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
Changing rock
- johnportman (John Clarke)
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I want to change the rock in my tank to river rock, I think it would look more natural.
I only have about 50kg of Holy rock in it at the minute.
The question I'm asking is, would I need to reinforce the stand if I was to put in around 150kg river rock.
Thanks
John
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- johnportman (John Clarke)
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- BillG (Bill Gray)
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if you could post a pic clearly showing the internal structure of your stand, would help in determining if you need ot re-inforce or not. It really depends on how the stand is set-up, wheter or not it is a stand that will accomodate a sump, or if it has full vertical pannels in the center.
You may not need to re-inforce for the extra 100kg.
Cheers,
Bill.
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- johnportman (John Clarke)
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I will upload pics tomorrow.
My cabinet houses a 4ft sump, but I just want to make sure it will hold the rocks I'm adding.
Could I add styrofoam in the bottom of the tank to help with the rocks in case they fall over cause Malawi move the sand around so much.
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- BillG (Bill Gray)
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I know what you mean about the fish moving the sand about and you are right bo protect the base from the potential of falling rocks. Would be best to use egg crate if you can get your hands on any. Just that the polystyrene will create a dead area under it where you will get all sorts of anaerobic bacteria, ends up getting messy with gasses like hydrogen sulphide being released into the water. I know egg crate can be a pain in the ass to source, but it allows for some level of circulation due to its structure. Its what most of the marine keepers try to use under their liverock.
Cheers,
Bill.
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- christyg (Chris Geraghty)
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Also, the rocks are not as heavy in the tank as the water provides bouyancy.

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- BillG (Bill Gray)
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Bear in mind the rock will obviously displace water equivalent to its own volume. I am not sure what kind of rock the river rock you plan to use is specifically. However if you use Basalt as the worst case, due to its density, it will give you the biggest weight added for the lowest displacement. Based on the density of Basalt being approximately 3 grams per cc, and a weight of 150kg as you said you are adding, here are the calculations for the worst case weight addition. Assuming the rock is not basalt, you will not be adding this much weight to the tank.
Density of rock (Basalt) – 3g/cc
150kg of rock equates to 50 litres of rock
50 litres of rock will displace 50 litres of water – 50kg
So total added weight is 100kg (take displaced water weight from the rock weight)
Here are calculations for sandstone and granite too.
Sandstone - the added weight is approx. 82kg based on sandstone density of approx. 2.2g/cc
Granite - the added weight is approx. 95kg based on sandstone density of approx. 2.7g/cc
Worst case, you are adding 100kg to the stand, so it may not require reinforcement, however it does depend on the support structure of the stand. So if you get a chance, please post the pics of the stands internals.
Cheers,
Bill.
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- anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
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Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,
And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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- sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
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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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