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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

south american theme nano

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08 Mar 2014 12:54 #1 by anthonyd (Anthony Debesne)
Hi guys as usual i need your expertise !
I would like to have a south american style tank with leaf litter and blackwater.
I currently have a planted substrate and gravel with some branches and stones and a bit of moss.
Do i need an oversized filter if i have a thick layer of leaves ?
How do i get the blackwater ?
I tried peat granules in my hob with no results.
My tank is 38 l has 5 pygmy corydoras ( hope to get more ) and 3 apistogrammas.
Thanks
Anthony

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08 Mar 2014 13:33 #2 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Black water extract? (Think thats it name)
Or better still get some actual turf and let the tanin run out of it into your tank

Imo it looks very very well

What filter will it be running on?

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08 Mar 2014 14:00 #3 by anthonyd (Anthony Debesne)
Thanks hammie.
I have a hang on filter filled with ceramics and a sponge, it came with the set. I would like to know if by using a lot of leaves i might have water qualities issues.
Anthony

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08 Mar 2014 21:15 #4 by davey_c (dave clarke)
I used a deep leaf bed/alder cone bed and had no water issues, leaves were left in to totally break down themselves and topped up when needed. I used brown beech leaves. I only had a sponge filter in the tank and let the water go for a few weeks and then done a large w/c.
Unless you are planning to get a trio that will live together I would get a mated pair but having the leaves means you will only rarely see them. I was feeding whiteworms etc because they would live a few days in the water before dying and was afraid uneaten processed food would foul the water before the apistos found it with all the leaves n stuff ;)

Below tank is for sale

my plywood tank build.

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

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08 Mar 2014 21:26 #5 by anthonyd (Anthony Debesne)
Thanks davey.
Uneated food was a concern as i wont be able to vaccum the sand but hopefully the pygmies will do that job.
I use alder cones and beech leaves as i just have to collect them in my backyard.
Did you used peat to lowe the ph ?
Thanks
Anthony

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08 Mar 2014 22:37 #6 by davey_c (dave clarke)
Nope I didn't use peat but the alder cones got my water (50/50 tap/ro mix) down from 7.8 to 6.5. You could boil the cones to get extract if you wanted to. A member her recommended steins oak extract to me before which is supose to be great a lowering ph but you will also need to monitor the stability of the water!! Believe it or not but fish waste also lowered my ph but not something I'd recommend without keeping a serious eye (mine went to 5.5 and below)
I'd recommend testing for everything including kh and tds as often as possible till ye get the hang of it because there will be a fair bit of organic breakdown in such a small volume of water, mine was in a 70L.

Blackwater are my favourite biotope though so looking forward to pictures :)

Below tank is for sale

my plywood tank build.

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

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08 Mar 2014 23:32 #7 by anthonyd (Anthony Debesne)
Thanks davey.
I made a beech leaves extract and a peat one as well today and i have ro water than i use for my shrimps tanks.
I m a bit nervous about bringing down the ph as i m afraid of the ph swings.
I m gonna take it slow and monitor carefully as you said and see how it goes
As for the pictures, my 2 years old daughter decided to wash the camera in the sink as it was dirty... so it will have to wait for now.
There is someting appealing about blackwater tanks when you see the light going through the floating plants and the tea coloured water.
Anthony

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09 Mar 2014 11:57 #8 by Melander (Andreas Melander)
Sounds like you have gotten some good info there.

The setup sounds very interesting, it would be great to see a photo or two.

Andreas

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09 Mar 2014 16:25 #9 by anthonyd (Anthony Debesne)
Thanks melander.
I m trying it out in one of my nano and if it works out i would like to do the same in a bigger tank with angels, rams and corys.
Had to remove the okho stones who were keeping the branches in place as they were raising the tds in the tank.
Hopefully i will be able to make the water softer now.
Anthony

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