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
fluval Edge
- newrossman (newrossman)
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www.fish-keeper.net/Forum/index.php?showtopic=13712&st=0
And PM me the location at 119 down my way range from 135 to 150
Reef 55 Gallons
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- sincgar (Feargal Costello)
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- newrossman (newrossman)
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Looking to get a heatmat instead of a internal heater but a bit confused on which one to get. I seen a few with different wattage 4 & 8 watts etc, so which one is better???
I am guessing the 8 watts will be better but is it sufficient to heat the volume of water and how do you control the temp of the water.? Is the mat always on?
Can you get these mats with a control stat??
Cheers
GB
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Decided to go down the heat mat route to heat the tank, it a heatmat made for lizards etc. but other lads said they used them so i will give it a go. I just couldn,t find a suitable small heater that wouldn,t be noticed in the tank and trying to source the fluval heater was like finding a pot of gold:angry:
So to my question, the heatmat fits a treat so i am happy with that but it comes with small rubber standsoffs that are meant to go between the mat and the tank. Are these required if used for an aquarium???
I don,t really want to use them as they will raise the level of the tank up off the stand so did other people use these standoffs when using these heatmats..
Itching to get the tank going so any quick answers would be very grateful:blush:
Cheers
GB
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- conor (conor)
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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did other people use these standoffs when using these heatmats..
GB
Just seen you post now Gerry. I have used heatmats before without any "standoffs". Just the mat directly under the tank.
The ones i used would heat the tank to 28-30c so watch the temperature.
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If you're going to be crazy, you have to get paid for it or else you're going to be locked up.
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Got a few plants at the weekend and a bit of bog oak, looking good so far but still have a bit of tinkering to do to get it the way i want it. have 6 neons in it at the moment so i will give it a week or two till i starting adding anything else but i have it cycling the last 2 weeks.
Will post a few pics when i get the chance.
have to come up with a cleaning solution for the tank, i knew when i bought it that it was going to be tricky, the problem is you have to take out some of the water when you put your hand in or it will overflow at the cutout on the top of the tank. This is fine when you are doing a water change but when you want to move something or just clean the glass you have to get rid of all the air bubbles when you refill it and it is pot luck, sometimes it works out handy but other times its a swine to get some of them out.
Thinking of a flexible rod with a sponge attached that you can put in the tank and move around without raising the water level to much, no working models yet but i will come up with something:dry:

Thanks again lads
GB
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- platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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I know this defeats the purpose of the tank design, but it might suit you better untill the tank is finished and fully stocked.
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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Cheers
GB
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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- Gavin (Gavin)
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dont make me come over there.
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- scubadim (scubadim)
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we've set a Fluval Edge about a month ago,no heater or heatmat but the temperature in the shop is never below twenty Celsius.it is holding now 15coopers harlequins,6red Cristal bee shrimps,2pagoda snails and one Bolbitis heudelotii.25%water change per week:so far so good.sometimes bubbles appear on the corner but the work top it is on is not perfectly levelled

it looks quite good,and so far not so hard to keep clean.
Dimitri
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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have a heatmat with no stat and so far it is working fine, stable at about 22 - 24 degrees. test will be as it gets colder will it be able to keep the heat stable.
Scubadim
The more you clean it the easier it gets, finally have a nack for cleaning it and it take about 20 mins including the water change. I think it is well worth the hassle as the tank looks stunning when it is clean and especailly at nite time when nothing else is on in the room.
Stretnik
Regarding the led lighting, where did you get them and do they fit the unit as is or do you have to jig the unit to fit the lights. I love the shimmer the halogen gives but have to agree they are slightly to focused, i have live plants in the tank and the bigger they grow the less light pentrates to the bottom of the tank. Would be interested in given the leds a go to see the effects
Cheers
GB
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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You probably know this already but if you are going to stick mirrors on the tank just make sure the glue or adhesive you use is safe for fishtank.
let us know how you get on
thanks again
GB
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