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
My New Marine Tank From Week 1
- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Looking forward to seeing the results of your labours....
You know ive read thru all your experiences again and again and again and again.
Trying to learn enough that when I start my marine tank (coral only in the start i recon) I may actually have a chance of getting something right!
now for the questions:
I like the idea of a bb tank, but whats protecting the glass from the rock work?
Im going to setup with Dry Rock, would it be a good idea to add 2 or 3 pieces of cured live rock to seed the rest? or is there an alternative?
Has anyone tried to grow or keep their own muscles?
Does going with a Coral only tank in the beginning cause any issues? do i need certain livestock to help out the corals?
last and not least, Can you just lift your entire setup and move it to my house to save me the hard work and you can start again..... after all with all your expreience, It would be easy for you![]()
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Think it's very hard to get it right with no issues as every tank is different
Bb tanks can be prone to falling rocks from crabs turbo's and even big fish it is Deffo a recommendation to have a solid structure, my method was solid structure then use dd epoxy to add extra weld around the corners joints ect. The stuff is like play dough it's very easy to use and drys like a brick, i had to change the scape a bit to makes sure the puzzle was solid and for in my eyes to look nice cause it ain't moving again
If u where using dry rock use all dry rock it defeats the purpose of using lr with it
Mussels can Deffo grow huge, but you have to train very hard in the gym and it takes time lol
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Jesus so much crap out of that gravel...and only in a few months....makes me wonder whats sitting at the bottom of my tank...
i suppose it would be easier to see the detrius in a bb tank and there fore easier just to remove..but will it be as easy to see once its covered in coraline algea????would it not be better to keep it totally clean??
Have the pelletts seeded yet???any drop in nitates yet???
My idea is ti have so much flow on the bottom that nothing gets a chance to sit their, and once i get that 100% I shouldn't have to worry about it again and the water changes a breeze
Reactors only running about 3wks so I'd say by week 5 it will be starting ro really kick in
Forgot to add above (chris you seen it with ur own eyes) the brown crap cyano or dinos or whatever it was use to stay mostly on sand but would spread in different spots horrible places on the rocks, thus was a nightmare especially when it was so close to some corals
So far all thus has gone after I cleaned it,
Before when I use to clean it
It would always come back in 2-4 days (always)
All is looking normal again nitrates are down to 2-5 will be getting these even lower with my new bio pellet reactor
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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- Aroshni (Lydia Olivera)
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Lydia
Lowtech Shrimps nano 30l
www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...-lowtech-nano-shrimp
Lowtech Vision 180l Community
www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...-lowtech-vision-180l
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Im too fat and lazy to be bothered with the gym lol
Their go's the mussels so lol
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Tank is stunning Jeff, must be a pleasure to watch, with a tank like yours who needs TV?
Thank you
Only thing on TV that's worth watching is seeing how it all grows in the sea in a good documentary
These tanks can be soul destroying if things don't go the way you think their going but once its on track it's one of the best things in life to enjoy in your own home
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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I give all the rocks a blow with a powerhead and turkey baster the syphon out the amount if water hands free, top up and done, Very easy
Few pics of the tank with no sand and a few adjustments to the rock work as i had to stick most if it together, so this is the way it will stay apart from the corals growing (no more moving rocks which i use to do every few mts trying to get that desired look) but im happy with it now not really much of a difference to most people but a big difference to me as i know every rock in the tank by now)

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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.
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- alan 64 (alan)
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- carlowchris (chris)
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is that the same hammer or did you get a new one???
Are those milkas in the last pic????flipping lovely coral.
tank looks absolutly fantasic.are you happy with the bare bottom look???it must take of used to when everyones so used to looking at sand.
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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I love it! I cant wait to get mine going now
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Alan that's a metallic green wall hammer, you wana see it with just the actinic blue lights on its crazy
Chris yeah that's the pink one you seen its a alveopora and the green and yellow one above it is also a alveopora (savage corals)
Same hammer decided to see how good my tank was and bring it back to life so far so good looks allot healthier now
And the milkas are the last one theirs 3 of them git them very cheap so said il try them see how I get on and so far so good always open just waiting to see if they will grow
Theirs that many corals in the tank and on the Base that yeh kinda forget about the sand and it gives a very clean feel to it, I actually really like it now, would not put sand in their again
Niel I'm hoping to see you starting something very soon and I'd definitely recommend a bb tank as i said before call in and have a look at this in person cause these pics are really shite if honest
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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Im gettin there slowly lol
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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To speed up the process get some red sea nopox also
Cause with just roaphos in the reactor you will go threw loads of it as it absorbs it very quickly so you need to change it allot when readings are high, and it ain't cheap, but nopox is cheap enough so using both will save a bit of cash
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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Ill try call down this week too ya! Was going to give ya a call last week but was in work by 3am every day last week and wasn't in any fit state by mid - late afternoon haha.
Dyin to get a look at your "bare bottom"
(Dont use the dirty.part of your mind when ya read that btw)
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- carlowchris (chris)
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Cheers Jeff
Ill try call down this week too ya! Was going to give ya a call last week but was in work by 3am every day last week and wasn't in any fit state by mid - late afternoon haha.
Dyin to get a look at your "bare bottom"
(Dont use the dirty.part of your mind when ya read that btw)
thats not safe to be working that late



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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Just wondering if neil would be better off using po4x4...if you've nothing but rock in the tank..would it be better to strip out all the phosphates now
yeah chris the po4x4 would be perfect, but i would also use the nopox
i spoke to soon bud about the hammer was having a good look at it today and not good not good at all pretty much the same and maybe a little worse than when i got it, this one already had its cards marked before i bought it which is bad crack, i rang keelan about this two days after i got it home and explained its condition,and ive now sent an email to keelan about it as he knows it was like this when i bought it, so hopefully he does the right thing, will keep yeh posted
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Was changing the filter floss twice a day to stopping over flowing (filter box)
Started using the socks again to see if it would help, but their only lasting a day not even a day and their over flowing
So water is not getting polished, and don't know what to do now
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- carlowchris (chris)
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ive heard stories of people suddenly getting hair algea problems after using biopellets when they never had yhat problem before....and evenually all the nutriance gets sucked out of the tank and it goes away...i think your experiecing something simalar and your pelletts are kicking in
if you keep on top of the socks it cant keep on forever its got to clear at some point
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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It's mad cause when I take the socks out they look clean but feel nasty
And I did notice today that the outlet from the reactor had moved and wasn't online with the skimmer so that wouldn't have helped
Gona just stick with the floss for now until it gets a bit better
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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So no better way to cheer myself up off i went to sh to get another one, but the ones the had were to small and would have been beaten up by my other tangs, but i was determined to go home happy so opted for the blond one as he was a good size and healthy
So far so good settling in perfect will leave the lights off until tomorrow
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- carlowchris (chris)
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- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
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Will you be around this weekend? I am about to order my new aquarium and wanted to have a look at your cabinet design etc.. just to see the constructions, frame etc as yours will be of similar weight to mine

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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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- carlowchris (chris)
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Can't see that pic Jeff.......pleaseeeeee tell me I'm not the only one having problems??????

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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Alex explained it grand to me but the bit I get stuck on is the, left click on the IMG
I'm using an ipad and their ain't a left click haha
So when I tap it i can copy it
And then when I paste it the text is all I get
I tried a few of my own options that I thought would paste it and just kept getting, basically (text)
Soooooo I gave up and had a beer
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- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
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Ok so maybe this will help
One you select a photo you have to places where you can copy the img link, either top right or all the way to the right

Top left will bring up another pop up where you will have the same options again,

You now need to left click on the IMG field box (like select it) and it will automatically copy it to your clipboard (so there is no need to right click and copy), see below

The go into your post and paste it the usual way (ctrl + v or right click - paste)
The code should look like the below (I put 1 space after the first and last bracket so it wouldnt paste the image.
[ URL=http://s1379.photobucket.com/user/bohrio/media/20160321_212314_zps2fvbsmpo.jpg.html][ IMG]i1379.photobucket.com/albums/ah141/bohri...2314_zps2fvbsmpo.jpg[/IMG ][/URL ]
Hope this helps!
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