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
Hair Algae
- Didihno (Didihno)
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This hair algae stuff is all over my tank, the glass the plants, everywhere.
Its really only been out of control the last 2 weeks.
4 plecos and 3 ottos just aren't touching it.
What do I do?
(Oh and I have been overfeeding the new life food, its so hard to tell with that stuff)
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- Van Helsing (Van Helsing)
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brush. I would also do a 50% water change.
Ease of on the feeding and try to get a phospate free food..
Bristle nose cats are the best and go great with Malawis.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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Ph 7.5, 26'c.
Tank is loaded with bog wood, Vallis, Camboba, Crypts, some other leafy plant and floating pond weed.
Switching back to flake, its easier to judge who eats what.
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Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Do you fertilise your plants?
Regards,
Ken.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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I think the problem is duration, the lights come on at 10am and run to 10pm.
I thought the ammount of plants I have would need the light.
I have a liquid fertiliser but rarely use it, only when I do a big change to the tank, like occasionally I uproot all the plants trim out the biggest or shabbiest ones and rearrange everything. Nitrate is pretty high in our water to start with, last tested at 30-40ppm.
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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How old are the tubes? They have a useful life of 6-12 months, after that they don't give the full light spectrum and you'll get algae.
For a start, I'd definitely cut back the lights by a couple of hours. You could even cut back to eight hours and see how your plants do. 12 hours is probably too much.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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Tank is a Rio 240.
What bulbs would anyone recommend for this tank and planting scheme?
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- KenS (Ken Simpson)
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Some say that standard domestic bulbs are fine for plants, but I'm not so sure. Standard domestic tubes are way cheaper - €5 as apposed to €25 for the aquarium version.
Regards,
Ken.
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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I might try it as it sounds like a massive scam, with the prices of these bulbs.
I take it the algae removing chemicals are a bad idea?
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- Mr Algae (mralgae mralgae)
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Tank is not in direct sunlight but to compensate I have installed 2x38w dayglo bulbs.
I think the problem is duration, the lights come on at 10am and run to 10pm.
I thought the ammount of plants I have would need the light.
I have a liquid fertiliser but rarely use it, only when I do a big change to the tank, like occasionally I uproot all the plants trim out the biggest or shabbiest ones and rearrange everything. Nitrate is pretty high in our water to start with, last tested at 30-40ppm.
2 x38w gives you 1.13wpg which is low light but as stated 12 hrs is to long to run. its better to dose little & often rather than now & again in large amounts and to do small wc often rather than a big now & again, also to uproot the plants is not a good thing as you will 1. upset the balance of growth to the plant and 2. also disturb the substrate releaseing the waste etc into the water colomn of which the algae will love yo for.what is the nitrate of tap water? 30/40ppm is quite high.
May your fish be with you:
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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I would also get rid of the Jewel hood and built my own. It will cost you as much as 3 bulbs made for the Jewel hood but if you built your own hood, you will be able to use any run-of-the mill light fitting.
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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I thought standard domestics didn't fit into Jewel fittings?
I might try it as it sounds like a massive scam, with the prices of these bulbs.
They do, one of the Juwels I bought secondhand had them fitted. Just make sure the screw on seals are still ok, they say they need replacing everytime you change the bulb, but once the rubber is still soft there should be no issue. The specturm provided will not be as nice to look at as the aquarium bulbs so if it is a show tank you may want to consider splashing out. Also I have no idea whether standard domestic tubes are any good for plants or not.
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- arabesque (Mick Veale)
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and they had this old skeleton that was covered in hair algae.
They move stock tanks around a bit and it ended in with a load of rosy barbs
who stripped it to the bone!
so do rosy barbs eat hair algae.. anyone else heard this?
might be worth a try.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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I think I'll have to cull the plants and clean the tank.
Its been a while since I did a gravel vac and there is a fair bit of droppings.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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If they are the former take the entire tank apart and give it a clean out with bleach or peroxide. Change the filter media, clean the inside of the filter with the above chemicals. IMO the only way to get rid of them.
If they are bright green, they are easy enough to get rid of. Plenty of water changes plus cleaning them off where ever they grow plus a dose of CO2 should do the job
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- Deeco (Deeco)
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You know yourself
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- Didihno (Didihno)
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In a freak show.......
Holger,
I didn't get to check last night but my gut feeling is that I've black or dark green.
Why is it so hard to get rid of?
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