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
My New Tank
- gstar (gstar)
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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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Here is my critique! For a brand new tank it looks like I would expect. Skull, diver, sunken boat, plant print background, conspicuous air lines, non-aquatic plants (I'm sure that the variegated plant is non-aquatic and I'm fairly sure about the tulip looking ones on the right are non-aquatic too). The Amazon sword in the back left will be ok.
In my opinion large display tanks like this should be aquascaped to try and mimic a natural looking environment. I am being completely hypocrytical when I say this as when I started fish keeping I had fake marine ornaments in a fresh water setup! But the most important thing about starting a new fish tank is to ensure that the fish are kept healthy. Once this is achieved you can then being to develop the tanks structure and layout. Please keep us posted with the development of your new tank.
Regards
Denis
Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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- gstar (gstar)
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Got the rock in pet store in swords
Lad in shop called it rainbow rock 10 euro a rock
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- arabesque (Mick Veale)
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and with the organic aqua.. most beginners
go much smaller, overstock and end up killing fish and then
giving up on the hobby.
(sorry im assuming this is your first tank, maybe not)
Anyway my only advise is: if that is coral gravel (if not, ignore the rest of this post!)
it'll higher the pH of your water
and softwater fish wont like it...so test, and be careful of what fish you add
namely:
clown loach
angel fish
red tailed shark
are all softwater fish and prefer ph less than 7 ie acid
coral gravel buffers the water and makes it more alkaline and
might increase it as high as 8.2
Do you have a pH test kit?
You can add pieces of aquarium wood : bog wood / mopani wood
and while it might stain your water an orange colour it will soften
the water and bring the pH down.
hope this helps..
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- Pauly (Paul Mulvaney)
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- Sean (Fr. Jack)
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Here is my critique! For a brand new tank it looks like I would expect. Skull, diver, sunken boat, plant print background, conspicuous air lines, non-aquatic plants (I'm sure that the variegated plant is non-aquatic and I'm fairly sure about the tulip looking ones on the right are non-aquatic too). The Amazon sword in the back left will be ok.
In my opinion large display tanks like this should be aquascaped to try and mimic a natural looking environment. I am being completely hypocrytical when I say this as when I started fish keeping I had fake marine ornaments in a fresh water setup! But the most important thing about starting a new fish tank is to ensure that the fish are kept healthy. Once this is achieved you can then being to develop the tanks structure and layout. Please keep us posted with the development of your new tank.
Regards
Denis
Denis,
these are constructive criticism so its O.K:) , but may be he is copy JohhH tactical posting of the parrot fish on his aviator to keep a certain person off the net for peace.

That would be a ecumenical matter!!!
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- gstar (gstar)
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Fish seem to enjoy the biger tank
I Have a test kit but says on a post here if you use organic aqua it wont test properly i will try
Thanks for info mite get some bogwood
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- tamazepan (tamazepan)
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- arabesque (Mick Veale)
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