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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

Building Tanks from Reclaimed glass

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11 Dec 2008 22:53 #1 by Johnmorrin (John Morrin)
Ok so I need a few more tanks for my little fish shed. One of my friends works as a window installer and I asked him to keep me some glass.Little did I know that they had loads of it in their workshop waiting to be dumped. I got a few panes off him this evening. Its only 4mm but he has loads of 6mm and 8mm on the way to me :)

Heres what I got this evening :




Heres a cutting bench I set up , Its actually an old hospital bed and has hydraulic height adjustment :)




One tank cut , edges sanded and ready to be cleaned and siliconed :




A box of clear silicone I got at trade price in work from our Wurth supplier, 5 euro a tube :cheer:




And just to be sure its safe :)



Thats about it for now , ill finish up this tank tomorrow evening , and cut pieces for a few more.Its 24" x 12" x 12" if your wondering ;)

Stay tuned for updates B)

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12 Dec 2008 00:56 #2 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Fair play to you john. I have always planned to do a tread on making tanks but i'm just to lazy.
That's some work shop you have. You seem to have everything. I think you should change your user name to steptoe:laugh:

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12 Dec 2008 08:30 #3 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
We look forward to the next instalment John :woohoo:

LB

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12 Dec 2008 13:35 #4 by Johnmorrin (John Morrin)
Thanks guys , Its not my workshop its the brother in laws. Mine is still under construction , have a 45 x 30ft concrete slab poured for it (This is what the mobile is sitting on) cant build my shed until we start building the house tho :( , bit nervous about getting a mortgage at the moment tho.
Should get this on siliconed up this evening and glass cut for two or three more all going well :)

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13 Dec 2008 22:02 #5 by Johnmorrin (John Morrin)
Got a bit more this done this evening.Was supposed to do a bit yesterday but I got called out on a breakdown :angry: . I got the first tank siliconed together.



Then I had to strip down one of the double glazed units to get some more glass for the second tank.This is not for the faint of heart as the pressure you have to put on the stanley knife to cut through the black sealer is incredible.



After Splitting , all the black sealer has to be scraped off the glass.Luckily I remembered to get some blades from work :) Got these for a tenner



I then made them into a scraper with the trusty vice-grips :P



After cleaning the glass and sanding the edges it was ready for assembly.I Didnt get many pics of this cos it has to be done quickly before the silicone starts going off.





One of the seams



The two tanks side by side , have to leave the cure now for 24hrs until I can test with water.




Oh and the 110,000BTU heater helped with the cold in the shed this evening :)



Thats all for this evening folks , As always stay tuned for updates :)

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13 Dec 2008 22:34 #6 by gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
How many tanks are you making in total Johnmorrin? With all the savings you will make on the purchasing of the tanks you will be able to bling the tanks out.
Great thread keep it up:cheer: :cheer:

GB

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13 Dec 2008 22:40 #7 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
HI John,
Great to read this and see the stages have to say you got more shots than i would.

I have one question what did you use to sand the edges. a silly question. in the past i was told a rub of an oil stone for this job.

Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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13 Dec 2008 22:42 #8 by Johnmorrin (John Morrin)
Gonna make one more of the same size , 24x12x12.Then when I get some 6mm and 8mm glass off my glass guy Im going to build a few larger ones.
Im also toying with the idea of making a 6ft x 12" x 12" for a cichlid display tank , dunno yet tho cos long cuts in glass are tricky :)

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13 Dec 2008 22:48 #9 by Johnmorrin (John Morrin)
Hi Mickey , Yeah i keep having to remind myself to take pictures as I go along. I used P800 Silicon Carbide paper to sand the edges , It doesnt really sand it per say , it just takes the razor edge off it so you dont reef yourself during assembly.Another good tip is to put a drop of oil on the cutter before scoring the glass.

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14 Dec 2008 00:11 #10 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
great thread john, we should change your name to mr diy

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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14 Dec 2008 02:41 #11 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
don't know many ppl who have a forklift in their workshop !! wow

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14 Dec 2008 17:34 #12 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
Great to see your progress John, that is some lump of a heater that workshop looks like a pleasure to work in ;)

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