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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

Sand or Gravel

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06 Jun 2009 11:10 #1 by komalley (K OM)
Dear All,

Am above to strip down my 220l tank ....going to have a proper attempt at growing plants when i rebuild it. Have 2T5 arcadia plant pro tubes putting 68watts into approx 200l of water, will be using substrate heating cable, dennerle deponitmix planting substrate and a pressurised co2 unit. Nutriens will be provided via the easy life range of products.


A question - any thoughts on the advantages/disadvantages of using sand over aquarium gravel?

kom

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06 Jun 2009 21:07 #2 by alkiely (alan kiely)
No real difference its all down to what you like, but some sand you can buy can raise ph a little. You can test this by taking a bit of sand in a bowl and pour so vinegar on it if it starts to sizzle well it will effect ur ph but no by much.

I have to tanks one with gravel one with sand and the sand is much better, well ithink anyway

Alan

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07 Jun 2009 00:05 #3 by Dalay (Mark Daly)
Replied by Dalay (Mark Daly) on topic Re:Sand or Gravel
What about black sand? My father recently set up a new tank and thought that black sand was nicer looking, are there any problems with this?

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07 Jun 2009 10:53 #4 by komalley (K OM)
Replied by komalley (K OM) on topic Re:Sand or Gravel
i have a 75l set up and used black sintered glass as the top substrate. it does look good but am going to do something different in the larger tank.

sand - thinking of using play sand which is silica i believe. coral sand i.e it contains calcium carbonate will raise the pH and will not be using it.

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07 Jun 2009 10:56 #5 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
What fish are you keeping also? Substrate is quite important for them ultimately.Particularly bottom feeders as well as some chilids who like to have sand as part of their breeding etc.
Gavin

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07 Jun 2009 14:34 #6 by Alex (Alex)
Replied by Alex (Alex) on topic Re:Sand or Gravel
i was going to start a new thread but its already being discussed here so.... im going to change my 800L tank from gravel to sand...

thinking of using play sand which is silica i believe


if this is true i might get playsand... because that amount af silica sand would be very expensive and im sure playsand would be cheaper. but... id say it would take a while to settle? prob have to turn off filter for a few days?

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07 Jun 2009 17:32 #7 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Alex, is it a planted tank you are doing?

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07 Jun 2009 20:03 - 07 Jun 2009 20:05 #8 by Alex (Alex)
Replied by Alex (Alex) on topic Re:Sand or Gravel
I have Java fern growing at the sides on fake rock.... so they should be fine... im trying to keep keep the Tank quite open.. so only a few pieces of large bogwood and iv cut down on plants... i have giant Vallis growing in the centre and Anacharis at the back...

Iv heard sand isnt great for a planted tank... but i have another 70L Planted Tank and all the plants are growing fine in sand!??

Also i have a large Fire Eel so i would prefer if he had sand... also i think Bichirs like sand..helps them digest food?
Last edit: 07 Jun 2009 20:05 by Alex (Alex).

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10 Jun 2009 10:59 - 10 Jun 2009 11:01 #9 by zig (zig)
Replied by zig (zig) on topic Re:Sand or Gravel
I wouldn't use sand other than for decorative reasons in certain areas of the tank. In good looking tanks that you see from the competitions with sand foregrounds the plants behind are growing in something else entirely not the sand, the sand is only for decoration, plants will grow better in the gravel.

This will be a low light tank but should do well because you are going to use pressurised CO2, the plants will benefit a lot from the CO2. You will still need to dose NPK (nitrate potassium phosphate) and trace elements, the Tropica Plant nutrition + is an all in one dosing method (one bottle does all!) which I have used and would recommend if you prefer to use bottled fertiliser, probably better than the Profito anyway.

Edit: btw you are wasting your time with the heater cable I wouldn't bother with that other than for heating the water. They don't work not that can be proved anyway, marketing hype unfortunatly.
Last edit: 10 Jun 2009 11:01 by zig (zig).

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