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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

Cost of regular water treatments items for a 240l?

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20 May 2015 22:22 #1 by fishkeeper1 (Padraig ODowd)
Hi, I'm in the process of setting up my new 240l tank - I'm planning on stocking it with Lake Malawi Cichlids.

I have already estimated the amount of electricity the tank would use, but what I'm finding hard to figure out is the monthly budget I would need for purchasing the required water treatment items (I would also need to purchase water testing kits but I'm not including that here):

For a Lake Malawi Cichlid tank I would need 3 items for water treatment:
1 Water conditioner e.g JBL Biotopol
2 Filter start/bacteria eg fluval cycle
3 Raise pH levels eg api proper ph 8.2

As well as when I'm starting the tank, these 3 items would need to be applied every time I do a water change, so I'm trying to figure out how much this would cost on a regular basis. Also I have noticed that these items are sold in recently small bottles/amounts (with the exception of the 2l fluval cycle etc) so I'm a bit worried that this might be a bit expensive and an item that I might have overlooked till now.

So apologies if this has already been answered but I did search and I could not find a direct answer to this question - (roughly) how much per month would the above 3 water treament items cost for a 240l tank if I was doing 20% water change per week?

Thanks

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21 May 2015 07:00 - 21 May 2015 07:11 #2 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Filter start wont be needed constantly....as for the water treatment...look into using the pond versions, more concentrated and far cheaper in the long run.You could let water sit for 24 hours if you need and that will allow chlorine to gas off albeit that chloramine doesn't gas off. Remember also your only treating the water your adding...let it sit for 24 hours if.you wish and treat with the water conditioner. ..that way your treating the water going in rather than the full 240 litres.As i said look into the pond versions, i have a bottle if stress coat for ponds which will treat 3,555 litres...it cost me only €11 and i use it on my aquarium without issue.

Gavin

Gavin
Last edit: 21 May 2015 07:11 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner).

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21 May 2015 08:40 - 21 May 2015 08:44 #3 by paulv (paul vickers)

Filter start wont be needed constantly....as for the water treatment...look into using the pond versions, more concentrated and far cheaper in the long run.You could let water sit for 24 hours if you need and that will allow chlorine to gas off albeit that chloramine doesn't gas off. Remember also your only treating the water your adding...let it sit for 24 hours if.you wish and treat with the water conditioner. ..that way your treating the water going in rather than the full 240 litres.As i said look into the pond versions, i have a bottle if stress coat for ponds which will treat 3,555 litres...it cost me only €11 and i use it on my aquarium without issue.

Gavin

Gavin

Becarefull using ph rise on a regular basis as it upsets other parameters and can cause a ph crash. Once your filter is working well you won't need filter aid bacteria unless you clean the filter once every 4 months. Water conditioner like prime wil cost you pennies every weekly water change 25%. Over all cost will be pennies. Most important get a good test kid like API.
Last edit: 21 May 2015 08:44 by paulv (paul vickers).

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21 May 2015 10:00 #4 by alan 64 (alan)
Get coral sand for ur substrate and that should sort ur ph so u don't need to mess about with ph up maybee add some rocks that also buffer the ph and ul be grand

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21 May 2015 12:27 #5 by fishkeeper1 (Padraig ODowd)
Thanks for the replies.
For the water testing kit - this is the one I bought:
API Freshwater Master Test Kit

From reading online, it appears to be one of the best/accurate?

Thanks

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21 May 2015 12:44 #6 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Yes a solid kit...more realible than strip tests.

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21 May 2015 22:15 - 21 May 2015 22:16 #7 by Joekinsella (joe Kinsella)
Prime is cheap and is one of the better water conditioners that I have used. It lasts longer than most so look into that.

Api is really good. It's the only kit I use.

My tank is 240L also.

Location: Clogherboy Navan.
Last edit: 21 May 2015 22:16 by Joekinsella (joe Kinsella).

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21 May 2015 22:17 #8 by Joekinsella (joe Kinsella)
Prime is cheap and is one of the better water conditioners that I have used. It lasts longer than most so look into that.

Api is really good. It's the only kit I use.

Location: Clogherboy Navan.

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