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
tips fpr cleaning sand
- Damian_Ireland (Damian_Ireland)
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- ChrisM (ChrisM)
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Best of luck!
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- Acara (Dave Walters)
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always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!
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- Damian_Ireland (Damian_Ireland)
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- tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
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Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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The dirt usually rises to the top.
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- S180de (S180de)
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- scorphonic (Kieran Crosbie Staunton)
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- Damian_Ireland (Damian_Ireland)
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now got a dirty tank. Have spent about 6 hours putting more water in and rinsing it out and still not clear... will go at it again tomorrow....
I still have another bag of sand to get through.. Is the tights the best approach ?
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- zale (Mark carroll)
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It's slow but much easier to handle.
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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had used the bucket technique and it failed for me...
now got a dirty tank. Have spent about 6 hours putting more water in and rinsing it out and still not clear... will go at it again tomorrow....
I still have another bag of sand to get through.. Is the tights the best approach ?
Did you buy that cheap playsand. Too light for an Aquarium if you ask me.
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- Damian_Ireland (Damian_Ireland)
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think i am gonna just go with gravel again...
have a pain in my ass with the sand
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- Anthony (Anthony)
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I have silver aquarium sand if you want it.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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your sand will settle eventually. What you can do to clear your watr is to get some API water cleaner that will clear your water in a couple of hours. Just make sure you have filter wool in your filter. After the water has cleared just throw away the filter wool. You might have to repeat that once but there is plenty in the bottle.
Holger
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- Tetra (Tetra)
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Sorry for hi jacking the thread by the way
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- Damian_Ireland (Damian_Ireland)
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1. B&Q sand. Was complete muck.
2. Calstone Gravel. Looked great but upped pH too much.
3. Anto Sand. A big thank you to Anto who gave me some sand which is super. The difference between it and B&Q stuff cannot be understated.
Tank is now almost setup, got 1 or 2 cosmetic issues to sort out and then will post some pics over the next few days.
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- apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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I have an awful feeling that you bought B&Q building rather than the playsand. The building sand isn't prewashed and is as you say pure muck. I found the playsand very easy to clean. Maybe they have several suppliers and the stuff you got was different from mine.
I couldn't get quarzsand in Cork which would have been my first choice
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- JohnH (John)
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I went to Woodies yesterday and bought two bags of their play sand - sounds like I've got it wrong...again!

John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- ChrisM (ChrisM)
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- russell (russell)
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- Peter OB (Peter O'Brien)
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Oh dear...
I went to Woodies yesterday and bought two bags of their play sand - sounds like I've got it wrong...again!
John
I've got Woodies sand in my main tank, no problems with it at all, very easy to keep clean.
Smoke me a Kipper, I’ll be back for breakfast.
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- Damian_Ireland (Damian_Ireland)
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