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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

DIY canister filter...

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16 Apr 2012 12:05 #1 by SouthAfricanInIreland (Ryan Dokter)
Hi all, was doing a bit of wondering through the WWW, and came across a very interesting bit of DIY kit, that i think might interest some of you a word of warning though the link is to another aquarium forum which i'm not trying to punt for nor do i take any credit for the work, also cant say whether its safe or not so if you choose to do this its at your own risk... enjoy and let me know what your thought are...

DIY canister filter

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16 Apr 2012 12:32 - 16 Apr 2012 12:35 #2 by BillG (Bill Gray)
Good find :) could be worth trying it out and see how it works.
Love the DIY lamp shade in one of the pics :)
Last edit: 16 Apr 2012 12:35 by BillG (Bill Gray).

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16 Apr 2012 19:10 #3 by wylam (Stuart Sexton)
Oh that looks so cool, i am a diy nut and will try to make anything at least once lol.Hmmm wheres my pvc pipe and poly cement????? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Stuart.

Multi tasking: Screwing up more than one thing at a time.

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16 Apr 2012 19:30 #4 by davey_c (dave clarke)
cool camo style tank stand :lol: :lol:

i've seen external filters also been made from 5g buckets (like seasalt buckets) which might be an idea for larger tanks :cool:

Below tank is for sale

my plywood tank build.

www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...k-build-diary#137768

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16 Apr 2012 19:33 #5 by SouthAfricanInIreland (Ryan Dokter)
Awesome Wylam, if you do i would love to hear how it goes, i'm also a DIY nut but careful to dive headfirst into the project without testing the waters, once i've tried this want to look at an automatic water change system, i've come across a number of systems, but found them to be so elaborate that they really don't seem to be worth while, financially or in usefulness, i found that each time it was cheaper and less elaborate to just buy a commercially available kit like Python

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16 Apr 2012 23:08 #6 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
the ONLY thing that would worry me about doing a diy external is the volume calculations ie what size container for what size tank and then having the right size pump to run it... any ideas on this side of it folks

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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16 Apr 2012 23:26 #7 by SouthAfricanInIreland (Ryan Dokter)
Well based on the widely used formula a pump should move doble the water volume of the tank per hour, ie:

If your tank is 300 ltr you shoul use a pump that moves a minimum of 600 ltrs per hour as for the canister i don't think that should make a difference, i mean obviously make the canister a bit smaller as per the size of pump but i shouldn't think its necessary, only taste, or at least thats how i see it.

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16 Apr 2012 23:45 #8 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
i generally go for 3 to 4 times the volume of water in the tank as a general rule for my pump requirements as a minimum, but the more important question is the volume of the canister as not having enough media in a filter to cope with the bioload is almost as bad as not having it filtered at all, hence my container worry doing this diy also you then need a pump powerful enough to pull the water effectively through the media whilst still turning over the correct water volume... hence my previous question

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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17 Apr 2012 08:26 - 17 Apr 2012 08:27 #9 by SouthAfricanInIreland (Ryan Dokter)
You make a good point, it would make sense that the canister has to be able to carry enough filter media to handle bio load, it shouldn't be too hard to work out though! Here is a guid that can help you from the eheim site, eheim technical specs just click on the technical data tab
Last edit: 17 Apr 2012 08:27 by SouthAfricanInIreland (Ryan Dokter).

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17 Apr 2012 10:51 #10 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)
looks very well some great D.I.Y work

@bill that lamp looks the job haha

Sean

Sean Crowe

ITFS Member

Location: Navan

Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving

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17 Apr 2012 11:07 #11 by davey_c (dave clarke)
as far as media goes i think if you generaly size the diy cannister to a suitable cannister from eheim/jbl/tetra then you can't go too far wrong, as you know its better to have abit more media than less but when you look at even the size and capacity of the likes of the eheim classic's (which i understand are underpowered for their ratings) there's not a whole lot of media there for the size tank it will filter.
the link is only a guideline and a suitably sized cannister can be made from anything, i've even come accross sumps being made from storage containers :laugh:

Below tank is for sale

my plywood tank build.

www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...k-build-diary#137768

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17 Apr 2012 11:11 #12 by BlueRam (Sean Crowe)

as far as media goes i think if you generaly size the diy cannister to a suitable cannister from eheim/jbl/tetra then you can't go too far wrong, as you know its better to have abit more media than less but when you look at even the size and capacity of the likes of the eheim classic's (which i understand are underpowered for their ratings) there's not a whole lot of media there for the size tank it will filter.
the link is only a guideline and a suitably sized cannister can be made from anything, i've even come accross sumps being made from storage containers :laugh:


the bigger the better they say

sumps being made from storage containers not a bad idea at all

Sean

Sean Crowe

ITFS Member

Location: Navan

Always Remember Surviving Is Not Thriving

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