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

Moss tank

dar (darren curry)
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05 Oct 2010 19:30 - 05 Oct 2010 19:34 #31 by dar (darren curry)

Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:Moss tank

dam it, i thought i was in there

edit: almost forgot, beautiful set up mate

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

Last edit: 05 Oct 2010 19:34 by dar (darren curry).

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JohnH (John)
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05 Oct 2010 19:34 #32 by JohnH (John)

Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Re:Moss tank

86.4 litres, I think?

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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platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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05 Oct 2010 21:10 #33 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)

Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:Moss tank

Well spotted John. Corrected now.

Cheers dar. You were only a couple of ml out.

Yes Kev. I was amazed they all disappeared for the first photo.
It is hollow under the moss and this is were they hid.

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Ma (mm mm)
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06 Oct 2010 10:38 #34 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:Moss tank

Really is a nice setup. Looks great with fish or even a Samurai on a horse:) wouldn't look amiss either, reminds me of Japanese landscape from some of the old movies I watch.

What gear are you using with the tank, lights filtration co2 ect?

Mark

Location D.11

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platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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06 Oct 2010 14:56 #35 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)

Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:Moss tank

Mark. wrote:

What gear are you using with the tank, lights filtration co2 ect?
Mark

Light:
6 hours per day. 1x T-5 Arcadia plant pro 6400k. 1x t-5 Arcadia marine white 1400K.
I would normally just use a couple of midday 6400k tubes but the light pendent had these tubes in them.
Giesemann 6000k would be my favourite for growing plants. But moss seems to grow well under any light.

Co2:
I ha a JBL bioCo2 100 on the tank. It is much like the diy co2 bottles you would make up yourself.
Mixing 3x the recommended dose to the bottle gave about 1 bubble per Minuit. I would normally aim for 1 bubble per second using a pressurised Co2 bottle.
So there was hardly any Co2 going in to the tank.

Fertilizer:
Moss dosent need much fertilizer. I was adding 5ml of tropica N+P but i doubt the moss use up that much in a week.

Filtration:
Eheim 2213. 440 L/H. This was cleaned every month - 2 months.

Every week i would trim the moss and change 1/3-1/2 of the water.

The moss is easy to look after once you dont get algae. If algae apears change plenty of water every 2nd day or so untill it is gone. Then figure out why you got the algae in the first place so it dosent come back.
I'm surprised i didn't get it using the marine white tube.
With moss you have to keep the stocking density low or fish wast and excess food will get caught up in the moss and make it messy looking or encourage algae.

@ Joey.
1 tub of Nutrafin max flake and 1 tub of JBL spirulina on the was as you prize.

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alan.s (alan)
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06 Oct 2010 16:06 #36 by alan.s (alan)

Replied by alan.s (alan) on topic Re:Moss tank

Fun game well done Joey

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Ma (mm mm)
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06 Oct 2010 18:35 #37 by Ma (mm mm)

Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:Moss tank

platty252 wrote:

I'm surprised i didn't get it using the marine white tube.
With moss you have to keep the stocking density low or fish wast and excess food will get caught up in the moss and make it messy looking or encourage algae.

That certainly explains why I was having issues with the planted, I had a Marine white in very high stick and a lot of moss and algae started to cover everything when the stock reached a maximum.

Some nice underwater gardening there in the moss tank, very clean and well maintained, picturesque.

Mark

Location D.11

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Pat (Pat Coogan)
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06 Oct 2010 20:30 #38 by Pat (Pat Coogan)

Replied by Pat (Pat Coogan) on topic Re:Moss tank

Fantastic set up and thanks for the info on lighting etc. Now I know why my plants dont do well.
I add co2 but I think ill be replacing the T5s ive been using.

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Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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06 Oct 2010 20:40 #39 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)

Replied by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner) on topic Re:Moss tank

Thats a fantastic tank.I thought it was from one of the aquascaping mags or sites.Very impressed one of our own has done it. Super. Wasn't there a guy on here before (Ziggy I think),who used to also do amazing planted / aquascaping set ups.

Gavin

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platty252 (Darren Dalton)
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06 Oct 2010 23:04 #40 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)

Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:Moss tank

Cheers for the comments. I take brutal photos and i think the tank looks a lot better in reality than the photo.

@ Mark: you can get away with the higher intensity bulbs (marine white) but i find less algae problems with the lower midday 6400k tubes.
Some people even use the marine LED's and get away with it.
I had a tank before that had 3 midday and 1 marine white. I battled algae for a while until i changed the marine for a midday. So i try just use the midday tubes now.

Also a lot of the plant tubes are very red and can make a tank look pinky. Add a white tube and that pinky colour goes away but the plants still get the benefit of the red spectrum. Red plants like a bit of red spectrum.

@ Pat: If you are adding Co2 and the plants dont seem to be doing well maybe you dont have enough light, or maybe it's the fertilizer.

@ fishowner: Hi Gavin, yes zig off the forum dose aquascapes of the highest standard. Anything i have learnt i have learnt from him and his posts on here.
In the article section of the forum he did a great write up on one of his tanks. Well worth reading. Plenty of easy to understand info.

He is actually doing a talk at the next ITFS meeting. So if you have even the slightest interest in plants it's a meeting not to miss.
It wont be all jargon that goes over your head, he has a great down to earth way of explaining things.
www.irishfishkeepers.com/cms/component/o...w/catid,56/id,82306/

I wonder should i run another one of these mini competitions :whistle: