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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

on the bandwagon with the planted pics...

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23 Dec 2010 00:06 #1 by joey (joe watson)
a few pics of my planted tank at various stages. a fair bit all over the shop the vallis have taken over up front. these and more will all be going into the biggie (if i ever get to start it!)
84l, 27c, 4ml easycarbo daily, 8ml profito weekly, 4ml ferro weekly, 24w powerglo t8







in the nets are 5 cory sterbai fry, the other with cory eggs
the red plant (sorry dont remember name) shot up butu algae got the better of it, i saved what i could and replanted

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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23 Dec 2010 00:58 #2 by SpiderMonkey (Mark O'Neill)
The tank looks great joey I'm using easycarbo, profito but what's that ferro? And where can I get those breeding nets?


Cheers joey


Mark

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23 Dec 2010 10:17 #3 by Ma (mm mm)
Lookin good Joey, growin in nicely. I used Easy Carbo myself, great product tat is not effected as much with aeration as CO2 injection is.

I definately had more success with fert pellets crushed into the substrate than I had with any liquid fert, rooted plants in my short experience do better with fert tabs, or both in measure, growth was much faster and plants were far greener than with liquid fert alone, but it was only with one tank I had planted heavuly, so other factors could have been in play. Obviously there are many more on here witrh way more experience that may know better.




Mark

Location D.11

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23 Dec 2010 12:08 #4 by joey (joe watson)
@dickiedocker: ferro is an iron fertiliser from easylife, it helps give greener leaves and i'm only using it a few weeks but the swords and crypts are loving it!
the nets are by marina and can be found in nearl every pet shop that has an aquatics section. far superior to the plastic guppy traps (wish i'd bought them sooner)

@mark: i have the jbl 7 balls in there around the crypts and swords which obvoiusly has contributed something. the lush green comes from iron (hence adding ferro) but i asume it is also found in the pellet ferts too.

i think for the big tank it will be more economically viable to inject co2 as i'd have to add 18ml of easycarbo a day, getting thru 1l in less than 2 months. thats over 120euro a year even if i buy easycarbo in bulk! but like you say mark its possible to keep up good aeration when using easycarbo so its less of a threat to the fish, plus pH is unaffected (no risk of bottoming out) but results are not as good. i have spray bar on that wee tank and its useful to help the corys spawn to simulate rain

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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23 Dec 2010 12:38 - 23 Dec 2010 12:39 #6 by Ma (mm mm)
18ml daily seems a lot

I was adding 5ml every morning at 6am for a 300L choked with plants though I changed about 90% of the water weekly. I had 150 fish in it too so I had to keep the easy carbo addition reduced. The tank bloomed though with the 5ml morning injection and the fert pellets. Most of what a plant needs is in tap water, hte fert supplies what is missing from tap water, I only added fert for floating and attached plants every two weeks, too much fert can have an adverse effect on plant growth. Your plants do look nice n healthy though.

5ml Easycarbo daily kept all these going quite well, adequate flow and water changes are just as important as is correct temp ph and stable water parameters.

File Attachment:



Mark

Location D.11
Last edit: 23 Dec 2010 12:39 by Ma (mm mm).

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23 Dec 2010 21:59 #7 by joey (joe watson)
the 18ml is based on a 450l tank, full dose with very high plant stock. will probably only put 10ml daily but still, its more expensive than co2 (i think, judging by some prices i've got for refills)

gunna ramp up turnover to 10x with the help of a 6800l/h pump (yet to be purchased) and run it thru spray bars plus i have a koralia in the big tank too. just praying i get similar results in the big tank to what i have in the 84l tank

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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23 Dec 2010 22:13 #8 by Ma (mm mm)
You should be fine lookin at the plants above, bit of trial and error I am sure with a larger project in the beginning as with us all. Good ;uck with the larger tank, and dont forget the pics



Mark

Location D.11

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23 Dec 2010 22:19 #9 by joey (joe watson)
i will be doing a small blog of the whole thing once i have the wood and other equipment got, like a step by step guide to how i did it, but will put it up all together once its finished (well depending if i get stuck or am unsure about how to do something but there will be a million and one questions posted :P )

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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24 Dec 2010 10:40 #10 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
There's a nice looking crypt I see there.

good to see the cory breeding still going on. :)

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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24 Dec 2010 12:07 #11 by joey (joe watson)
the one next to the flower pot on the right basically died and only now is coming back (but them bloody vallis are hiding it) and the crypt front left is doing amazing that too suffered a bad way before the easy carbo came. most the cory eggs are laid (lost) in it that plant :angry:

yesterdays xmas bonus went on the 6800l/h pump and light ballast, with enough to spare for the wood to build this flippin stand!

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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