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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

Running a Marine Tank without a Sump

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21 Oct 2012 14:33 #1 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Hi lads,
I am looking to now convert my 5 foot freshwater tank to a marine setup.
The tank has a capacity of approx 380L
I am planning to setup the marine system without a sump .
Are any of the marine experts on the forum running a large marine tank with just external filters and a skimmer and no sump.

Any advice would be welcome.


Greg

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21 Oct 2012 16:31 #2 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
I haven't kept Marines for 30 years, but I can say that the idea of a sump is not a necessity.
They are more than useful, but not essential.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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21 Oct 2012 18:15 #3 by sincgar (Feargal Costello)
sorry do not meet any of the criteria - expert, large tank nut have a small 2 foot marine tank (fluval roma 90) over two years now without a sump. the cabinet is too small for one and a mixture of softies and some lps.
have an external to help add some volume with LR, ceramic tubes and some sponges for the larger crud.
Even went without a skimmer for most of that period but did add a small hob filter with lr and chaeto but this year swopped it out for a skimmer

thats my story and can only drool at your plans for a five footer. gigger volume should give you more leeway for changes. some gives the ability to hide stuff out of main tank and more volume.

i run my inline heater off of the external so at least that is out of tank

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21 Oct 2012 19:47 #4 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Sincgar,
Did you have any Nitrate issues with the external filter and your corals in the marine setup.
How did you get over the eventual nitrate generation by the external filter.
Can you give me more detail on the layers in your external filter.. Did you say live rock in the filter.

Thanks Again.

Greg

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26 Oct 2012 19:46 #5 by SSS (Sion S)
I have a 285L that I run off 2 externals with no problems.
A 1250lph that i have carbon and sponges in and a 1000lph with different layers of ceramic rings and ceramic balls etc.
If the sponges are anyway dirty i just wash them in the water during a water change but I could rinse them under the tap because I'm not relying on them for bacterial filtration, but they are never that dirty anyway.
Having a sump would be handy but external filters and a hang on skimmer do the job!

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28 Oct 2012 22:12 #6 by sincgar (Feargal Costello)
never really had an issue. I only had the top sponges in the filter and washed these out in tap water each change. The onther baskets had small pieces of live rock or else some bags of carbon or rowaphos. the only other media were one basket of ceramc tubes. nitrates were usually low but probably not at the low levels for the harder corals. alm my softies did fine and grew well.

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29 Oct 2012 11:58 #7 by ghart (Greg Hart)
Thanks lads for the assurances with the external filters and marine setup.
I have decided to go the voerflow box and sump way.
I will be looking to order a 42" sump today as it only cost around 120 euro custom built to my specifications.
I am then hoping to source all of my other requirements from forum members over time.
I will need a good quality skimmer, live rock (30Kg) ; water movers etc.


Greg

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