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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

planning permission granted

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13 Jun 2016 13:15 #121 by robert (robert carter)
media in the sump is as follows, inlet through a 3oo sock into section one into section two which contains sponges coarse ,medium ,fine , into section three which contains 12kg bio home ultra into section 4 which contains some filter floss ,into last section which contains return pump and currenly 2 bags of 180 grams fluval ammonia reduced . there is no co2 running in this tank as only planted with candian pond weed which I haven't trimmed back on the basis that it might help take some of the nitrites out of the water .

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13 Jun 2016 13:48 #122 by alan 64 (alan)
I always clean one of my filters of an established tanks in a big bucket of water giving u a big bucket of brown water as we know then i just dump it in a new thank and that tank is cycled within a few days so if it was me id be rinsing some established media into that thank if u havnt already done this

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13 Jun 2016 13:49 #123 by robert (robert carter)
if you are looking at the webcam tank is mankie as I have just washed out one of the pond sponges into the sump in an effort to get the system working

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13 Jun 2016 13:50 #124 by alan 64 (alan)
Oh u have just done that i think that should sort it for u

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13 Jun 2016 13:55 #125 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Do you want a lend of a 250l hospital pond I have with an Oase Filteral 5000 filter to try and split your bio load? Been running about a month now so and I filled it from my main pond so it should be cycled??

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13 Jun 2016 15:51 #126 by robert (robert carter)
Fr85 , thanks a million for your offer ,but my bio load is now half due to the fish loss , so think i will stick will current plan ie, small amounts of feed and daily water changes of 10/15% . Once again sincere tha ks for your kind offer . Am going to the meeting tomorrow nights so will also pick the brains of the lads their . Robert

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13 Jun 2016 22:53 #127 by robert (robert carter)
Just in from work checked the tank and two more dead small koi ,thats 5 koi in a 24 hr period head count is now out of a total 26 fish put into the tank 11 are left of which 2 look very unwell . Just wondering if a diease could have been introduced into the tank from one of the fish . All the dead fish with the exception of one looked perfect ,that one had mouth rot . Certainly wouldnt risk putting any of them into my pond . Althought i am getting both ammonia and nitrite reading they are quite low at .25 on both . Years ago a mate brought two koi from a seller at a show in the uk and within 6 weeks it completly wiped his 5000 gallon pond out every koi died ,we were never able to be 100% of the cause , but that was him gone out of the hobby

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13 Jun 2016 23:15 #128 by Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
Do you have a chlorine test kit by any chance. The rest will let you know if there is any chlorine in the water or if there is any bleach left in the water from when you cleaned stuff down.

Other than that all i can think of is disease killing them off. best thing is to try and split to try and save some, some might not be infected yet so take out the unhealthy ones to try and save the others.

are you dosing a bacteria to the tank?

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14 Jun 2016 07:48 #129 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
It could be disease or over stocking too soon, have you as suggested got a small set up that you can divide and save what can be saved?

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14 Jun 2016 08:08 #130 by robert (robert carter)
reckon at this stage all I can do is just wait and see what happens over the next few days ,I did add a dose of fluval cycle to it yesterday together with sponge squeezeing from a pond sponge . if I only new what was going on I could maybe do something about it . not going to move any of the fish as I don't want to spread anything in case there is something in the tank . certainly would not add any fish until it settles down one way or another .if this goes. belly up completely whats the best way to sterilise a tank . it was sudjested to me to add Milton to the tank and run it for48hrs then strip it and rinse everything ,but will bacteria ever regrow on the media or would all the media need to be replaced as well . this is costing a fortune this fish loss is about 400 4uro without any cost of replacement media . I don't have a clorine test kit

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14 Jun 2016 08:19 #131 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
If two fish jumped it's either ammonia or a lack of oxegen, and you increase your air flow or add in ammolock?

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14 Jun 2016 08:19 #132 by Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
Best way to sterilise a tank is with hydrogen peroxide. You can get it at any hair and beauty shop. After its done it's job, if anything if left in the tank it just turns to water and hydrogen, no chemicals other than that.

You can get food grade hydrogen peroxide but I don't know where.

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14 Jun 2016 10:35 #133 by Bill (Bill Hunter)
Just a thought, I don't really know much about Koi, if anything, but you are taking stuff from your pond and putting it in your aquarium; filter squeezings, soaked bog wood and I think you initially soaked your bio-medium in the pond. Is it possible you are transferring something from your pond that the pond fish are OK with but detrimental to the aquarium? As I say, just a thought. I would be uncomfortable mixing equipment etc between aquariums let alone from an outdoor pond.
Just thinking out loud :dry:
Bill

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14 Jun 2016 10:41 #134 by paulv (paul vickers)
If it happens that you do have to sterilize the tank then you won't have to replace the media but all the bacteria in it will be dead. Sadly once fish get ammonia poison it affects them for life, their gills are damaged so as internal organs. I'm really sorry your having such a bad start to your new tank. Like I suggested earlier, if I was in your shoes I'd empty the tank and filter of all water including drying out the sponges, refill and use OA also keeping the filter media. Run the tank on OA for 2 months until your bacteria can establish a healthy tank.

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14 Jun 2016 12:37 #135 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
I really think you need to start over. Koi as you know are very messy and it sees like the tank has been going through a continuous cycle. See what you can salvage.

I doubt you have brought anything harmful in from your ponds media if they are all healthy but by mixing the two you might have induced an ammonia spike in the new tank.....

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14 Jun 2016 12:48 #136 by robert (robert carter)
Hi Bill , thanks for your post ,you are correct the biohome media and bog wood was firstly put into the pond while Bart built the tank , i did take the bog wood out of the tank over a week ago just incase it was leeching anything into the tank but hasnt made any difference . Just done water test ammonia and nitrite both zero so maybe things are settling. My own take on it that tank was only up and running 2 weeks before a large amount of fish went in , they were stressed out so got white spot in the tank, this was treated with ws3 which probably considerably damaged the bacteria level which wasnt that well matured in the first place . Hence fish affected my nitrite poisoning . Its a problem when traveling to buy fish the tank just gets a bio load it cant handle from a large number of fish being introduced in one go

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14 Jun 2016 13:24 #137 by alan 64 (alan)
Stop adding any chemicals and just ride it out mate and i dont think u will need to sterilize the tank if these lot die leave the tank for a couple weeks then put a couple.of cheap koi in there and see how they go

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14 Jun 2016 16:02 #138 by robert (robert carter)
hi Aian that's my plan just see what happens over the next week or so ,just a few small water changes say 10%

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14 Jun 2016 16:06 #139 by alan 64 (alan)
Yea whats done is done now just let time do the healing

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15 Jun 2016 08:10 #140 by robert (robert carter)
hi , just a quick update ,just done my usual morning water test and for the second morning in a row ammonia zero and nitrite nil , so maybe with a bit of luck we have a cycle complete just have wait for a few more days . best of all no dead fish either .

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15 Jun 2016 11:17 #141 by Bill (Bill Hunter)
Glad it's settling down for you, Robert.
Bill

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15 Jun 2016 16:40 #142 by paulv (paul vickers)
Must be great relief for you now the tank is settling down, don't be in any hurry to add more fish just yet.

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15 Jun 2016 16:43 #143 by robert (robert carter)
hopefully things are settling cant be 100% sure until I get a few more days of zero on the water tests, keep you posted .

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16 Jun 2016 05:33 #144 by Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
Great news Robert. Did galwaylad ever reply to you of wherever gets his koi from. If not I'll be seeinghim laterals could ask.

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16 Jun 2016 07:07 #145 by robert (robert carter)
No galway lad didnt respond to my pm . If you see him give him my number 0872627945 and ask him to give us a call . Thanks

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16 Jun 2016 23:03 #146 by robert (robert carter)
This morning did water test on the tank all zero so that is 3 days on the run ,so things looking good so will just start to increase the feeding slowly and monitor daily . Its really strange how one day you get reading on the water test and the next its cycled and zero reading . Their is enough bio home media in the sump to do 2000 litres so with 470 litres i should be well covered

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16 Jun 2016 23:07 #147 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Can I just ask without being shot down if 470l is big enough for your quantity of koi? I know you've been keeping them a while and very few stick to the rules.......

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17 Jun 2016 07:18 - 17 Jun 2016 07:21 #148 by robert (robert carter)
Hi FR85 , my intendsion is to have about 15 3 to 4 inch koi in the tank feed with the aid of a auto feeder 4 times a day and do either 2 x50% water changes weekly or 20% daily . The filter media bio home ultimate is the best media on the market and i have enough in the sump to support 2000 litres of water. I was advised from day one of this project to go with a sump instead of external filters certainly the right decion. To answer your question i dont really know if i will get away with it ,but my back up plan would be to transfer some to the pond if i find i cant keep water condition good , but dont expect that until they get bigger . I will do watertest on a daily basis .By the way no ones shooting anyone down , i am gratefull for your interest in my project . Thanks Robert
Last edit: 17 Jun 2016 07:21 by robert (robert carter). Reason: added sentance

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17 Jun 2016 16:19 #149 by robert (robert carter)
Ok massive changes from this morning , my son arrived with an early farthers day present , a bag full of koi fry about 3cm big ,surpose to be 50 in the bag reckon there are at least 100 . So mad rush around the koi that were in the new tank have gone to a mates wildlife pond and the fry are now setteling into the new tank . Hard to know at this size what colours we will get ,but i think thats half the fun . Years since i have grown koi fry on . They are japanese fry so this should be very interesting , the plan would be ,as they get bigger sell on the poorer colours and keep the best ones . If anyone log on to my webcam they can see them

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17 Jun 2016 16:36 #150 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
Do you know I looked on your cam earlier today and thought to my self that your tank looked different and had lots more fish in it.
Now the answer has been given. Hope they all survive and your problems are behind you.

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