Smoking doesn't make sense to begin with. It's an addiction and reasoning just doesn't work. Personally, I'm allergic to smoke so I have pretty strong feelings on the subject but responsible and respectful smokers don't bother me much. I can't spend time with them but I respect their choices. It's unfortunate that there are so few respectful smokers out there compared to disrespectful.
I've only met J-P once but I think he's one of the respectful smokers so at least he isn't poisoning those around him too much.
Common scene isn't always common practice.
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Re: Common scene isn't always common practice.
It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another. We consider those, when the cerebral structure/intellectual faculties most developed, as highest. A bee doubtless would when the instincts were.
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
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J-P
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 5626
- Joined: Tue Oct 13, 2009 12:21 am
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- Location (country): Japan
- Location: Sasebo, Nagasaki, Japan
Re: Common scene isn't always common practice.
This thread wasn't intended to be a focus on my smoking habits.
if you follow me, you avoid stepping in the crap that I just did...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZR55G ... pqlgec1A2Q
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZR55G ... pqlgec1A2Q
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Pufferpunk
- Queen Admin
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T niphobles - Location (country): USA, Greenville, SC
- Location: Greenville, SC
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Re: Common scene isn't always common practice.
I know--can't help it. 
You are getting sleepy... you only hear the sound of my voice... you must do water changes... water changes... water changes... water changes...
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
"The solution to pollution is dilution!"
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RTR
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- Location (country): East Coast, USA
Re: Common scene isn't always common practice.
An addiction is an addiction, and as such is beyond or outside of reason. I have my own- such as tanks and plants (but no fragrant ones indoors or for that matter near the house or upwind outdoors).
Where's the fish? - Neptune
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zookey
- Figure 8 Puffer
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- Joined: Tue Dec 21, 2010 2:04 pm
- Location (country): United States
Re: Common scene isn't always common practice.
I want to thank you for posting the link to this article. I have known that stuff in the air will get trapped in my tank water. Did NOT know some of the chemical names to look out for and found that interesting. I also wonder now about powdered carpet fresheners. No I don't put it on the carpet to the point that walking across the room you look like "Pig-Pen" from Charlie Brown but what happens when you vacuum it up and the fine particles get into the air? Dangerous to the fish?? Potentially? I don't know, but makes me think twice.
Also the article gives me a hard copy of someone else's opinions to use as reinforcement to keep the kids and husband from using my fish equipment for anything other than my tanks.
That smoke residue is also helpful to keep my brother-in-law out of my house. With the cigarettes I mean.
EDIT: Those of you with the carbon in the filters.... Where is your intake on the filter? Mine are near the bottom of the tank.... so before the toxic stuff can be cleared from the water I would think it would need to travel all the way down to the filter intake before running through the filter and getting trapped in the carbon. That to me seems like a long time for the fish to be exposed to it. Easier to keep it out of the water in the first place. Just my opinion and it may be wrong, just my opinion.
Also the article gives me a hard copy of someone else's opinions to use as reinforcement to keep the kids and husband from using my fish equipment for anything other than my tanks.
That smoke residue is also helpful to keep my brother-in-law out of my house. With the cigarettes I mean.
EDIT: Those of you with the carbon in the filters.... Where is your intake on the filter? Mine are near the bottom of the tank.... so before the toxic stuff can be cleared from the water I would think it would need to travel all the way down to the filter intake before running through the filter and getting trapped in the carbon. That to me seems like a long time for the fish to be exposed to it. Easier to keep it out of the water in the first place. Just my opinion and it may be wrong, just my opinion.
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RTR
- Mentor
- Posts: 6155
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 4:39 pm
- Gender: Male
- Location (country): East Coast, USA
Re: Common scene isn't always common practice.
In most situations carbon filtration intake is trivial -at least for me. My tanks all have some degree of current, usually fine-tuned and involving 3-5+ different current sources. My tanks have very uniform water mixing, with varied flow in different areas and absolutely zero dead spots. Current is one of my neuroses.
All that said, I only rarely use carbon filtration. Another of my neuroses is water changes - I am a nut on the topic and more than a bit compulsive. water is cheaper than carbon and broader-spectrum. When i remove and replace 50% of the water, I am removing 50% of all undesirable dissolved and suspended materials, along with replacing 50% of any desired materials which have been use up in normal tank operation. No woris about is the carbom saturaed or not, or i it capable of capturing the undesirables, I just replace 50% routinely. If a tank seems off or not quite right, I will likely do that every other day for week. Yes, I go through a lot of water, but it is till less expensive than using carbon chronically or routinely. If your tank mixes at all well (which is required for decent filtration in any case), where the intakes are is trivial. Mechanical filter intakes are likely to be most effective with low-in-the-column intakes. Biofiltration intakes are likely to be best mid-level or higher in the water column, but with good prefiltration (mechanical and/or chemical) the intake level is trivial. Ditto for chemical filtration - the intake level is trivial IF there is good mechanical filtration before the chemical filter.
As for protecting the tank from air-borne particulates, glass tops are key. Remove them and rinse off routinely, drying before replacing them. That is a small part of their normal weekly water partials. This is an area where the quality of your HVAC system's mechanical/electrostatic/chemical filtration does impact your tanks. Due to my own sensitivities, my HVAC systems do a lot of filtration work which is overall beneficial to my too-many tanks.
HTH
All that said, I only rarely use carbon filtration. Another of my neuroses is water changes - I am a nut on the topic and more than a bit compulsive. water is cheaper than carbon and broader-spectrum. When i remove and replace 50% of the water, I am removing 50% of all undesirable dissolved and suspended materials, along with replacing 50% of any desired materials which have been use up in normal tank operation. No woris about is the carbom saturaed or not, or i it capable of capturing the undesirables, I just replace 50% routinely. If a tank seems off or not quite right, I will likely do that every other day for week. Yes, I go through a lot of water, but it is till less expensive than using carbon chronically or routinely. If your tank mixes at all well (which is required for decent filtration in any case), where the intakes are is trivial. Mechanical filter intakes are likely to be most effective with low-in-the-column intakes. Biofiltration intakes are likely to be best mid-level or higher in the water column, but with good prefiltration (mechanical and/or chemical) the intake level is trivial. Ditto for chemical filtration - the intake level is trivial IF there is good mechanical filtration before the chemical filter.
As for protecting the tank from air-borne particulates, glass tops are key. Remove them and rinse off routinely, drying before replacing them. That is a small part of their normal weekly water partials. This is an area where the quality of your HVAC system's mechanical/electrostatic/chemical filtration does impact your tanks. Due to my own sensitivities, my HVAC systems do a lot of filtration work which is overall beneficial to my too-many tanks.
HTH
Where's the fish? - Neptune