×
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

(RE)decorating an aquarium...

More
10 Jan 2008 18:29 #1 by DaveyH (Dave Horan)
So after cycling my tank, choosing some tacky crapy ornaments, various weeds and some fish, I think I probably need to re-decorate. I'm aware of how the lay out should be once I get new plants.

How do you completley strip an aquarium of both plants and gravel and then re-gravel & plant it?

My main concern is freaking the fish out and churning up all the crap in the gravel and choking the fish.

Thanks,

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
11 Jan 2008 16:31 #2 by tanks_alot (Denis Coghlan)
Hey Davey,

If you are planning on stripping down a tank i.e. changing the substrate. I would try and keep as much of the original water as possible in some big containers (bins, those big water bottles, large buckets etc...). I would also remove the live stock during the conversion.

You can buy a 80-90lt black bin in woodies for about 10euro. I would put the heater, filter (still running) and fish in this while doing the change. Then replace everything back in the tank when you the rescaping it to your liking. Keeping the original water will reduce the amount of stress on the fish. Plus, if the fish are happy in the bin then you can take your time while planning the new layout of your tank.

Make sure to give the bin a good rise with clean tap water (no soap) before you use it.

Lead me not into temptation, For I can find it myself!

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
11 Jan 2008 17:56 #3 by Cardnim (Andrew Hanley)
One thing to consider as well is that substrate leeches stuff as it matures in the tank. Things like phosphates and other organics (which really contribute to algae outbreaks) slowly come out of your substrate into the water.

If you are going to change your substrate then you effectively go back to square one again, and perhaps risk algae problems down the line.

If at all possible, I would advise keeping the existing substrate, unless of course you are going to change it for another kind (eg. take out lovely sand and put in bright pink large gravel :ohmy: :P )

Please Log in to join the conversation.

More
13 Jan 2008 14:13 #4 by DaveyH (Dave Horan)
I left the gravel, it made things much easier. I swapped the fake looking plants for some real ones and removed the tacky ornament - looks allot better.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

Time to create page: 0.037 seconds
Powered by Kunena Forum