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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

do I need to change water again?

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19 Nov 2008 21:19 #1 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
Evening,

I added fish(3 'large' chiclids and 2 'small' chiclids) to my tank on sunday. I did a water test today and came up with the following:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.3
Nitrate: 50
Ph: 8

the fish seem happy, I presume those reads are not great, but should I change water ASAPor can it wait?

thanks

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19 Nov 2008 21:46 #2 by mrsFishpatrick (Astrid Fitzpatrick)
50 for nitrates is on the high side, IMO yes I would do a waterchange

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19 Nov 2008 21:50 #3 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
ok, do I add the biological aquarium supplement or just the water conditioner?

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19 Nov 2008 22:09 #4 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Id be more worried about the Nitrite,however nitrate is slighty high also.Yes 20% water change once a week is what you should ideally do. Add the conditioner to it to remove the chlorine. No need for the biological supplement.
Gavin

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20 Nov 2008 00:58 #5 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
yep i agree with gavin a min of 20% water change, your nitrites are quite high, you def should use the conditioner, as for biological supplement you could do if you want but shouldn't need it, check the nitrites a day after change to keep an eye on nitrites and if still high i'd do another partial change again
Seamus

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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20 Nov 2008 20:32 #6 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
uh oh!!

Nitrite : 0.5(chart jumps from 0.3 to 0.8 but color was right in between)
Nitrate : 20

change more water?!

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20 Nov 2008 21:14 #7 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
guys,

I just did another 20% water change. fingers crossed!

I dont understand the fish, the yellow labs are keeping the same color but the 2 blue fella's(zebra mpanga's i believe) are going from really vibrant to dull and back to vibrant.

oh and all are hidding also?

thanks

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20 Nov 2008 22:07 #8 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Dolf,
i would consider small daily changes for a few days just to help the cycle was not fully completed and the colonies were not quite up to speed. thus small daily changes will aid this i would add the bio supplement and check your readings daily

if nitrite is less than two skip that day after a few days thing will come to normal.

remember there is always some ammonia, nitrite and nitrate present to low to register this feeds your bacteria and we remove nitrate by water changes At the moment your bacteria needs a little help but this must not totally remove all as the bacteria needs food to!

Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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21 Nov 2008 22:01 #9 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
just test again:

still @0.5 for nitrite( thats an estimate as the color is in between 0.3 and 0.8) -

Just realised my maths might be out, did 20LTRs last 2 nights, on a 180LTR tanks thats only 10% :(

should I do a 20% today?

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21 Nov 2008 22:11 #10 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Pm sent Dolf.
You need to do a partial water change, reduce feeding and keep an eye on the fish that they arent gasping at the surface and dont have rapid gill movement.
Gavin

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21 Nov 2008 22:13 #11 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
hi Dolf,
yes i would do a 20% change now and i said yesterday i would do small changes every day for a while so if you do about 40ltrs now and 10 ltrs for a few days while the bacteria grows this should bring everything to correct levels watch for the rises in nitrate

and keep us posted
mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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23 Nov 2008 17:23 - 23 Nov 2008 17:36 #12 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)

look like another small water change today :( - the only thing that seems affected is the PH, the important ones arent shifting?

** edited** did 10LTR(5%)change today
Last edit: 23 Nov 2008 17:36 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters).

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23 Nov 2008 18:12 #13 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Dolph,
i would do a 25% change tomorrow! have you checked the water from the tap?
Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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23 Nov 2008 18:39 #14 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
The water is from the well if I remember correctly,could it be a case that it changes somewhat from week to week. Dependant on weather perhaps. I dont know,its a wild guess.
As Mickey said Id do another 20% or so tomorrow. That Nitrite needs to come down. If you want I can give you some water from my establised tanks. I could also give you a squeeze of one of the filters to help yours.
Gavin

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23 Nov 2008 19:11 #15 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
that would be a help Gavin.
Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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26 Nov 2008 19:42 #16 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
have been changing 5% for last few days and, 2 concecutive days the nitrite has dropped 0.5=>0.4=>0.3!!

still not great,but its heading in right direction

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26 Nov 2008 22:02 #17 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Good stuff, it wont drop in a day to zero but like you said,its going in the right direction.Again let it settle for a week at zero before adding any new fish.
G

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26 Nov 2008 22:52 #18 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Dolf,
yes that is good going in the right way! when it gets below .2 i would skip a water change and and see what happens if it stay below .2 at this point your nitrate should be rising. plants will help remove that but keep it in check.

As Gavin say this wont happen in a day but your are going in the right direction.

Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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27 Nov 2008 17:12 #19 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
Wooohooooo :woohoo: !!

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0.1 ( almost there!! :))
Nitrate: 10(shouldnt this be rising now?)
PH: 8.0

Thanks to all here that provided me with help!!

Mickey, no waterchange tonight?

Thanks

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27 Nov 2008 17:55 #20 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Hi Dolf,
yes that is good to see! yes i would expect nitrate to rise but when a tank is running correctly this will happen slowly at the moment your is running correctly for your stock level and feeding would appear to be correct by these readings.

Do you have plants they would use up some of the nitrate for you which would explain the slow rise rate! a small water change to night and i would leave it till Friday.

mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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27 Nov 2008 17:59 #21 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
no plants at all?!

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27 Nov 2008 22:05 #22 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
A few floating plants are a good start if you want plants

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27 Nov 2008 22:55 #23 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Dolf I can give you some basic plants that grow easily and I can give you a few of them,particularly one type that grows easily. I can give you a picture of it. There is actually a picture of it somewhere here.

Gavin

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28 Nov 2008 16:18 #24 by dolf_peeters (Dolf Peeters)
was really intent on keeping plant ;)


did read again just now:

Nitrite: 0.1
Nitrate: 10

Did no change last night, should I change water today? and how much?

ta

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28 Nov 2008 16:21 #25 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Yeah do a 10% change tonight and see how it is on Sat evening.
If you want some of the plants I have then you can have some from me. They will help with the nitrate.

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