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
easy life fluid filter medium
- Aido Cornally (Aidan cornally)
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has anyone used this product to help kick start there filters ?
Added a full bottle to my cycling tank that has no fish in yet, and now there is a flock like substance on all the wood and stones is this normal and will it go away ?
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- Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
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It is very powdery and settles in the bottom of the bottle.
I would wait for the water to clear and then rinse off the decor.
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- murph (Tony Murphy)
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- JohnH (John)
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A good way to speed up the 'cycling' process is to get some 'gunge' out of your existing tank's filter and put this into the new tank's filtration system This will help to kick-start the whole process. I, again personally, have no faith in those 'bottled bacteria' believing that once removed from their habitat the bacteria die within hours.
The other option to allow you to stock fish immediately is, of course, Organic Aqua.
John
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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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- Aido Cornally (Aidan cornally)
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History: the sand a used in the tank was already used previous and probably contained some beneficial bacteria ( I hope ) as when I set up the tank and filled with water i had a bacterial explosion that took 4 day to go down, I did add water from my other tank that I had syphoned off and washed my filters in , let it settle as not to get too much gunk in the filters
I have checked the ammonia levels several times but all at the lowest level at no stage did I get an ammonia spike. does this mean my tanks has not cycled, I was hoping to put fish in this weekend, should I hold off ? is there some way to check the filters are fully activated ?
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- JohnH (John)
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I fear your tank isn't yet ready for all but a (very) few hardy fish. A sharp rise in Ammonia, then in Nitrites indicates that the process is going to plan.
Perhaps you should bring a sample of your tank water and let them give you a 'second opinion' before buying any fish - they're good people in most shops and won't guide you wrong - just for the sale of some fish.
That's my suggestion, perhaps others might like to add to the conversation?
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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- Aido Cornally (Aidan cornally)
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I Might pop in to them and get some advice on water sample and see what they say,
I already have the fish in my 180 tank and have them a few years so don't want to loose any of them
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- alan 64 (alan)
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- Q_Comets (Declan Chambers)
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Really the only way to tell if your filter is maturing is to introduce some ammonia and test you should have an ammonia reading which should drop back to zero.
If moving all fish then half fill 450 and get up to temp then add water and filter from 180 to 450 and move fish.
If not moving fish then add a few fish to new tank and a good squeeze of filter media from the 180 filter into the new one to get colony started.
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- Aido Cornally (Aidan cornally)
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thanks again for all your help on this I have in deed used the water from my filter media from my 180ltr tank JBL external filter to add to the tank as well as the fluid media, i have added some of the fish last night and fed them, they certainly know how to churn up the sand in the tank, so i did an ammonia test first thing this morning, with a result of less than 0.05 mg/l (ppm) i also dipped for nitrite with no detectable levels and less than 20 ppm for nitrate, so hopefully this will be the same this evening.
I may need to add a polisher media to my fluval fx5 and the fine debris isn't dissipating as quick as in my 180 ltr that has a fine media pad.
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- Aido Cornally (Aidan cornally)
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- Aido Cornally (Aidan cornally)
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- Aido Cornally (Aidan cornally)
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for some reason the tank look cloudier in the video than in real life but i think i need to use a fine filter pad to get it crystal clear
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- robert (robert carter)
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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hi Alan ,thanks for your reply ,do you dose the whole tank ,or just the amount of water added after your water changes? where do you get gallons of it and what price ? sorry for all the questions . Robert
Sorry for answering Alan's question..........You can dose the whole tank if you like as it wont do any harm but there is no need to dose it,only using it in the water from your tap to eliminate the chlorine when doing water changes is suffice.....I haven't used it in a couple of years but when I did I just added the amount needed to the bucket/barrel of freshwater I was adding and poured/pumped it in to the tank.
I cant remember seeing a Gallon of it for sale anywhere around in the shops but I use to buy it online with Zooplus.ie....65 euro if I remember right,maybe more now though!!
Ger
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A Wonkey....duh ha

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- alan 64 (alan)
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- gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
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No need to use another dechlorinator as well when treating tap water for water changes...
Its just a waste of money...
Easy Life Fluid Filter Medium is also not very economical when used as a dechlorinator..
Best value for money in my opinion for a dechlorinator is Prime by Seachem...
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- robert (robert carter)
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- gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
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Ive never had any use for it to be honest other than as a dechlorinator and i only used it for a short period cos it aint cheap!
So in a nutshell no!
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- robert (robert carter)
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- robert (robert carter)
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