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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

what substrate to use

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25 Jul 2013 21:35 #1 by fionakoi (Fiona Wynne)
Well I have spent the last 20 something years with gravel in the aquarium and its time for a change. I'm thinking of trying sand but don't know which is the best one to use so I'm looking for some words of wisdom on the topic.

I'll be setting up my new tank in the next week or so. Stocking it with cichlids.

Any advice would be helpfull. Fiona

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25 Jul 2013 21:41 - 25 Jul 2013 21:42 #2 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
what kind of cichlids do you plan on stocking it with?

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."
Last edit: 25 Jul 2013 21:42 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley).

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25 Jul 2013 22:46 #3 by fionakoi (Fiona Wynne)
Some bumblebee cichlids and red peacock chiclids. I'll add more to them after a while but only start with a few. I have a 180 Ltr.

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25 Jul 2013 22:56 #4 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
coral sand will probably be what you need if you're keeping African cichlids, since they need hard alkaline conditions. 180l might be a bit small though, esp for an aggressive bruiser like a bumblebee cichlid. I pesume you mean Pseudotropheus crabro

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."

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25 Jul 2013 23:17 #5 by fionakoi (Fiona Wynne)
You're right about the bumblebee, I meant to put blue peacock (similar striping as the bumblebee)

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26 Jul 2013 07:28 #6 by dannyb (Daniel Byrne)
as said coral sand would be best, that's what im using in my 260 set up

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26 Jul 2013 10:01 #7 by CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)

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26 Jul 2013 13:42 #8 by Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
interesting, was thinking of using this,
Would there be any issue with coral sand for community fish like tetra's or mollies?
Or plant life?

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26 Jul 2013 14:09 #9 by wylam (Stuart Sexton)
I went looking for coral sand and found it to be expensive and also i didn't like the pale corour.So i went and bought children's play sand in argos, gave it a wash out maybe about 5 times before i put it in the tank and i haven't any problems with it. 20kg bag was less than 5 euro.

Stuart.

Multi tasking: Screwing up more than one thing at a time.

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26 Jul 2013 14:12 #10 by CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)
@Darkslice, Coral sand will raise the pH of the water to about 7.8 - 7.9
Mollies will be happy, but a bit on the high side for tetras,
I say a bit, because in your area the local water is about 7.4 from the tap,
and most of your LFS's will all have this pH value in their Tetra and Plant tanks.
Most tetras will show better colours over a darker substrate,

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26 Jul 2013 14:14 - 26 Jul 2013 14:16 #11 by Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
thanks pete,

I wont rush into it yet i'll think about it a bit more :)

A friend of mine used play sand (don't know if he cleaned it -i'm sire he did)
But it ended up killing a lot of his fish in the first few weeks because it was so fine.
It just got everywhere, think he said it tricky to clean
Last edit: 26 Jul 2013 14:16 by Darkslice (Stephen Walsh).

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28 Jul 2013 18:03 #12 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Silica sand if you wanna save costs,..go for a grade thats not too fine.

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29 Jul 2013 09:18 #13 by wylam (Stuart Sexton)
I haven't had any issues as of yet with the play sand.I have a pair of Kribs(which spawned last week) some cory's , otto's and loaches. It hasn't had any adverse effect on my water it doesn't clog the external and the fish seem happy to have a dig around in it.The tank has been running for about a year. :)

Stuart.

Multi tasking: Screwing up more than one thing at a time.

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29 Jul 2013 19:24 #14 by fionakoi (Fiona Wynne)
:P Well, I've done alot of research over the last few days and I think I'll go for coral sand. I had a look at silica sand but some research says that it may be too rough for use in an aquarium (others opinion - not mine). I will probably go for a white or as light as possible colour sand as it will contrast well with the 3D background and rock and bog wood that I have for my aquarium.

Thanks everyone for all the advice.
I'll post photos of my set up as it takes shape. Now the fun starts.
Fiona.

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31 Jul 2013 00:01 #15 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
Hi Fiona coral sand is the right choice, is your bogwood fresh from the shop or has be in water a long time the reason I ask is if it's fresh and you add allot of it it may mess up ur ph cause when it's new it leaks allot of tannis an effect you dont want for your setup just a little heads up maybe someone else can explain this a little bit better, I use to g4 my bogwood for cichlids so it wouldn't mess with the ph

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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31 Jul 2013 01:56 #16 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
I might be wrong but I think the accepted logic is that you have to let the tank reach the required pH and hardness before you add bogwood. That way the water is buffered before the tannins etc gave a chance to lower the pH

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."

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01 Aug 2013 13:56 #17 by fionakoi (Fiona Wynne)
The bogwood that I have has been in my tank for years so should be ok to use. Although as I am going from a larger to smaller tank I may not have room for it any more so I might not use it anyway. I hope to start setting up my aquarium tonight so only time will tell.

Whatever I decide, Ill make sure to do the required tests to make sure the water is correct before fish are introduced. That won't be for a while anyway.

Thanks Jeff and LemonJelly.

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21 Aug 2013 23:54 #18 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
How yea getting on Fiona

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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