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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 planted tank

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17 Jul 2012 23:35 #1 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Hey guys,

I got bored of the ciclids for two reasons, no. 1 i keep the fish in my parents house and no. 2 my brother in law wanted to put them in his tank so startin from fresh im going to set up a planted tank as my mother loves flowers and gardening. So im going to need your help with doing this as iv never done this before but im hoping to achieve something like this



The dimensions of my tank are 36"x15"x15"



I know that ill need to fill substrate into the bottom of the tank, can i use coral sand on top of this or will i need gravel?

Is regards to what fish to keep, im thinking along the lines of neons, betta's, guppies and platys. For the algie ill be using a bristlenose. Is there any other fish that will suit this tank??

Finally plants, what plants are best to put in this tank and will i be ok putting a log into the tank.

Cheers guys

Joe

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18 Jul 2012 00:08 #2 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
neither for planted, use something like jbl manado, ada aquasoil, etc as a base for plants to grow in get onto the Dan in www.aquaticgardenshop.com, a fourm sponsor or Marius another forum sponsor both who have great knowledge of planted tanks, or drop into seahorse etc in dublin let them know what your planning they wont lead you astray

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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18 Jul 2012 06:53 #3 by dave k (david)
Replied by dave k (david) on topic Re: New planted tank
Hi Joe, why not have a look at doing the set up the Walstad Method !!

dave.

.·´¯`·.. >`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸>
>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·...¸>

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18 Jul 2012 06:57 #4 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)

Hi Joe, why not have a look at doing the set up the Walstad Method !!

dave.


Never heard of that, I think its Google to the rescue :)

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18 Jul 2012 08:44 #5 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
Sheag is spot on i would use something like ADA or Oliver Knott these are the 2 best on the market for planted tanks,

Also you should thing about a CO2 system

What lights is there on the tank at the moment

And the then think about dosing Ferts as in Micro and Marco

Getting a good balance off all these three is the key to a great planted tank

Wish you the best off luck with it and make sure you read up a lot about planted tanks and also see what plants you want to go with

Would be best to start off with fast growing plants and then after a while move on to more demanding plants

Sean

Sean Crowe

ITFS Member

Location: Navan

Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving

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18 Jul 2012 12:22 #6 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: New planted tank

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18 Jul 2012 12:28 #7 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: New planted tank

Hi Joe, why not have a look at doing the set up the Walstad Method !!

dave.


Here you go.... The Walstad Method

Kev.

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18 Jul 2012 16:34 #8 by theangryman (chris)
Just watched this on youtube, waiting for the rest to download,



never heard of this before but seems interesting, might be worth a try when I get home

Best of luck with the tank, cant wait to see what you decide to do

"I try to incorporate melody. Even though I'm screaming, I still like to think I bring melody into screaming."
Tom Araya

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim........Lyndon B Johnson

All my...

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20 Jul 2012 20:24 #9 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
After checking if out im going to try out the Walstad Method and i hope to have it done my Sunday. Can anyone recommend any plants for the tank??

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25 Aug 2012 16:49 - 25 Aug 2012 16:51 #10 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Right i decided to go with the Walstad Method in the end to see how it would work out.

So basically I got 25L of peat free compost as the substrate and 25L of aquarium gravel. Then I called as far as Seahorse Aquarium today when I finished work and picked up about €50 worth of plants and planted them in the tank when I got to my parents house.

Turned out something like this



For piece of mind I kept the filter in the tank, and i'm not sure should I put some bog wood in the middle or a ship or something????
Last edit: 25 Aug 2012 16:51 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy).

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28 Aug 2012 19:49 #11 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Iv noticed that the Nitrate levels are slowly creeping up in the tank, i reckon that it could be the soil thats causing this. I changed 20% of the water yesterday and ill check it tomorrow and if they are the same ill change another 20%.

Would anyone have any other suggestions as to why the Nitrate levels are increasing??

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02 Sep 2012 21:33 #12 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Bought a few more fish for the tank and a piece of wood and covered it with moss, and the moss I had left over I covered the fake cave with it qll tied on with fishing line. Big thanks to Des in maxi zoo in Finglas for taking the time to go through all the different fish that'll suit the tank

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02 Sep 2012 22:56 #13 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Here's a few pics i took of the tank tonight





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02 Sep 2012 23:19 #14 by ck1 (chris)
Replied by ck1 (chris) on topic New planted tank
lookin well.what fish have you got in there.plants growing nicely are you adding any fertlizer

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02 Sep 2012 23:28 - 02 Sep 2012 23:35 #15 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)

lookin well.what fish have you got in there.plants growing nicely are you adding any fertlizer


There's no fertlizer being added to the tank at all, the compost seems to be doing its job :cool:

Here's the list of what i can remember is in the tank.

Male siamese fighting fish
Paltys x4
Guppies x3
Bristlenose x2
Red eye tetra's x4
Pristella tetra x2
Rainbow something x4
Cherry Barb x4
Denisoni Barb x6

Im awful at remembering the names as you can see, Im uploading a video of the tank onto YouTube so you can see whats in the tank for yourself.
Last edit: 02 Sep 2012 23:35 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy).

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03 Sep 2012 01:31 #16 by des (des)
Replied by des (des) on topic New planted tank
the Tank looks great
it was a pleasure to meet You and Herself earlier
I enjoyed the chat
the Moss looks great
the Rainbowfish are Neon Rainbows (Praecox)



cheers
Des
Attachments:

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03 Sep 2012 01:56 #17 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Thank you for all your help earlier. Real nice to meet you today.

Here's a video of the tank, can you recommend any other fish? Im thinking of getting the fish for the algae on the plants, cory's for the substrate and some shrimp.

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03 Sep 2012 08:12 #18 by jwm (sean sean)
Replied by jwm (sean sean) on topic New planted tank
Lovely set up. Siamese algae eater a great fish for algae on plants, they are very peaceful, i have had the same four in different set ups and not a bother on them and never harassed any thing in the tank.

john

A person who surrenders when he is WRONG, is HONEST. A person who SURRENDERS when not SURE, is WISE. A person who surrenders even if he is RIGHT, is a HUSBAND.

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03 Sep 2012 17:18 #19 by Pat (Pat Coogan)
Replied by Pat (Pat Coogan) on topic New planted tank
Nice set up you could also use Ottocinclus for the algae.
If you get out near Artane aquatics they have some nice apisto's
Pat

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03 Sep 2012 18:54 #20 by des (des)
Replied by des (des) on topic New planted tank
I think some otto's, siamese algae eaters and Stiphodon Gobies would sort out any Algae problems You might have without damaging any plants...

...and as for what new Fish to add, I don't know, maybe some Rasbora Hengeli might look well, malabar loach, empire gudgeon, ember tetra, burmese spotted danio, serpae tetra, rummeynose tetra, something along those lines anyway...



Des

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03 Sep 2012 20:54 #21 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
Sure ill have a chat with ya on friday about a few more. What times the shop open at??

The Betta started doing the back stroke along with one of the guppies today :(

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03 Sep 2012 22:24 #22 by des (des)
Replied by des (des) on topic New planted tank

Sure ill have a chat with ya on friday about a few more. What times the shop open at??

The Betta started doing the back stroke along with one of the guppies today :(


I was looking at the list of Fish in the Tank, could be the red eye tetra

I'm off Work on Friday but drop in for a chat any other day


Des

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03 Sep 2012 22:26 #23 by des (des)
Replied by des (des) on topic New planted tank
...almost forgot

Opening hours:
Mon - Wed 10am - 7pm
Thursday - Friday 10am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 6pm
Sunday 12pm - 6pm


Des

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07 Sep 2012 11:54 #24 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
I picked up some peppered cory's today, i love the colours of them. I also got a few platy's, heavily pregnant at that!!

Im finally happy with the tank, to me everything is just going perfect and im delighted with the setup, layout and the fish...........





.........thats when i noticed the cracks in the glass :(

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07 Sep 2012 12:08 #25 by Stem12 (Stephen M)
Replied by Stem12 (Stephen M) on topic New planted tank
Lovely Lookin tank mate, Ye keep an eye on those cracks :/

Stephen M.

Juwel Vision 260-
20ltr-Fluval Spec-
19ltr-Fluval Chi-

Keep The Water Fresh-

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05 Jan 2013 01:44 #26 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
This walstad method isn't all it's cracked up to be, the plants in the tank are dyin off.id be really tempted to redo the whole thing without any plants, just coral sand and bog wood. The platys are breeding like crazy, Iv had go use my 54L tank for the fry. Also my assassin snails have been breeding and the stones are full of them!!

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16 Feb 2013 23:26 #27 by pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
If anyone is thinking of doing the walstad method don't bother. I was telling Ian in aquatic village about it and he was telling me that the soil at the bottom of the tank is just holding water and will turn stagnant as its just sitting there. Well Ian was right, the tank started to stink and no matter how often I done a water change the tank would still smell after a few days. So I got some proper substrate and took the fish out and removed the soil. The absolute stink when I was taking it out!!! Anyway I changed it, put in the substrate and stones, filled the tank with fresh water and threw the fish back into the tank the following morning. It turned out great, the water has been clearer and it doesn't smell.

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