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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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08 May 2016 22:03 #61 by nomad (pat murphy)
Hi Robert regarding the algae issue I assume your running a UV,did you forget to replace with a new bulb at the opening of the season with all the other stuff that's on your mind..

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09 May 2016 01:23 #62 by robert (robert carter)
Hi am running a 28 watt uv, the water is crystal clear , but this is surface algae that grows on the linner and anything else thats static in the pond , the pond needs a good vacum out which hasnt been done this year because of the low temperatures, i was a little surprised by how quickly it grew on the piece of wood. The main thing is that the bio home thats in the filter is good . Will just pressure wash the wood off on friday morning before Bart arrives with the tank . Will do a water change and a good pond vacume wednesday night if possible . Just mad busy at the moment with work and trying to get two bedrooms decorated before new carpet arrives on thursday . Then i can concerntrate on the new tank for the weekend , have taken photos of the journey and will get a mate to help me post them when the jobs done

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09 May 2016 12:03 #63 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Hi Robert,

Hope all is well! I too am having algae issues, feckin string algae at that in the pond!! UV x 2 have been changed!! Am waiting for pond plants to come into season, have you any suggestions as to how to be rid of this?? I have a small net of barley in there that has been in a couple of months in anticipation of the warmer sunny weather but this has not really kicked in as of yet!!

Build coming on well?

Gav

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09 May 2016 12:22 #64 by robert (robert carter)
Hi Gav , sorry i ha ve never found barley straw do anything except rot in the bottom of the pond , string algae is like blanket weed a pain in the axxe , some years you get it some years you dont , the product i use is called BLAN KIT , its a power you add to the pond a normally find one dose sorts the problem for the season . It is availabe only on the net or ebay and its not expensive . Word of warning this breaks down the algae so keep a close eye on your filter as it will quickly get blocked . Have tried various other products and found this one gives the best results . Happy fish keeping , let me know how you get on . Robert

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09 May 2016 12:28 #65 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Thanks Robert, would you have a link to that stuff? Filter and skimmer foams have been green so I take it they are doing their very best!!!

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10 May 2016 05:51 #66 by Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
My partners dad in his pond has having the same issues with algae at the start of the season, be got barley straw and boosted his bacteria last week and he says it's starting to clear up.

Barley as it degrades leaks out an anti algae bacteria but you need to up the normal bacteria in your pond for it to keep ahead of the algae growing. Or so I have been told by a pond guy in lfs

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10 May 2016 08:34 #67 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Where did you get everything can I ask and what bacteria did you get? Cheers!

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10 May 2016 09:09 #68 by Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
Hey got the straw from a farm suppliers near him. The bacteria was a freshwater fish tank startup bacteria. Nothing special lol, just put in enough to initially dose the pond and has gone from being completely green last week to being able to see a ft down now.

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10 May 2016 10:04 #69 by FR85 (Gavin O'Sullivan)
Cool, I have a spare bale of straw I got in the aquarium shop in the Galway Aquarium and I put it up safe so I'd know where to find it........can I remember where that safe place was??? NOPE!!!! :D
Will pop around to Seahorse and get bacteria and see if the boost helps it, can't hurt!
Thanks all!!!

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10 May 2016 12:54 #70 by robert (robert carter)
don't use ordinary straw it has to be barley straw

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10 May 2016 20:03 #71 by Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
Yea it must be barley straw, nothing else, you have to make sure it is.

SH do it in little bales but have none at the moment. They do have a bottle of barley extract which should do too. Talk to Tony in there, he's a big koi guy.

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10 May 2016 22:24 #72 by robert (robert carter)
Anyway i wouldnt bother as i have never found it works

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12 May 2016 12:08 #73 by robert (robert carter)
well tomorrows the day ,just had confirmation from Bart that new tank will be here in the morning . cant wait, feel like a kid waiting for Santa to come

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13 May 2016 20:43 #74 by robert (robert carter)
well the day finally arrived . 10am this morning Bart arrived with the tank as promised , he spent four and half hours here setting up and plumbing everything . this guy a perfectionist nothing is to much trouble. system is now filled and running. I had 5kg of biohome media in the pond for the last 3 weeks ,that's now in the sump and I reckon I need another 5kg . you certainly can get a lot more media into a sump . so now we start to cycle hopefully in two weeks with the preparation that I did . if anyone is thinking of getting a tank Bart is your man ,a fantasic tank at a great price

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13 May 2016 21:27 #75 by robert (robert carter)
just a quick question ,just done full water test on new tank ,ammonia nil ,nitrite zero , but the PH is 9.5 this to me is crazy high from our tapwater . anyone any ideas ? :huh: :huh:

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13 May 2016 21:46 #76 by nomad (pat murphy)
Is your test kit in date and what is your nitrates showing,boy that's a very high PH.p.s PM sent .

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13 May 2016 22:23 #77 by nomad (pat murphy)
Hi Robert have you read this on the website that says it is more suitable for kio that biohome does filterpro.co.uk/pumice-media-11-c.asp

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13 May 2016 22:37 - 13 May 2016 22:41 #78 by robert (robert carter)
Test kit was purchased in september , didnt check nitrates but nitrites were zero so was ammonia , the only thing gone into the tank is sea chem prime, never used this before would this be the problem? Will retest in the morning . Ps sent you a pm . Finnally i personally think a ph of 8 is a bit high for koi , i always aime for about 7 to 7.5 but thats just me
Last edit: 13 May 2016 22:41 by robert (robert carter). Reason: added sentance

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14 May 2016 07:48 #79 by robert (robert carter)
Just checked ph this morning 7.5 just perfect for koi. Wonder was it that i tested straight after adding Prime that gave me the high reading . Tank cleared very well over night .

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17 May 2016 07:33 #80 by robert (robert carter)
First fish into the tank yesterday just to get filters going ,put 4 x 6inch koi into it ,so will monitor water test for the next three weeks and all being good planning the trip to Bangor for wed 8th June .At which time the koi in the tank will go into the pond as are to big for the tank .Planning on stocking 3 inch koi Also set up a webcam on the tank for when I work nights

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18 May 2016 17:46 #81 by nomad (pat murphy)
New setup looking very well Robert,young koi look very happy in their new temporary surroundings :) A big thank you too for organising Biohome media for my external,at some stage will look into replacing the media in my pond filter....

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18 May 2016 18:14 #82 by robert (robert carter)
No problem Pat great to see you

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18 May 2016 20:40 #83 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
So any photos of this new tank and sump setup then Robert?
I am eager to see it.
We all know you can manage to post photos, so that no excuse!!

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18 May 2016 21:42 #84 by robert (robert carter)
Have a load of photos of the journey just cant post them , will try and get my mate over on friday evening to do it for me , i just cant get the hang of it . There are some on my facebook page robert carter . Its the resizeing thing i just cant get my head around

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18 May 2016 22:26 #85 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
Thought I might try and help you out with one!

Attachments:

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19 May 2016 02:04 - 19 May 2016 02:09 #86 by robert (robert carter)
Guess you got that off facebook , thanks , anyway whats does anyone think , took the top plinth off today and actually think i prefer the tank totally open top , somehow it looks bigger. The two internal filters are only temporary they were seeded from another tank so are just there to help get things going and to oxyegenate the the water as the biohome media needs loads to really get going . I am really happy with it . Barts builds a great tank
Last edit: 19 May 2016 02:09 by robert (robert carter). Reason: added sentance

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19 May 2016 02:44 #87 by fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
Try photo bucket Robert I had problems trying to upload from my iPhone but with the photo bucket app you just upload the pictures to photo bucket then copy and paste the picture link into your thread then when you submit the post the picture appears in your thread.


Hope that helps if you want I can send you step by step pictures of me doing it( on the nite shift and machine is down no maintenance in till 6) and at a lose end hahahahah.


Tank looks great I have always found it strange seeing koi in a tank so used to seeing them in ponds love koi but just never had a pond since I moved out of the parents house.


Regards
Craig

at the end of the day it becomes nite

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19 May 2016 09:23 #88 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
Great looking tank. Bart did an excellent job (once again!). I like the idea of running tanks open topped. I just can't do it in my place though. The room is so small it'd be like a sauna with all the humidity.

"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."

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19 May 2016 10:17 #89 by robert (robert carter)
Thanks for your kind comments. I must admit I do like the open top , great when feeding the fish , seeing that the tank is cold water one doesn't get heat loss , may put some glass condensation lids on ,but only if evaporation is an issue over the next couple of weeks . Next step is to monitor water parameters for the next couple of weeks . cant believe the amount of media one can get into a sump , it now has 11 layers of various grade sponges , 12kg of biohome ultimate ,and 5 layers of filter floss , and not forgetting the sock on the input pipe which I replaced with a nylon 200 micron this morning

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19 May 2016 13:03 #90 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
Glad you didn't mind me ripping one off your Facebook account. I just copied it into my photo album, then inserted it into the message. It was quite easy...promise....

My tank is topless and I really like the look of it. I lose about 7 liters a week, but mine is tropical. So really you shouldn't lose much water at all.
Well done on all your work. :angel:

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