained off brine soaked in metronidazole. After his passing, one of the beasties decided to crawl out the anus of a Melantonea herberaxelrodi and flip me the bird. It was show time then. Twice a day feedings, soaked in metronidiazole. That was that... I put 3 carbon pads in the Eheim, ran that for a week, then put the water in the prairies. So you can see that I'm not totally against use. It's the way it's on the shelves that I don't like, and the amount of education the companies profiting give to the user that really gets my goa
t. For example, the box I purchased, Aquatronics Hex-a-Mit says:

- Open capsule and introduce powder directly into tank. Use 1 capsule to each 10 NET gallons of aquarium water. Treat every other dayfor 5 days (3 treatments suggested), Repeat full treatment in 3 days if necessary.

What does this cure?
- Parasitic Protozoans <name the *kingdom* they taxonomically belong in, I might consider letting you use it>
- Hexamita <gotta find those tore out pages lol>
- Discus and Angel disease <um which one? your parameters go south and then you have a cottonball instead of a german blue>
- Unexplained Death <my personal favorite... "i don't know, so i'll just pour this product into my tank like the directions say">
- Hole in the Head, Weight loss due to not eating <hey! where's the directions to use a nitrate kit first so you can see you just needed to change the water and also, get some real food for those animals!>
- And then a list of ectoparasites that are great indicators of where the manifestation of stress is at for an animal. To me, finding ich or crypto doesn't mean "oh man get out the heavy artilary!" It means, get your test kits, evaluate and then go get your bucket and hose, lazyarse.

So by now it should be painfully obvious why I don't care for the availability of chemicals, with the directions provided for them, to anyone who wants them. Maybe it's not tho. Heehee. Travis, where the heck are you in all of this!?!? ;) And Bob, how are the crappies? :)

In the future tho, I'm have a 29 gallon set up for new arrivals. A stable system that is always getting fed. Then I can observe the animals for a month or so and make the best decisions so that chemicals may never be necessary again in tank... And I only have to do ro water dips with whatever chems, or feed in a more direct system that can be sterilized after use.

Okay, I promised myself only 3 paragraphs and my diahrreal fingers did it again. I'd also like to go on about the gut changes I went thru when I first got the shop... But we'll save that for another day. The Birthday Girl might waken and realize someone isn't there who was there, and that could be ugly ;)

Todd
-----Original Message-----
From: Irate Mormon
Sent: Wed 11/13/2002 8:31 PM
To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
Cc:
Subject: Re: NANFA-- Re: nanfa V1 #1449


I was afraid of the answer :-) You might be doing something really
responsible, like UV-ing it or something, and then I would feel dumb.

----- Original Message -----
From: Crail, Todd <tcrail_at_northshores.com>
To: <nanfa_at_aquaria.net>
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2002 7:13 PM
Subject: RE: NANFA-- Re: nanfa V1 #1449


> And here the whole time I was waiting for you to ask what I did with my
water changes, Martin :)

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