Re: [Killietalk] Poly Filter

[Wright Huntley <jwwiii at pacbell_net>]

Interesting thread.

The description at That Pet Place reads exactly like the finest kind of 
19th Century "Snake Oil." That quickly raises my suspicion.

Does anyone know what is in it or how it is supposed to work?

[Lee's note came while I was writing this, and it gave me lots of info. 
Thanks.]

If you want ammonia control for shipping in small amounts of water, the 
proven winner has long been "Amquel" or its successors, like "Prime" or 
"Ammo Lock 2." I pre-mix fresh shipping water (to about or maybe higher 
tds than the fishes normal water), with a stiffer dose of "Amquel" than 
the regular tank dose. I try to keep it at or below about 3X normal 
dosage. Works great and minimizes shipping losses, IME.

The only experience I have had with "poly filter" was some rather sick 
fish I received that had a tiny snippet of the filter material in the 
bag. One look at their condition and the ugly smell of the water 
convinced me that I wouldn't want to use it. IDK if it was at fault, and 
my experience was hardly a good statistical sample.

I'd want to know what is in it, how it works, and how to control dosage 
over variable travel times before I would risk fish. I *know* "Amquel" 
works and dosage can be controlled by mixing proper amounts, combined 
with starving the fish for a day or two.

I know that activated carbon works (slowly) in high-pressure filter 
canisters (and not very much in aquarium filters) to remove chloramine 
and maybe even ammonia.

Maybe salt water is too precious, but I discard *all* water used to 
medicate in a hospital tank. If I medicate a whole tank, extra water 
changes gets rid of the unwanted residue, very readily.

My $0.02,

Wright

ClayCrawford56 at aol_com wrote:

> Bill
>
> I was going to contact you directly, but since I saw your posting thought I 
> would address it on line since you addressed something I had not considered - 
> the poly filter.  
>
> I purchased three different species of Epiplatys from the fish room at the 
> CKA.  You may remember that we sat and talked about each at length.  The chaperi 
> Angona and infrafaciatus Bipindi both are doing great and are in their own 
> 2.5 gallon tanks.  However, when I got home Sunday the ansorgii were dead.  At 
> the time it didn't occur to me but since you put this email on the list, I 
> realized that they were the only ones with poly-filter.
>
> I have used polyfilter myself in the past with no problems, however, this 
> might have been what caused their deaths.  I wonder if the fact that it didn't 
> seem to work is due to the fact that killies usually travel with such small 
> amounts of water.  When I have used polyfilter with cichlids and others, it has 
> been in situations where larger volumes of water were used.
>
> Regards
>
> Clay in NJ

--
Wright Huntley -- 760 872-3995 -- Rt. 001 Box K36, Bishop CA 93514


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