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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

Water tests

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27 Aug 2012 01:23 #1 by danny25 (David Kay)
I have the API test kit for ph/Ammonia/Nitrite/Nitrate and am confident with what I am doing. However, I keep reading about Phosphates being harmful and kh. How important is it to test for these and are test kits readily available? As I said in my initial post yesterday, I have had fish on and off for more years than I care to remember, but tended to just 'amble along' with a community tank - it would be nice to get some proper knowledge. Any advice on looking after the water parameters would be appreciated. Thanks.

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27 Aug 2012 02:41 #2 by serratus (Drew Latimer)
Replied by serratus (Drew Latimer) on topic Water tests
Hi Danny, they are important just not as.... B) hi phosphates will will encourage more algae and sensitive species will be stressed by high amounts. KH is the hardness of water, the carbonate hardness.. (the KH comes from the german spelling karbonate) its the buffering capacity of the water and makes it stable.. higher KH stabalises the PH and stops PH crashes, depending what species you keep levels are approx. as follows :

Soft water species- 3-6 wild SA fish, discus, killifish etc....
Medium -6-12 community fish
Hard water species-12-30+ African cichlids

Its a good idea to keep an eye on it, esp. if you have a prob. raising the PH... this is why when using the PH up solutions its best to test KH 1st as KH is low it will not raise and hold but drop again.

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27 Aug 2012 02:42 #3 by stretnik (stretnik)
Replied by stretnik (stretnik) on topic Water tests
Go to Bed Drew!!

Kev.

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27 Aug 2012 03:58 #4 by danny25 (David Kay)
Replied by danny25 (David Kay) on topic Water tests
Thanks for that serratus. Have just looked on ebay and there are plenty of kits available. I will probably have a look in the local shop later in the week, but would you, (or anybody else reading this), recommend one brand over another?

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27 Aug 2012 07:40 #5 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
High phosphates can also cause effective deficiencies in other components in the tank if they bind with phosphate and become unavailable for use.
For some species of plant and animal, the effective nutrient deficiency and upset of buffering by unbalanced high phosphates can cause long-term damaging effects (it's a bit like people following a nice calcium rich drink 'to help their bones' yet guzzle a bottle of coke afterwards !!)

It's about balance.

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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