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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

Moving houses and Aquaria!

  • Didihno (Didihno)
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24 Jan 2007 16:18 #1 by Didihno (Didihno)
Moving houses and Aquaria! was created by Didihno (Didihno)
So how is this done?

I have a wee tank, Aqua-El 45L and a bigish tank, Rio 240L.
I had assumed that I could temporarily rehome all the fish into the small tank and set up the big one.
Is this the case or has anyone experience of moving house?

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24 Jan 2007 16:47 #2 by Acara (Dave Walters)
Hi Didihno
I moved house last may,with a rekord 70 and rio 180.i had the 70 set up for a couple of months cycling the filter,pouring some of my syphoned 180 muck into it occaisionally.Had no fish in 70.Went to tesco and bought about 30 2ltr bottles of their own water for about 35c each,poured that muck down sink.Filled most of the bottles with water from the 180,a few with the 70 water.Moved the 70 to new house,set it up,filling it with the bottles.Waited a day for temp,etc to be right,then moved the fish,a little cramped in 70,but they survived(in fact my laetacara curviceps cichlids spawned 3 days after move).Then set up the 180 at leisure.
Probably a bit of a mickey mouse way of doing it,but it worked fine for me.
Maybe the 45ltr would be a bit wee for doing this,but someone may be able to loan you a tank or something.
Good luck with it.

always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!

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24 Jan 2007 17:27 #3 by lampeye (lampeye)
im moving too...nightmare eh? i have a 240 , 180 , 60 and a 50. i wont have the option of putting the fish into a smaller tank so what i plan to do is this.
(on different days for each tank)

-remove decorations...wood etc.
-take out filter and put in a bucket of the tanks water
-remove and keep most of the water. (stored in drums borrow some of lfs if possible)
-catch and bag fish
-remove and keep rest of water
-take out substrate
-move asap and do everything in reverse

its important to keep the systems water. also i hope youre not moving too far as if its more than a few hours in uncirculated water your filter will die.

hope this helps

lampeye

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24 Jan 2007 17:30 #4 by lampeye (lampeye)
ps drums of 25 litres plus are much handier than 2L bottles lol....if u cant borrow some they are about 12 euro in hardware shops

lampeye

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24 Jan 2007 17:33 #5 by essjay (S Jackson)
could try a new rubbish bin with silicone and duct tape.

Drive carefully though......

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25 Jan 2007 07:37 #6 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
OK so I know that the rocks and other bits are going to be removed, but will the tank support the sand substrate (with planted plants) during carrying etc or does that need to go too?

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25 Jan 2007 07:44 #7 by essjay (S Jackson)
it should do. What do you have under it now?

Could buy a sheet of 20mm MDF and cut a piece off slightly bigger than the tank to rest on while transporting it

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25 Jan 2007 08:13 #8 by lampeye (lampeye)
risky....i personally wouldnt chance it but a lot of people do. risky.

lampeye

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25 Jan 2007 16:35 #9 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
I don't like the risk myself, but I also don't want to destroy the plants I've painstakingly cultivated.
Perhaps I can remove most of the sand, leaving the root systems intact.
Messy but maybe do-able?

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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25 Jan 2007 20:40 #10 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
My first tank was a Juwel 260l second hand full of fish.
Put fish in water in a bin. Came home. Added dechlorinator to tank filled it up with cold water from a hose and added boiling water from pots I had on the cooker.
Added fish straight away and lost none. Got whitespot(nts) and that was that.
I knew fewk all about the nitrogen cycle(still don`t :lol: :lol: ) and a friend came around and showed me how to look after them the next day and explained ph and water changes to me.
Not recommending what I did but just taught I would share my story

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26 Jan 2007 01:53 #11 by Sean (Fr. Jack)
If you think that's bad, I once witness in the show tank of the office of a marine wholesale, a w/C.

Step 1, take out 50% of the water
step 2, fill it up with tap water
step 3, throw in half a bag of salt, (some landing on the corals)
step 4, no dechlorinator added.

result no losses!!!

Reader please do not attempt this madness!

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!

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29 Jan 2007 08:18 #12 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
Some people get away with murder mate, others get locked up for no TV license. Thats life. I heard some horror stories in my day.

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29 Jan 2007 09:23 #13 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
Here are a few pointers. I have done this several times over the years.
1. empty tank completely. Substrate and all. Too easy to crack the bottom plate of the tank and then you are really up sh*t creek without a paddle.

2. I used mayo and ready boiled egg buckets to store the water. Aim for about 50% of your overall volume. Ask in any canteen or restaurant. They are only too happy to get rid of them. No need to buy containers. They mightn't be food safe.

3. store filter media in on of the buckets. The bacteria ill survive for 8 hours+

That's basically it. The secret is to move your stuff as fast as possible to avoid a drop in temperature

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30 Jan 2007 18:06 #14 by Didihno (Didihno)
Replied by Didihno (Didihno) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
Thanks everyone for the pointers.
I'll have to think on it a bit, form a strategy.

The move is almost certainly on though, so its if rather than when.
The wife was worried about her Guppies, as one died mysteriously.
(Siamese fighter jealousy? Its tail was ravaged.)
I suggested we could get a small tank for the Guppies......I won't repeat what she said!

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31 Jan 2007 01:52 #15 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
Wrong strategy. Suggest a big tank and settle for a smaller :D

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31 Jan 2007 06:48 #16 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re: Moving houses and Aquaria!
Suggest 1200l and settle for 600 l plus a few breeding tanks.

My wife? no idea, want me to ask?

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03 Feb 2007 15:50 #17 by KenS (Ken Simpson)
I frequent another forum from time to time ( www.thetropicaltank.co.uk ). Here's advice from one of the experienced members there:

Keeping the water is useful but not essential.

Most of the bacteria in a tank is in the substrate, the sides of the tank, plants and ornements and more importantly the filter media.

I would bag up the fish. Not all in one bag, go to an LFS and get as many as you can. If you can take some tank water as an extra it wont do any harm.

Then take the filter media out and bag this up as well (Treat it like a fish and do not let it dry out).

Also bag up the substrate, keeping it wet or at least very damp.

Then do the move, rebuild the tank and filter etc. Get the temp up ASAP and get the fish in ASAP as well.

As long as you have kept the filter media "alive" and with any luck the substrate the tank should run almost as before.

Do you know the PH of the tank and your tap water?

WHat size tank and what amount of stock are we talking about (Numbers and species)?

Bob


Regards,

Ken.

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