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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

African Cichlid - rock preference?

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30 Mar 2012 11:30 #1 by CruelCoin (Roy Rentes)
Hi all.

The pH of the water in my area is naturally rock hard (extreme hardness on most scales) and alkaline at around 7.6 - 7.7pH, so i was thinking this is perfect for starting a cichlid tank.

Walking the beach recently, i came across a couple of unusual looking rocks that i thought would look nice in the tank, and once i started i couldn't stop. I now have around 50 rocks in all types of colours and types.

Question being: Do cichlids prefer any particular type of rock, and how do i test for the correct ones?

Also, how can i make these beach rocks safe for use in a freshwater tank? Boiling the bejesus outta them?

Cheers for any and all advice lads.

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30 Mar 2012 12:53 #2 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
with your ph go malawi or tanganyikan its perfect for them, for this type of aquarium coral/tuffa rock is super, becareful of beach rocks as you dont know what minerals are in them some which can be quite lethal to fish, rocks collected from nature should be boiled and reboiled a few times to draw out contaminents and the salt in them change the water each time and then let them soak in something like easylife before attempting to put in the tank, you may have perfectly safe rocks but me being me i'd err on the side of caution and stay away from them usually going for shop bought rocks as they are 99% of the time perfectly safe for aquarium use..

if you want i have old tuffa and coral rock i am not using you can take it away if you want but you'd have to come to me i'm in Limerick, pm me if you want it

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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30 Mar 2012 13:15 #3 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Re: African Cichlid - rock preference?
My advice is to go to the search area of the Forum first, type in Beach Rocks and you will be directed to a recent conversation regarding using stuff collected from the Beach etc, if you feel that the replies don't answer your questions, pop back on and ask for more info.

Using Rocks From A Beach




Kev.

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30 Mar 2012 14:18 #4 by CruelCoin (Roy Rentes)
Ok, what i gather is that some people use "the vinegar test" which doesn't sound very scientific at all.

Others saying, yourself kev included that beach rocks are not worth the risk at all.

Problem i have with store bought rock, is that it all looks very pourous, and monotone in terms of colouration.

Wishing there was a happy medium. Mind you, this may just be a result of where i went looking.

Can you recommend to me anywhere in the east which may have a good range of this stuff?

Cheers,

Roy.

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