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
- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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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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- sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
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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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- dave k (david)
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dave.
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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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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- BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
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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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- stretnik (stretnik)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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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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- theangryman (chris)
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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
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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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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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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????
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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Would anyone have any other suggestions as to why the Nitrate levels are increasing??
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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- ck1 (chris)
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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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

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.
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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
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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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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- jwm (sean sean)
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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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- Pat (Pat Coogan)
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If you get out near Artane aquatics they have some nice apisto's
Pat
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...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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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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The Betta started doing the back stroke along with one of the guppies today

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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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Opening hours:
Mon - Wed 10am - 7pm
Thursday - Friday 10am - 9pm
Saturday 9am - 6pm
Sunday 12pm - 6pm
Des
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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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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- Stem12 (Stephen M)
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Stephen M.
Juwel Vision 260-
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Keep The Water Fresh-
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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- pole drift (Joseph Fahy)
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