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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

Quick filter cleaning question

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18 Jun 2013 07:19 #1 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Hi

So quick question. When you clean your external filter do you empty all the water out? I have a 2217 so no pre filter so have to get the media out of the bottom for a wash.

So should I keep most of the water that is in the canister to maintain as much bacteria as possible or is it mostly in the media?

Thx
Dec

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18 Jun 2013 09:17 #2 by JohnH (John)
There is bacteria everywhere in your tank - I've read it's even on the fish, strangely enough.
You can dispense with the water, I generally run it into a bucket then use it to wash the media.
It's pretty important to not clean the media too thoroughly as you want to save a goodly proportion of media in it.
I fear that many are washing it too well - there was a time I was one myself - and this can have disastrous results.
So now all I do is rinse everything enough that the flow of water returns to a reasonable level and this seems to be fine.

Perhaps someone with a better technical knowledge can explain the reasoning better for Q.

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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18 Jun 2013 09:47 #3 by Ski (Alan McGee)
I do the same as John.

Empty all the water out, some into buckets that I can rinse the baskets full of media in and then put it back together. Have never had a problem doing it that way

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18 Jun 2013 09:59 #4 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
Thanks lads. I was washing media in tank water but filter water had not occurred to me.

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18 Jun 2013 10:12 #5 by JohnH (John)

Thanks lads. I was washing media in tank water but filter water had not occurred to me.


...ps try to not spill any water... :whistle:

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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18 Jun 2013 13:47 #6 by Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)

Thanks lads. I was washing media in tank water but filter water had not occurred to me.


...ps try to not spill any water... :whistle:

John


Yeah I was a bit worried about that but turned out a towel just to catch the water between the taps was all I needed.

Then I went and spoiled it not connecting the inlet taps securely :(

Well the scare should teach me a valuable lesson :crazy:

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18 Jun 2013 17:06 #7 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
As above has said, great for washing filter media in.

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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18 Jun 2013 17:16 #8 by davey_c (dave clarke)
I used to use what I took out of the tank to wash the media and swished what was in the cannister to clean the grime out the cannister. Tbh try it either way if ye like but I just syphoned tank water into a large bucket for cleaning and found that way handy for me... try find a way thats handy for you with all these ideas ;)

Below tank is for sale

my plywood tank build.

www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...k-build-diary#137768

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19 Jun 2013 10:45 #9 by christyg (Chris Geraghty)
When the media has been washed in the tank water, use it (the water, not the media) on your plants, it makes a great feed.

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