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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

wavemaker for planted tank

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18 Apr 2011 18:46 #1 by Dejwys (Deividas K.)
hi lads, more quastions...again ;] there is always something you dont know. I'm thinking to get wavemaker for my planted rio 125. I think it would help to keep substrate cleaner, becouse now its realy hard to do cleaning around the plants.. just wonder how powerfull wavemaker to get for this size tank ? thinking about Hydor Koralia Nano Wavemaker. 900L/Hr or 1600L/Hr ?

David.

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18 Apr 2011 19:07 #2 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Dawid,
I am not an expert but as far as I remember you have a planted tank with CO2. I was always adviced to create minimum - slight, gentle water surface movement in order not to push out CO2 from the tank too quickly. I use different tubings starting from air tubing to bigger ones to clean gravel and it works. In my opinion the most handy are tubings of 10 mm - you can reach nearly every place in the tank.

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23 Apr 2011 20:47 #3 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)

Dawid,
I am not an expert but as far as I remember you have a planted tank with CO2. I was always adviced to create minimum - slight, gentle water surface movement in order not to push out CO2 from the tank too quickly. I use different tubings starting from air tubing to bigger ones to clean gravel and it works. In my opinion the most handy are tubings of 10 mm - you can reach nearly every place in the tank.




Really! Is it true that a wavemaker is bad for plants!
I don't have co2


Your thoughts please lads


Mark

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23 Apr 2011 20:57 #4 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Mark,

It's not bad for plants but for CO2 that is supplied to the tank. It desapears from tank too quickly. If you don't have CO2 system, it does not matter if you have a wavemaker or not. It won't harm plants and will speed up oxygenation of the water.

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23 Apr 2011 21:05 #5 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: wavemaker for planted tank
Here you go, this will create alternating current without too much surface disturbance, I loved mine, you can use it without the Foam attachment.



www.aquatichouse.com/Pumps_files/hydorbioflo.asp


Kev.

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24 Apr 2011 00:01 #6 by joey (joe watson)
it is good to have some current in a planted tank to eliminate "dead spots" of no water movement and therefore no/too much nutrients in one spot, but this movement is under the water and not affecting the surface (co2 retention)
for small tanks i'd say no, use the filter output directed to where it looks like a dead spot is. i have a koralia 1 in a 450l (i have a low flow sump pump for effective bio filtration) and it does the job fine but in a small tank it would probably cause more hassle than its wort. also, angelfish are long finned slow swimmers so a strong current would make them work very hard and stress them too much (hence why i keep predominantly cyprinids)

hope this helps

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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24 Apr 2011 00:02 #7 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)

Mark,

It's not bad for plants but for CO2 that is supplied to the tank. It desapears from tank too quickly. If you don't have CO2 system, it does not matter if you have a wavemaker or not. It won't harm plants and will speed up oxygenation of the water.



Thanks Katherine

I'm ok so.. that's a relief :)

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24 Apr 2011 00:07 #8 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)
Thanks Kev i thought they would spin fast but i was looking on utube and its really slow :blink:

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24 Apr 2011 00:09 #9 by joey (joe watson)
mark, if you keep surface movement low (but NOT flat it'll give trouble) it'll help keep some co2 expelled by the fish in the water for the plants. just monitor fish's behaviour, if they are hanging near the surface you need to increase agitation

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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24 Apr 2011 00:10 - 24 Apr 2011 00:14 #10 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)
Joey my one is only a little Hydor nano wavemaker so i should be ok :blush:

My fish are never near the top which i thought might be a bad thing :dry: :)



Mark
Last edit: 24 Apr 2011 00:14 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill).

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24 Apr 2011 00:15 #11 by joey (joe watson)
i've a number 1 (a size up from nano) in a 4' 450l and its enough to move the water around without any harm. if i had one any bigger and it would probably give me hassle (although i want a nano for another corner - how much did you get yours for?)

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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24 Apr 2011 00:20 #12 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)
I got it off a forum member for i think 25euro its a Koralia 1600 L/hour its 55euro in the shops..

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24 Apr 2011 11:18 #13 by dar (darren curry)
sorry for the hijack but it will be beneficial, lads wat about easycarbo would to much surface movement expell the easycarbo. i have my 2000ltr pumping but it is not aggitating the surface just creating a swelling movement. should i alter the direction to stop this and use the air pump at lights out?

cheers. dar

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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24 Apr 2011 20:45 #14 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Dar, I think it isn't so easy to answer your question. first of all the most common mistake we all do at the begining of using EasyCarbo is to recognise it as a CO2 supply. In fact it isn't, it is carbon supplement but not carbon dioxide. Therefore I can only quess (I didn't find any information - maybe someone who is better at chemistry can confirm or denay it) that EasyCarbo is heavier than CO2 and the strong pump shouldn't make any problems. As far as I know there is no overfiltration recognised as something dangerous but underfiltration can make more harm to plants and tank (e.g. algae problems, unsufficient osygen supply for fish). If the output of your filter is put in such way that it only creates slight movement, I wouldn't be warried at all.
Since I set up my planted tank, I stopped using air pumps at all. My plants produce enough O2 during the day and even after night I still can find some air bubles under my lotos leaves.

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24 Apr 2011 20:54 #15 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
SpiderMonkey and Joey, would you suggest me buying Korali Nano wavemaker for my 260 l tank? Unfortunately, I cannot buy the one Kevin linked but the one that is for 35 - 50 l tank, 900 lph and should be pluged to the electricity (another 4.5 W) (sklep.roslinyakwariowe.pl/pompy/pompa-cy...lia-nano-p-6850.html). What are real advantages of using it in a much bigger tank than it's designed for?

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13 Aug 2011 09:35 #16 by smitas5 (Marius Smitas)
Hi there, I have simmilar issue. Even tho my aquarium is 400l and tx5 fluval should cover up to 1400litres tanks I still have a lot of spots in the tank that are full of poo all the time, or I get better coverage on the bottom, and then no surface movement.. I was told once you get it right, no need for substrate cleaning for a long time..

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13 Aug 2011 22:57 #17 by k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
I remember reading an article in PFK many moons ago about a man who was winning awards at the time (late 1980's) for his aquatic plants and he swore by having a current at the base of the plants because it replicated nature (stand knee deep in a stream and you will find the current is stronger at your ankles rather than your knees).
To this end in my 3ft community tank (my first, I still have it!!!)I put a Rena 215 power filter upside down with the outlet approx 1" from the gravel, my substrate was always clean and my plants thrived and had to be thinned monthly!
All I had was the Rena filters and a single 30" Gro-lux tube, regular water changes and alternate cleaning of the power filters resulted in an aquatic jungle, even had Kribs breed in it 2 weeks after introducing them to the tank.
:)

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13 Aug 2011 23:12 #18 by smitas5 (Marius Smitas)
you are sujesting to lower Fluval FX5 outlet nozzles nearly to the ground.. anyone done that before?

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13 Aug 2011 23:56 #19 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
A good flow rate for a planted tank is about 10 times the tanks volume per hour.
See how much the filter dose then you can figure out how much more you need and what flow rate pump you might need.

The idea of a spraybar across the back base of the tank works realy well at keeping any ditris in suspention for the filter to take care of.

The rotating flow deverter Kev put in his post works realy well. But these can reduce the flow by up to 20%.

I would try agitate the surface slihtly 24/7.
Plants respire all the time and not just at night which is a myth that tends to get past around a bit.
I use an airline just below the water surface that constantly brakes the surface.
The flow from this is increased at night not just becuse plants dont give of as much oxygen at night but it helps keep the PH a bit more stable after the Co2 goes off.

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14 Aug 2011 15:43 #20 by k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
Not lowering the fx5 outlets but putting a small internal power filter in the tank inverted to create a current at the bottom. :)

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14 Aug 2011 23:36 #21 by smitas5 (Marius Smitas)
what about powerhead or waterpump? would they do the job?

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15 Aug 2011 09:48 #22 by k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
You could use a powerhead or pump but remember that fish could get caught in the intake, you dont need a strong current, just enough to move the fish waste along the substrate towards the intake of your external.

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15 Aug 2011 10:31 #23 by smitas5 (Marius Smitas)

You could use a powerhead or pump but remember that fish could get caught in the intake, you dont need a strong current, just enough to move the fish waste along the substrate towards the intake of your external.


Any particular product you could recommend?

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15 Aug 2011 17:01 #24 by k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
Any old internal filter would do as you are not worried about the filtration if you have an FX5
here is a link to one with a spraybar attached I found on Ebay

cgi.ebay.ie/Aquarium-Fish-Tank-Internal-...9ff20c#ht_4945wt_983

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15 Aug 2011 17:36 #25 by smitas5 (Marius Smitas)
you think it would produce adequate power?

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15 Aug 2011 20:29 #26 by k.galvin (Kieran Galvin)
yes, you just need enough to move the detritus along your substrate towards your intake for the fx5

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