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Retirement and forum shutdown (17 Jan 2022)

Hi,

John Howell who has managed the forum for years is getting on and wishes to retire from the role of managing it.
Over the years, he has managed the forum through good days and bad days and he has always been fair.
He has managed to bring his passion for fish keeping to the forum and keep it going for so long.

I wish to thank John for his hard work in keeping the forum going.

With John wishing to "retire" from the role of managing the forum and the forum receiving very little traffic, I think we must agree that forum has come to a natural conclusion and it's time to put it to rest.

I am proposing that the forum be made read-only from March 2022 onwards and that no new users or content be created. The website is still registered for several more years, so the content will still be accessible but no new topics or replies will be allowed.

If there is interest from the ITFS or other fish keeping clubs, we may redirect traffic to them or to a Facebook group but will not actively manage it.

I'd like to thank everyone over the years who helped with forum, posted a reply, started a new topic, ask a question and helped a newbie in fish keeping. And thank you to the sponsors who helped us along the away. Hopefully it made the hobby stronger.

I'd especially like to thank John Howell and Valerie Rousseau for all of their contributions, without them the forum would have never been has successful.

Thank you
Darragh Sherwin

Playsand Substrate

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27 Oct 2011 17:41 #1 by Damien Conway (Damien Conway)
A mate of mine was considering playsand as his substrate in his community freshwater setup. Are there any reasons why he shouldn't do so?

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27 Oct 2011 18:12 #2 by k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
I use playsand in my 6 foot and have used it in other tanks as well with no problems with water quality. The thing is to use playsand that does not contain any chemicals, some playsand contains cat/dog repellant to stop animals using sand pits as a litter tray.
Just tell your friend to make sure he reads the packaging, the stuff in Smyths seems to be ok.
The tank will be a little cloudy for a while but once the filter has turned over the tank volume a few times it will be fine. :cheer:

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27 Oct 2011 18:17 #3 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: Playsand Substrate
No reason other than if he intends growing Plants, doing this requires a decent depth and that is where sand is a bad substrate, it CAN lead to dead spots due to compaction and can cause anaerobic conditions for bad Bacteria. In a Tanganyikan or Malawi setup or for one with things like Earth eaters, corys or any other Sand filterers you couldn't get a better substrate. Some argue that the finer substrates can irritate Gills but I love this Sand and never had trouble with it, make sure the uplift or return to the Filter is raised higher than normal to avoid it being sucked up by the Filter.

Kev.

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27 Oct 2011 23:52 #4 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
addin play sand to my tank on sunday or monday wats the best way to go about washin as i dont think there is a hose is the new house just lookin for some ideas?

sean

Sean Crowe

ITFS Member

Location: Navan

Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving

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28 Oct 2011 02:01 #5 by vincemallow (vincent guerin)

addin play sand to my tank on sunday or monday wats the best way to go about washin as i dont think there is a hose is the new house just lookin for some ideas?

sean


I did rinse it in a small plastic tub under the water bit by bit, that take around 30/45 min to do 2 bags,( be care full to put to much sand in the drain ;)
the stuff from smith is chemical free. For the plants, I did put some substrate from sera under and easy plants growing well.

Hope that help

vince

60l guppy
60l red cristal
450l malawi cycling
still approval for a big SA

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