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
Cheap MWS RO units
- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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Anybody looking for a cheap RO units try this link:
home-garden.search.ebay.ie/_Pet-Supplies...1QQsassZtopaffaire35
They are French but if you ask them they will include instructions in English. Comes ready to hook up to an outside tab
Holger
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- JohnH (John)
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your link just took me to the search page, would it be possible to have the actual auction link for the above?
John
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- scorphonic (Kieran Crosbie Staunton)
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I'll be keeping an eye on this site...thanks for the link!!

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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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here you go stores.ebay.ie/Groupe-optima_Osmoseur-Aq...fsubZ3QQftidZ2QQtZkm
@scorphonic,
quite correct I bid for the RO unit. They generally go for around 30€ plus shipping which is 16.50€. The smaller 190l/day units go for between 22-25€. But why bother if you can double the capacity for another 5€
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- Chief Robert (Chief Robert)
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I'm very interested to know how you will connect this to the tank. As in, what will the steps be to get the water from the RO unit into the tank.
I mean when the water leaves "tap" (with sufficient water pressure which we don't need to get into here I hope), and enters the RO Unit, the RO unit will "clean" the water - providing RO water. What then?
Do you put the RO water directly into the tank?
Do you heat it first?
Do you mix it with tap water (20%) and then add a total of 80:20 RO:Tap water to the tank?
How much of this is automated, and how much of this is a manual process? I've always been curious how much plumbing you guys do to automate as much of this work as possible. Do you have electronic timers to automate everything?
And how do you set it up so that for example, if you add 40 Gallons, you first of all remove 40 Gallons of water from the tank first?
Are you using a Sump by the way?
Cheers - and good luck!
(Have you decided whether to go with Discus again, and if so - what type do you have in mind?)
Rob
(Questions as always!!! But learning quickly...)
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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you can automate it but it's not feasible for me since my tank's in the living room and to get the plumbing in place I would need to take the floors up in the kitchen and living room. Best to ask Russell. I believe he heats the water first and then lets it run into his sump. I don@t have the space for a sump since the kids now have a playroom and I have considerably less space for fishtanks and so will put another 3 tanks under my maintank.
I have an attachment (came with the unit) that screws into my outdoor tap. You will get a ratio of about 1-4 RO/waste water. the Ro water runs into a vat and once I get around to it the waste will water the garden. I use bicarbonate of soda to bring up the kH to stabilize the RO water.
Did I ever mention that I wouldn't go with discus again? Of course I will. They are ordered and I should have them within the next 3 weeks. Saw the parents , lovely browns with a good bit of blue in the head and back.
Holger
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- JohnH (John)
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Did I ever mention that I wouldn't go with discus again? Of course I will. They are ordered and I should have them within the next 3 weeks. Saw the parents , lovely browns with a good bit of blue in the head and back.
Some people...
And there was me thinking you'd seen the light...
Good luck with them all the same.
John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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Not really, I'm getting the fish for a very good price directly from the breeder. I'd better not say what I am paying for them or the death threats will start to come in from the fish dealers of Ireland

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- JohnH (John)
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Back to the thread.....
I bid £20 odd (€30+) on yesterday's one and was soundly beaten out of sight!!!
Looks like I'll have to keep trying!
Actually I'm not certain why I'm trying to get one - I don't think I would be able to use it anyhow!
I just thought I could disengage the membrane and make use of the pre-filters...but I have the means to do that already!
Thinking about it it was a lucky break that I got outbid!
Cheers, whoever you were.
John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- JohnH (John)
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Just have to collect them in Dublin airport. Friend of mine is a pilot with Lufthansa and he arranged the transport for me.

Problem solved!!!
Couldn't you get the father to ask him to bring your L-46s too?
John
I'm not giving up that easily on my quest for some of the first lot of offspring!!!!

Location:
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- russell (russell)
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I use to run the RO straight into the sump. it only trickles out. ( if the ro comes out fast it a sign the membrane isnt doing its job) as it is only a slow trickle the temp dosn't fluctuate. I also had an outlet on the sump as a continuos drain, the amount fo water from overflow equals the same as the ro going in. you just have to watch the KH as the ro being pure water it has a KH of almost 0. so just add a small ammount of baking soda to get the KH at 2-3.
If you store the RO you will find the PH will rise!!! With it running straight to sump the Ph dosn't realy have time to change so stays stable.
Having taken down the sump I am now building another. it seems the easiest way to go.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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problem is my parents are living almost 350 miles away from Frankfurt. The fish would be in transit for too long.
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- JohnH (John)
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Still, I deserve 9/10 for endeavour!
John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- Deeco (Deeco)
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am interested in maybe seting up have
only seen one setup before
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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If you want to see Russell whole set up, have a look through the forum. He did a documentation on it.
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- russell (russell)
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This is an RO set up.
The unit is connected to a water supply via a self piercing screw,
it is forced up the white pipe into the filtration units passing through a sediment filter and on mine two carbon block filters.
It then flows into the top unit ( the membrane) on the left side and this fiters out all the nasties letting only Pure water pass through the membrane via the blue pipe. you can direct the flow into your storage system.
Remember the waste water has to have somewhere to go. mine runs through the wall and into an outside drain.
I hope Anthony gets an archives up soon , so we dont have to keep explaining it.
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- Deeco (Deeco)
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- komalley (K OM)
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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Before you buy a RO unit make sure you have at least 3 bar water pressure or else the RO unit won't work.
Hope you don't mind me asking but what do you need a RO unit in the first place or in other words what fish are you planning to keep?
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- komalley (K OM)
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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Some of the 4 and 5 stage units claim to remove protozoa and bacteria as well and to last a bit longer before the pre-filters and membrane need to be replaced. Not really an issue if your tap water is Ok to drink.
How hard is your tapwater? let's just assume 20 gDH and your unit removes 95% of that. You should end up with with a hardness of .4 degree. In your case I would rather invest the extra money on a conductivity meter and good stock discus. What strain are you looking for?
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