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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

speed set up

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22 Feb 2009 01:48 #1 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
im in a predicament, my friend droped me up an unwanted tank nd stand which i stashed in the spare room so the missus wont see it. she will snap if she sees the tank as i already have an 80l and a 400l marine tank and spend most of my spare time messin with those. now, here is the plan, she is going away for a few days iv already cleaned the tank which had been used prior for at least a year mostly angel fish (freshwater)by my mate. shes going away next weekend. i intend to fill this tank with reverse osmosis water,wood,sand/gravel,lots of plants and dose it with cycle or demitrol(bacteria) on the friday. saturday add more cycle.sunday morning waterchange again with ro water add more cycle and also a bag of gq carbon , test the water nitrate/amonia/ph/nitrite aslong as they arent too bad im going to add 10 pygme puffers. i know she will love them when she sees them and realisticly fresh water shouldnt be time consuming for me. DO YOU THINK IT WILL WORK? i am a perfectionest when it comes to water quality,almost daily especially at start up or if i think their maybe a prob so iwill have a seriously close eye on it.oh yeah loads of co2. whats all the experts verdicts? if any body has any suggestions or tips to pull this off with complete success it would be a big help. thanks in advance

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22 Feb 2009 03:39 #2 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
I like your plan. Sneak an extra tank in and hope she is in good form when she returns.
You could save yourself some time by skipping the RO and cycle. You could use an Organic Aqua starter pack and either keep using the Organic Aqua or just let it cycle through. they also do a plant fertilizer.

Regarding Co2 and quick setup's. I would go for low light plants and use a liquid carbon like easy-life easycarbo instead of injecting Co2 with high light plants.
A high light tank could probably take up to much of your time in the first 4-6 weeks. Not exactly the impression you are trying to give the missus.
A low light tank could be set up fairly quickly with little maintenance.
You can get plants like Anubias, ferns or mosses attached to wood or rocks that add an instant effect.
Just on a side note, Gavin in Wackers informed me today that Tropica plants have dropped there prices.

If you really want to go the Co2 route with lots of light and lots of fertz, i wouldn't add fish for a few weeks. You will only give yourself hassle trying to balance the tank.

Either way the puffers should be fine. They do fine in either setup.

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22 Feb 2009 19:48 #3 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
can you please allaborate on this starter pack. im surprised i never came accross this product before but low lights is defo the way to go for me. she loves puffers, but i dont really like keeping them in my marine tanks as they can be a bit dodgy.ill ring eric from wackers later and see if he has that starter pack available. liquid carbon dosnt really sound like my cup of tea. if i cant remove it, i dont really want it. what makes it better than active carbon? cheers mate thanks for your help, its much appreciated

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23 Feb 2009 01:34 #4 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Organic Aqua has been covered on the forum before. Do a search for it.
Basically you add this to the tank with tap water. You dont use any established bacteria from any other tank. The idea is to not allow the normal bacteria build up in the tank. Every month you do a water change and clean the filter in tap water to kill of any bacteria (nitrosomas & nitrobacters). You just need to keep the tank well aerated and keep the lid of the tank open slightly for air exchange. You could just open the lid at night when you go to bed.
The bit you may not like is dont test your water and dont change any water for the first month. Your test readings will be all over the place but the fish will be fine. You just have to trust the product.
If you dont want to keep using Organic Aqua just change some water after a month and dont clean the filter.
So fill and heat the tank. Go get the fish. When you are adding the fish add the Organic aqua and that's it for the first month. Less maintenance = more time with the missus.

The liquid carbon is not like activated carbon. It is not for absorption it is a carbon source for the plants. It is used instead of Co2 gas. You just add it to the tank along with some plant fertilizer.
Plants need carbon as a building block so they can photosynthesise and grow.

It is also worth mentioning low light tanks shouldn't get large water changes. 10% every 2 weeks is more than enough.

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23 Feb 2009 19:36 #5 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
nice 1 platty. thanks for the advise, its been so long since i kept freshwater. your help is greatly appreciated, i should be able to take it from here.wish me luck , hopefully she wont snap and i can start on another tank, i eventually want to set up another nano tank for my seahorses and use the 400l for a kind of predetor tank ,lion fish ,BS ray large tangs stone and file fish id love to get my hands on a frog fish.

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23 Feb 2009 20:09 #6 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Best of luck with the new tank. Hope it all goes smoothly.
Just one thing about the dwarf puffers. Mine will only take live food. Other people on here get away with feeding frozen food.
Either mine are spoilt or it is down to the individual puffers.

You should have no problem getting a frog fish. I have seen them in shops often enough.

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23 Feb 2009 20:21 #7 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
did they even refuse bloodworms?do you cultivate your own livefood? do ya know anywhere that has puffers in stock? sorry about all the questions.
thanks once again,

paddy

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23 Feb 2009 21:38 #8 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Yes mine refused bloodworm. If it didn't move it wasn't food. They just arent interested.
I have a small culture of whiteworms that they get occasionally. Mostly they are fed snails that are in the tank and some i culture in a tub. They also get live brine shrimp every second day.
They had some in Aquatic village Brittas recently. Send Serratus a PM.

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23 Feb 2009 22:00 #9 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
will do thanks once again, your a gentleman

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23 Feb 2009 23:06 #10 by peter (peter campbell)
are we talking about pea puffers or are dwarf puffers bigger.
cause 10 pea puffers would get lost in a 400l tank

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23 Feb 2009 23:32 #11 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
i currently have mini reef nano tank 80l and a 400l seahorse tank with five seahorse a couple of fish and im collecting a pair of trumpet pipe fish on friday, i hope. i would like to transfer them into a 120l nano tank and use the 400l for larger fish.the puffers are going into an 60-80l i got of a friend. this is the nano, project still in progress but going very well.
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23 Feb 2009 23:38 #12 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
and here are some of the ponys in the 400l. theres more in my cb gallery

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23 Feb 2009 23:45 #13 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
dono what happened there
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24 Feb 2009 00:02 #14 by Mick0075 (Michael OSullivan)
Love your ponies !!,

Really really want a marine setup, maybe someday !!

Mick

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24 Feb 2009 00:12 #15 by john gannon (john gannon)
Replied by john gannon (john gannon) on topic Re:speed set up
beutiful seahorses paddy,just wondering do you have any trouble feeding them with the fish
john

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24 Feb 2009 00:16 #16 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
thanks mate
i had a go breeding them with the help of keelan from seahorse ireland. i had some sucess(hundreds/thousands of babies), one day i hope to buy a seahorse breeding tank but they are seriously expensive and it takes a serious amount of effort, which im unable to give due to work commitments. oh yeah out of the thousands of babies only a couple survived. im sure i could reach about 80percent if i had a specialised tank the smallest 1 i have seen costs €900

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24 Feb 2009 00:22 #17 by john gannon (john gannon)
Replied by john gannon (john gannon) on topic Re:speed set up
no chace you could do a diy one:woohoo: :woohoo:
seriously well done onthe small success youve had!!!
you could always add a lunar wrasse to your preditor tank there serious hedbangers
john

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24 Feb 2009 00:49 #18 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Paddy you got my quriosity going when you say €900 for a seahorse breeding tank. Do you have a photo of one?

John are you trying to fob off one of your headbanger fish again.:laugh:

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24 Feb 2009 00:55 #19 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
i feed them in one corner of the tank they know when im going to feed them. they wait 4 me to come home and dance at the corner of the tank until i give them their mices. i have thought about making a fry tank but they have to be an oval shape the current has to keep the fry rotating in a circular motion, like a jellyfish tank. too hard for me to create i think. ive tried a lot of different ways and sometimes gotlarge amounts of fry to surrvive over a month. i might have been more sucessfull if i had more time on my hands. any way here is a pic of the girls feeding in the corner, there are a few pics of the ponies in my cb gallery. thanks for all the nice comments, most of the lads think ive gone off my head.
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24 Feb 2009 01:03 #20 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
no headbanger fish for me. there just happens to be a lot of unusual looking predetor fish most of them calm enough, once they cant fit you into their gob that is. i still want to keep some lrg tangs for colour. not going to fit that much in a 400l though.

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24 Feb 2009 01:08 #21 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Paddy i know very little about seahorses but i think there was an old method of raising the young in a square tank with an airline in each corner. This somehow kept the fry or little horsys in suspension.
I cant remember all the in's and out's off hand but i will have a think about it and get back to you.

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24 Feb 2009 01:09 #22 by PetCoLongMileRoad (Drew Latimer)
hey paddy hope your plan works out we have organic aqua start up and maintenance kits in stock on the long mile road eric works here now btw

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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24 Feb 2009 01:27 #23 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
platty once again your a gentleman, if you can remember i would love advice. i did try a square tank but only used 1 about 30 percent lived longer than a month. id say water quality killed them. as i said if i had more time id say i would do quite well.mind you its easy when you have keelen on speed dial. id say he was sick of my voice

hi sb87

iwas talking to him today, hes back into the marines. ive asked him to try and get his hands on the puffers for me, fingers crossed he will sort it out in time. are you from springfield i just had a look at your profile,reason i ask is if you do we are prob neighbours

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24 Feb 2009 01:32 #24 by PetCoLongMileRoad (Drew Latimer)
yeah haha im from alderwood lawn!!

you??


we can get ya those pygmy's in for thursday if ya want there on the list

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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24 Feb 2009 01:45 #25 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
here is the catch ill need them friday next if you can hang onto 8-10 of them that would be great. what a brill site. yeah me ma lives in alderwood green and i live in fernwood park. most of the lads would call me pajo kelly.

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24 Feb 2009 01:50 #26 by PetCoLongMileRoad (Drew Latimer)
well im sure we can get em in next thursday for ya!


ah just around the corner!

can't say i know the name

say hello next time your in!!
:)

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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24 Feb 2009 01:51 #27 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
how much are they i heard they are quite cheap.

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24 Feb 2009 01:53 #28 by PetCoLongMileRoad (Drew Latimer)
6 or 8 euro cant remember but ya buy 3 get 1 free so it wont hurt your pocket too much!
they are funky lil fish im thinkin of settin up a lil tank for them myself

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24 Feb 2009 02:00 #29 by reefpaddy (paddy kelly)
wow i cant believe they are that cheap, i have got so used to schelling out for marines. ill take 12 so, and i belive your plants are on special. cant wait, hopefully they breed i believe they breed quite easily

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24 Feb 2009 02:08 #30 by PetCoLongMileRoad (Drew Latimer)
we do indeed!


they will probably be juveniles that we get in so it wont be easy to sex when they get older you'll see a brownish line on the underside of the male and females generally are rounder!
:)

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