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
please post photos of your planted tanks
- lampeye (lampeye)
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it would be nice to see pictures of everyones planted tanks for inspiration and plagerism!
<br><br>Post edited by: Red Empress, at: 2007/07/26 10:02
lampeye
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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- georgina (georgina)
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- lampeye (lampeye)
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i reduced the lights to 8 hours a day for a month, removed a lot of the bogwood it was attached to and stopped fertiliziing....and it has really improved.
the diagonal wood with plants already established ,on the right is from tropica...got it in wackers...€45 but totally worth it. :wink:
lampeye
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- lampeye (lampeye)
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lampeye
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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- Tony Vaughan (Tony Vaughan)
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All it's missing IMO is some large altums !!
Best Regards................Tony
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- will (will)
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- Gavin (Gavin)
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dont make me come over there.
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- conor (conor)
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Personally I am great success with adding root tabs & cheap CO2.
The plants are growing out the top of the (opentop) tank, one is just huge with massive leaves - wish I could remember what its called.
It is also starting to bud -> from the looks of things, it will have a big flower!
However, I am having algae problems, likely due to the heavy feeding -> tons of my daughters baby guppies. They are of good stock though - no inbreeding!
I think if I add some phosphate asborb stuff it will sort it all out - going from how successful it is in the marine tank.
That pic is lovely by the way

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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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Great photos tanks_alot, love the last one, he looks so sad ahhh
Took these tonight:
Juwel 180 full of Corys and small plecos, there are also some shrimps and cardinals.
Juwel 450 bow front, home to about 12 plecos and more Corys plus general community fish to keep the top 3/4 of the tank busy

For the real eagle eyed there are a couple of plastic plants in each tank.
Daragh
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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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Really like the look of the 450. If you are looking to expand your collection of plecs they have some absolutely stunning green phantom plecs out in Kinsealys (check spelling) at the moment. They have three left, they are all in very good condition but will cost you €45 a pop or there abouts. But they are an absolutely stunning fish!
L200 Green Phantom Plec
As for the fake plants, I think I can spy most of them! They wouldn't happen to be the radiant green ones?
Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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The radiant geen ones are the real ones!! In the 450 the large green one in the centre is real, but I dont know what it is, I got it in Stillorgan. The only plastic ones are the small green one to the left of centre at the front and the samll reddish one right of centre towards the back.
The Green Phantom is a lovely pleco, I have one already, but always room for more, I will have a look if I am out that way.
Daragh
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- russell (russell)
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Co2 unit went in today ( Deltec) should see the light algea on back wall decreasing soon.( not a prob)
Ph Controller arriving next few days.
Will keep you posted re plant growth[/img]
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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Green Phantoms were €56 I know I treated them for fungus before Christmas. Came out super.
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- Pablo (Pablo -)
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- russell (russell)
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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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On paper with beautiful velvet lawns PLANNED with the same techniques use on a golf
Green (I am a real scaled down golf green in my garden)
.
Then there is the other type of gardener who may have more free time on his or hers hands, but has never planned there garden, and when they go to the garden centre the buy
On impulse different bulbs and semi grown flowers that need to be planted, and replace
Yearly. Of course they cover for the local cat food for the snails and oxygen for every one, but they are non re new able, almost chaotic, this type of gardener may more colour in his or hers garden than mine but he is as tacky as putting an air freshener in his car on view, he buys and 42 inch plasma TV (which are crap) instead of an 32inch or 37inch high end LCD TV, he will have a plug in hands free in his car instead of an blue tooth one. Basically you can take the man out of the bog but you can’t take the bog out of the man, this guy cant resist buying planted every 3 month, and would never dream of PLANNING one single species of plant that is renewable.
No matter how many water changes you do, you can take photos of a tank where the lower section in 100% clean, unless of course its only 2 weeks old which bring full circle what my thread is. I had to write this in word and cut and past as I am sick to tires of posting and getting rejected then having to re write it all again as the forum losses the text.
I notice before the de bug problem that the very first day we moved server there was a slight time delay after you summit a post before it shows up (not as good as before we moved) now the system is virtually un usable. Is the forum lacking money to home it in the right place?
P.S This text I have tried to post in the fakers forum but I have but is here, as its better than nothing. Good job I saved it in word document before the "de bug" lost it again in the fakers forum!
That would be a ecumenical matter!!!
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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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Never noticed this post before. Great looking tank lampeye, hope its all still going well for you and that the vallis has established itself. Based on the name of the post I though add few snaps of my attempt at a planted tank. Any chance of an updated picture of the tank lampeye?
That a nicely planted tank with healthy plants, do you think there is a link in keeping tropical plants at slighly lower temp? If not whats your secret to your success's?
That would be a ecumenical matter!!!
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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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One leave of one species, the rest no comment.[img][img]http://i124.photobucket.com/albums/p18/russellie/plants3.jpg[/img]
Let's hope Jack notices the new growth!!!!!!!!
[/img]
That would be a ecumenical matter!!!
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- Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
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Daragh
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- serratus (Drew Latimer)
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Deadly or wa?
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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- Valerie (Valerie)
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Valérie
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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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Thats a nicely planted tank with healthy plants, do you think there is a link in keeping tropical plants at slightly lower temp? If not whats your secret to your success's?
This tank has been a thorn in my side and hole in my pocket since I started it. Its been running for just over a year and I am only starting to get some sort of results out of it. I don't know if it is lower temperatures that make a difference as I have never kept a planted tropical tank at above 22/23 degrees. But from my experience so far, the one big tip I can give is that if you want a planted tank, plants seem to grown best when the tank is very heavily planted. So the more plants the better!
The biggest problem I had was the gold fish uprooting and eating all of the plants constantly. I have found that in order to combat this you need deep rooting/ fast growing and tough leaved plants.
Also in order for the growth to be greater than goldfish consumption, more light, diy co2 and good quality ferts where required.
Fertilizer
Root tabs for the larger stem plant
Kent- Freshwater plant liquid fert (Macro)
Kent- Freshwater plant pro (Micro)
The plants that I found out to be most appetizing for the fish where, elodea densea, cabomba, creeping jenny, straight vallis, crockscrew vallis. And nearly all of the other plants that I have added to date but the damage hadn’t been as severe.
The plants that I have in the tank at the moment that are growing well are as follws: Althernanthera Reinechii, hygrophila guianensis, two types of sword (very small and large), bacopa, and two plants I cant find the name but will try and find later.
March 2006
June 2006
September 2006
November 2006
Feburary
The only problem I am experiencing at the moment is that I cannot for the life of me get the java fern to grow. It is tied to a rock with thread and its rhizomes are not submerged in the gravel. Any tips or trick would be greatly appreciated.
Another top tip: If you are having a problem with algae due to excess nutrients get some hygrophila guianensis. Its acts like a sponge and grows incredibly quickly. Its a great plant and its the reason why I beat algae in my tank. \"Thank you Darren\". If anyone is looking for some cutting let me know and I get some to you or I will bring some to the next meeting of the ITFS or the NTFS. It is also able to survive in very low light levels and in unheated water making it a very versatile plant.
Regards
Denis<br><br>Post edited by: tanks_alot, at: 2007/07/18 19:41
Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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I think you have Hygrophylia polysperma rather than H.guianensis. That is if you are talking about the small leaved stem plants just on the left below the fish in the black and white photograph
Holger
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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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Tut tut tut, If you are going to give plants away for "free" the least you can do is get the name right. :roll: :roll: :roll: Only messing!
Thanks for pointing that out holger and nice spot. Are you big into your plants?
Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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Another top tip: If you are having a problem with algae due to excess nutrients get some hygrophila guianensis. Its acts like a sponge and grows incredibly quickly. Its a great plant and its the reason why I beat algae in my tank. "Thank you Darren". If anyone is looking for some cutting let me know and I get some to you or I will bring some to the next meeting of the ITFS or the NTFS. It is also able to survive in very low light levels and in unheated water making it a very versatile plant.
Regards
Denis
Ironically java fern is the only species that survives in my sons African tank, it as 2 hands fulls of tropical marine salt and every few month I add some fertilizer that has iron, if run it with 2 white tube one is light yellow to look at and one is light blue, I took one of them out after reading the ITFS blue light post to improve the blue colour on the blue fish, the plant since then have not grown any new leaves and look just as bad as the planted tank photo post!!! I have just took out the stupid blue light, and put back the old light. during the period the blue light was in the tank the fish still spawned despite mu plants starting to die, which proved the point even if a few poster sing the same helm, never believe every thing you read (including mine) if you think about it real sun ligh probally would have more u7v and way than any artifuical light, so the blue sterile thread could be bull, despite that 2 white tubes does not come no where near the lux of real sun light so by changing one for a blue one push the line over what is the minimum requirement of WHITE light for a plant to have new growth.
That would be a ecumenical matter!!!
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