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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

New 450L South American set up

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01 Sep 2014 18:40 - 01 Sep 2014 22:01 #1 by ger310 (Ger .)
Hi,i have decided to go back to a South American set up for a little while :)

I initially decided to stock it with some medium to large fish that i have never kept before but there are just too many stunning Angelfish out there at the moment that i just had to buy a nice group instead :)

What i bought was 11 P.Scalare 'Manacapuru' F1's which look the bizz and all going to plan i'll pick them up on Thursday.......I also hope to pick up 30 Colombian Red tip Tetra's Thursday aswell which also look the bizz and will look great in with the Angels i'm hoping...........I was hoping to also put in a group of Starlight Bristlenoses (L183) but i not overly sure of that now so we will see!!

Really nice feeling having the day off and an empty tank :)


Added 2 nice pieces of Vine wood and a piece of Red Moor wood by using cable ties as to have the 'floating drift wood' affect









i have a few different sands/gravels down in the shed but i decided to use playsand as my substrate as for one it was cheap and secondly i have never used it before but first impressions are good so hopefully it will stay that way :)








Tomorrow i will fill it with water and turn everything on and will then decide if i want some java fern/anubias pinned to the wood in some places and also if i want some leaves/stones on the bottom.

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)
Last edit: 01 Sep 2014 22:01 by JohnH (John).

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01 Sep 2014 18:46 #2 by ger310 (Ger .)
The curse of the missing Pictures is still here i see,or not see as the case may be ha

John can i send you pictures to that photo comp email address and can you slot them in for me please?

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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01 Sep 2014 19:01 #3 by anthonyd (Anthony Debesne)
Cant wait to see the pictures ger :P .
Wild angelfish are my favourite fish, hope to keep them one day.
Playsand looks great especially with low light and blackwater.

Anthony

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01 Sep 2014 19:03 #4 by swai (Simon)
Looking forward to the pictures, I'm liking those manacapuru angels. Have seen a few floating around.

I'm also going to try play sand in one of my tanks so looking forward to what yours turns out like.

Are you going for blackwater?

Marino, Dublin 9

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01 Sep 2014 19:29 #5 by Eric (Eric Corcoran)
Looking forward to seeing it set up. I use play sand from Argos in my tanks and wouldn't change it for anything else. It looks well with wood and nice stained water

Eric

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01 Sep 2014 21:16 - 01 Sep 2014 21:17 #6 by paddyc1 (Paddy Corrigan)
Best of luck with the new setup Ger. I went the same route with my own 450 recently.
Playsand is what I used and although it looks great, it is very very fine so any disturbance has a tendancy to create a sandstorm.
It also gets very compact in areas so needs to be stirred up a bit to avoid dodgy gases (there's plenty enough dodgy gas in my house already ;-) )

Tallaght, Dublin 24
Last edit: 01 Sep 2014 21:17 by paddyc1 (Paddy Corrigan).

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01 Sep 2014 22:05 #7 by JohnH (John)

The curse of the missing Pictures is still here i see,or not see as the case may be ha

John can i send you pictures to that photo comp email address and can you slot them in for me please?

Ger

Sorry for the delay in getting them added Ger, a long story which I'll not bother you with.

If they are out of sequence please let me know and in which order you'd like them moved to and I'll attend to it in the morning.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.

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01 Sep 2014 22:42 #8 by Jim (Jim Lawlor)
Looking forward to the rest of the post & progress - those roots look deadly already!

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02 Sep 2014 11:47 #9 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Looks great....
I love the "floating" wood idea.....
looking forward to seeing more progress

Neil

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02 Sep 2014 20:26 - 02 Sep 2014 22:23 #10 by ger310 (Ger .)
Cheers lads :) So the water went in today and the filter,heaters,light unit and wave maker were plugged in and everything is rosy so far :)..........The light unit has LEDS plus 2 x 24w t5's in it (it had up until 2 days ago 2 x 80w tubes in it which was ridiculously bright!!).....The filter is an FX6 which does a great job on a 5 foot tank but because of the wood positioning the flow to the far end is somewhat hampered so i have a not too powerful wave maker in there to help with water movement......the heaters are a Hidom 500w and a Fluval 300w.

I added 10-12 Catappa leaves that i had soaked yesterday and then added the water they were soaked in and it's now giving off a really nice yellow tea like colour of the water which pleases me :)....the playsand is right lads looking real good at the moment,and i have kept it to just about 1cm in depth in most places.................I have ordered 5 x Anubias sp.Lanceolata which i should have next week and i'll pin them around the wood as i think a little bit of green would go well in there :)





I know the wood and plants are not South American so apologies to the people who only like 'true' SA set up's :)

Fish will be in there hopefully Thursday and i'll get a video up as an update then,thanks all

Ger

EDIT: thanks John for sorting the pics out,appreciate it :)
(Not a bother, glad to be able to help) J.

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)
Last edit: 02 Sep 2014 22:23 by JohnH (John). Reason: Addition

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03 Sep 2014 19:42 #11 by ger310 (Ger .)
Picked up the P.Scalare 'Manacapuru's' and 15 of the Colombian red tip Tetra earlier today instead of tomorrow and i'll have the other 15 Red tips hopefully next week...........I'm not sure of what Catfish to stock yet but maybe a group of some specie of Ancistrus and a nice Panaque,we will see over the next couple of weeks.

Next step is to get some white-black worm cultures on the go again,or there protein shakes as a friend of mine likes to call them :)

Here a quick video of them (sorry iphone video don't do them justice!!)



Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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03 Sep 2014 19:58 #12 by swai (Simon)
Hi ger,

Just wondering what u used so you could stock your tank day after it was filled? I need to do this too and was wondering what is the best way to go. I'll be a doing a 450 liter too.

Marino, Dublin 9

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03 Sep 2014 20:00 #13 by anthonyd (Anthony Debesne)
Nice one ger, it looks really nice.
That s the kind of tank i hope to have one day.
Dont know if you like them but i would put some floating plants to create some shaded areas.

Anthony

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03 Sep 2014 20:14 #14 by JustinK (Justin Kelly)
Good stuff Ger.
I was going to suggest keeping the cable ties loose to allow the wood to move without snapping the braces, but its full now and theyre safe !
The Angels are lovely, nice choice.

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03 Sep 2014 20:19 #15 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Wood looks great I'm green with envy, oh to be setting up a 450.

Did you start it with OA?

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03 Sep 2014 20:22 #16 by Eric (Eric Corcoran)
Looking great Ger. Really impressed

Eric

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03 Sep 2014 21:22 #17 by ger310 (Ger .)

Hi ger,

Just wondering what u used so you could stock your tank day after it was filled? I need to do this too and was wondering what is the best way to go. I'll be a doing a 450 liter too.


I used the much debated Organic Aqua.........This is my first time to use it and as of 8 hours it's all good (i think!!) :) ......after the initial 3-4 weeks of using it is up i'll be going back to the traditional way of doing things :)

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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03 Sep 2014 21:29 #18 by ger310 (Ger .)

Nice one ger, it looks really nice.
That s the kind of tank i hope to have one day.
Dont know if you like them but i would put some floating plants to create some shaded areas.

Anthony


Cheers Dude :)

To be honest i don't really like putting any plants in tanks mostly because i cant keep them alive!! Hence why i'm just putting a few hardy easy to keep Anubias in there..........I only put lights on if i want a stare at a fish or i'm doing a short video so there's no real need man but thanks for the suggestion :)

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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03 Sep 2014 21:32 #19 by ger310 (Ger .)

Good stuff Ger.
I was going to suggest keeping the cable ties loose to allow the wood to move without snapping the braces, but its full now and theyre safe !
The Angels are lovely, nice choice.


Thanks man :)

i did do that before keeping the cables loose Justin but every now and then the root wood would rub off the glass and drive me nuts!! this tank is in my bedroom with loads of flow so they were getting well pulled tight i tell yeh ha

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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03 Sep 2014 21:35 #20 by ger310 (Ger .)

Wood looks great I'm green with envy, oh to be setting up a 450.

Did you start it with OA?


Thanks dude,i have that wood a good while now so it is nice to put it too some use

Yeh started it with OA

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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03 Sep 2014 21:45 #21 by Jim (Jim Lawlor)
Fair play Ger - looks absolutely deadly already - those angels are beauts

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03 Sep 2014 23:15 #22 by baan (Fintan Breen)
Looks fantastic. Love the clean setup. I'm more of a planted tank guy, but I can really see the appeal... maybe I need a second "unplanted" tank?!

No space right now... but sometime....

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04 Sep 2014 22:02 #23 by newbejkjimk (damien kelly)
Hi ger,
lookin good if you need stock have a look at my for sale post i can delever

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05 Sep 2014 17:16 #24 by ger310 (Ger .)

Hi ger,
lookin good if you need stock have a look at my for sale post i can delever


Thanks Jim but i'm only after a small shoal of small fish and a group of Catfish for now.........Some nice fish there though,good luck selling them :)

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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05 Sep 2014 17:23 #25 by swai (Simon)
Are u gonna for a shoal of corys? I think a shoal of corys would look really good.

Also have you noticed an negatives with the play sand or is it all good?

Marino, Dublin 9

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05 Sep 2014 17:38 #26 by ger310 (Ger .)
No negatives at all so far but it is only day 4 of being set up sooooooooooo.

No it definitely wont be Cory's,probably a group of Ancistrus,we will see.

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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05 Sep 2014 17:39 #27 by swai (Simon)
Cool! Looking forward to the progress.

Marino, Dublin 9

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06 Sep 2014 08:53 #28 by irish-zx10r (James feenan)
wood looks great where did u get it and did u have to do anything at first before using it in your tank more Q&A

Something fishie going on here

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07 Sep 2014 18:39 #29 by ger310 (Ger .)

wood looks great where did u get it and did u have to do anything at first before using it in your tank more Q&A


The two pieces left and right are Vine wood and i bought on here about 6 months ago......the piece at the back-centre-left (if that makes any sense!!) is Red moor wood and i have it that long i cant remember were i got it,maybe on here also,i dunno..............All were soaking in a large container and all i did was rinse them under the tap before putting in tank.............The Vine wood is white all over now with fungus growing on it but i'll get fish soon to sort that out.........it's not something that really bothers me and it does luck a bit hauntingly 'cool' when the blue LED's are on too :)

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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11 Sep 2014 11:16 #30 by paulv (paul vickers)
Super looking tank Ger. Im also using red wood roots in my big tank, ive more aggressive mix of fish and sometimes the sharp root tips tear the fish but they heal up in a few days. Im wondering why you wont stay with OA if its working good for you. After all, monthly water changes is better than weekly.

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