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)
-
Topic Author
- Visitor
-
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?
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Acara (Dave Walters)
- Offline
- Moderator
-
- Posts: 1048
- Thank you received: 28
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!
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- lampeye (lampeye)
- Offline
- Premium Member
-
- Posts: 741
- Thank you received: 0
(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
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- lampeye (lampeye)
- Offline
- Premium Member
-
- Posts: 741
- Thank you received: 0
lampeye
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- essjay (S Jackson)
- Offline
- Junior Member
-
- Posts: 191
- Thank you received: 0
Drive carefully though......
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Didihno (Didihno)
-
Topic Author
- Visitor
-
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- essjay (S Jackson)
- Offline
- Junior Member
-
- Posts: 191
- Thank you received: 0
Could buy a sheet of 20mm MDF and cut a piece off slightly bigger than the tank to rest on while transporting it
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- lampeye (lampeye)
- Offline
- Premium Member
-
- Posts: 741
- Thank you received: 0
lampeye
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Didihno (Didihno)
-
Topic Author
- Visitor
-
Perhaps I can remove most of the sand, leaving the root systems intact.
Messy but maybe do-able?
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Anthony (Anthony)
-
- Visitor
-
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


Not recommending what I did but just taught I would share my story
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Sean (Fr. Jack)
-
- Offline
- Elite Member
-
- Posts: 811
- Thank you received: 1
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!!!
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Anthony (Anthony)
-
- Visitor
-
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
-
- Visitor
-
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
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- Didihno (Didihno)
-
Topic Author
- Visitor
-
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!
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
-
- Visitor
-

Please Log in to join the conversation.
- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
-
- Visitor
-
My wife? no idea, want me to ask?
Please Log in to join the conversation.
- KenS (Ken Simpson)
-
- Offline
- Elite Member
-
- Posts: 940
- Thank you received: 10
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.
Please Log in to join the conversation.