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
Barebottomed and lovin it.........
- mickdeja (Mick Whelan)
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Follow me up to Carlow
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- gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
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My fluval edge is about 3/4 bare bottomed with a few black pebbles in one corner to give the tank some depth. I like the look of it, its so easy to clean.
I suppose at the end of the day its down to personal preference, i know some people think its bad for the fish as it is like you living in a house full of mirror but my fish don,t seem to mind, never had any problems with bare bottom. I have other things in the tank like some bogwood and plants so its not totally void of anything to look at or some thing for the fish to hid behind.
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but with no strata you reduce the area were beneficial bacteria can grow. thus you increase your work load and may leave your tank open to more problems.
a bare bottom will effect some species when it comes to breeding.
fry raised in bare bottoms may be more prone to disease.
just some things to consider.
Mickey
Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods
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- Ma (mm mm)
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Depends on species and how many kept I guess. My tank would look manky after 10 mins with the plecos loaches and eels would freak out altogether.
Mark
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- Ma (mm mm)
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They'd make do I am sure, the fish, but you will not get natural behaviour I reckon.
Mark
EDIT as for the gravel issue n its filtering properties, No gravel will usually mean no waste trapped on the bottom too, so one will cancel out the other, no grav no cr@p on the bottom building up.
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- Ieva star (Ieva Fogta)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Something else I've noticed, scratches seem magnified on bb Tanks.
append to the last poster, Corys, Geophagus sp. Discus, Gobies, Pit spawners et all would be more stressed without it. Plus, in Tang/Malawi Tanks it acts as a damper to falling Rockwork.
Kev.
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- Ma (mm mm)
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I am no spert so all I do is really make it as cushy for the little buggers as possible while balancing that with sufficient water flow about the tank objects. No scaping from me for a while yet matey, noooovice.
I tell thee you will not find happier corys than mine:)
Mark
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Where are you moving to btw?
Kev.
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- mossy (gavin blanchfield)
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You are, just mental, and I love it, you always make me laugh.
Where are you moving to btw?
Kev.[/quote
???????????????
you on the heavy stuff again kev
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as for the gravel issue n its filtering properties, No gravel will usually mean no waste trapped on the bottom too, so one will cancel out the other, no grav no cr@p on the bottom building up.
more time spend taking it out plus fish will be exposed to the chemical normally removed by beneficial bacteria for longer as the amount of bacteria is reduced.
As for cory's well a few years back Daragh Owens was looking for black sand to help with their breeding forget which species. this points to the importantance of what you put on the bottom of the tank.
personally i found i lost more fry from tanks with out strata then from thanks with strata. and once i added some you could see the difference. less belly crawlers etc
mickey
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- DJK (David Kinsella)
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Mark. wrote:
As for cory's well a few years back Daragh Owens was looking for black sand to help with their breeding forget which species. this points to the importantance of what you put on the bottom of the tank.
Exactly
I would like to hear of any tropical fish that has to endure their reflection poking back at them from all angles for 8 hours a day on average in their natural enviroment.
As for Corydoras, well it's their natural instinct to have a dig even from a very early age. They are a scavenger fish after all. Sand is best for these because their barbels can get damaged if you have a coarse substrate in their early stages.
Dave
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- Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
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Jay
Location: Finglas, North Dublin.
Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.
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