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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

Sea Water?

  • stretnik (stretnik)
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15 Sep 2010 08:46 #1 by stretnik (stretnik)
Sea Water? was created by stretnik (stretnik)
Apart from the possibilities of Pollution and contamination from Sewage, Oil, runoff from Farms etc, does anyone on this Forum use Sea Water from the Coast of Ireland? I have read articles where people have used it and where Aquariums themselves don't mix Water and extract all of their supplies from local Sea sources.

Kev.

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15 Sep 2010 08:57 #2 by dar (darren curry)
Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:Sea Water?
no but i once talked to a mad man who dumped water from the river dodder straight in to his tank claiming "the fish love it" yet he was replacing fish every week, now i've swam in that water fished in it and fell in it numerous times and it is absolutely stinking and filthy

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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15 Sep 2010 12:40 #3 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:Sea Water?
I remember there being a thread about this some time back but haven't been able to find it, but in the meantime here's another - interesting one:

www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...d,11/id,29086/#30155

When I was a lot younger I remember that sea water was brought in tankers from somewhere (possibly South Western seas) to the Aquarium at London Zoo although their saltwater section was, in those days, much more comprehensively stocked than the last time I was there.
This was stored in huge tanks situated inside the Maplin Terraces.
I wonder how the London Aquarium on the Southbank maintain their water supplies.
I think the Public Aquarium in Galway (Atlantaquaria) takes their water from off the coast, but am not certain about that.
When I lived in England I knew of a Shop Owner who would travel to collect sea water for all his marine uses but in recent times he no longer does so.

Personally I think a good way to find out if it would be OK would be to set up an Aquarium using it - obviously with no expensive livestock. I, for one, would be most interested in the results.

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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  • wolfsburg (wolfsburg)
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15 Sep 2010 20:30 #4 by wolfsburg (wolfsburg)
Replied by wolfsburg (wolfsburg) on topic Re:Sea Water?
I think we live on the wrong side of the country to do this Kev but I do know of some aquaria on the west coast and islands that do use seawater, including one large native tank that has natural water constantly being pumped into and out of the setup.

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15 Sep 2010 20:37 #5 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
I wouldnt do it unless I had a way of gettin it from miles offshore and even then, I still wouldnt use it in a reef setup mate, too risky. The initial fill may be costly enough but good quality ready mixed saltwater is pretty cheap nowadays in most LFS.

Jay

Location: Finglas, North Dublin.

Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.

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15 Sep 2010 22:19 #6 by Ma (mm mm)
Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:Sea Water?
As said you'd have to go miles off the west coast to where the water is very deep miles away from terrestrial runoff, but I am sure there are other factors that need looking into when using this water in a non native setup, salinity minerals ect.

A test tank would need to run for a long time as any side effects may not be instantly apparent, but may among other things shorten the life of stock or affect things like developement and reproduction.


Mark

Location D.11

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  • stretnik (stretnik)
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15 Sep 2010 22:30 #7 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re:Sea Water?
Well, apparantly, the larger Aquariums are doing this regularly and according to web based info, it isn't that unusual, It would make sense to collect the Water as the tide is about to turn.

I'll collect some and get it analysed in work, just for the hell of it and let you know.

Kev.

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19 Sep 2010 19:21 #8 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
Replied by Sean (Fr. Jack) on topic Re:Sea Water?
I have used Bray Co. Wicklow sea water here is a link to a PFK article I wrote back in the 80¨S basically you add bleach without perfume for 2 days them remove the chlorine with sodium thiosulphate then test for chlorine with a cheap swimming pool test kit.

www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...ew/catid,10/id,34179

(any smart comments about my sexy shorts will be deleted:laugh:)

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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19 Sep 2010 20:43 #9 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re:Sea Water?
Nice Shorts lol, sorry, I just had to.......


Thanks Sean, I'll take that to work tomorrow and have a read, during Break time of course:blush: :blush:

Kev.

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20 Sep 2010 00:55 #10 by derek (Derek Doyle)
Replied by derek (Derek Doyle) on topic Re:Sea Water?
interesting topic kev. i read that london zoo collect or used to collect sea water from the bay of biscay (wherever that is) for their aquarium.
when my children were young i used to bring them rockpooling around bray and other places and sometimes they insisted on bringing small crabs and blennies etc. home. i found that when i collected water from out at sea (when fishing) for water changes that the survival rates were much better.
also i think the sewage treatment places pump treated sewage out at sea a few hundred metres and it would probably be best to have an idea where this stuff was being released and avoid these areas.
i also read somewhere that seawater has pretty much the same ph, hardness and salinity in all the oceans and seas. (though obviously not the dead sea?)
anyway just a few thoughts on the subject.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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20 Sep 2010 13:53 #11 by daveoirl (David McGovern)
Interesting stuff. My concern would be contaminates in collected sea water, especially from the shore.

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20 Sep 2010 19:16 #12 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re:Sea Water?
@ daveoirl

That's why it's suggested to collect at high tide and away from known areas of contamination.

Kev.

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20 Sep 2010 19:23 #13 by wolfsburg (wolfsburg)
Replied by wolfsburg (wolfsburg) on topic Re:Sea Water?
I would add to this post that seawater cannot be stored before use as the plankton would die off and pollute the water, if it is put into the tank straight away it would be consumed by corals, inverts and other organisms.

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24 Sep 2010 10:23 #14 by kev (Kevin O Hara)
Replied by kev (Kevin O Hara) on topic Re:Sea Water?
JohnH wrote:

I think the Public Aquarium in Galway (Atlantaquaria) takes their water from off the coast, but am not certain about that.


Yeah, Im working in Galway Atlantaquaria and we use the local seawater. We test it first as freshwater runoff can be an issue at different times of the year. It goes through sandfilters and UV before entering the system. Its common practise in most seaside aquariums to use natural water in the majority of the tanks.

Once your collection area is clean and you test the water before use then it should be ok, but theres always a slight risk of some contamination if you arent careful. The advantage of a public aquarium obviously is that the proportion of water getting changed each time is much less, so if contamination is spotted early on its less of an issue.

Kevin

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25 Sep 2010 11:59 #15 by Bella (Avril Lane)
Replied by Bella (Avril Lane) on topic Re:Sea Water?
Paid a visit to Atlantaquarium last February with the kids and extended family. It's a must do and see as it was thoroughly enjoyable. I do remember the tour guide explaining about the tanks and water collection/filtering. That wasn't you by any chance? The guide was brilliant, on the day there were several rambunctious children with another group which he was well able to handle and much to our delight made sure to include my two quiet shy fellas at the back. He gave them food to feed the fish and made sure they got their turn at the rock pool. We really appreciated the attention they received, children nowadays don't often get rewarded for good manners but they did that day. Oops sorry stretnik for going off on a tangent.

Killenard, Laois

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