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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

clean up crew for a barebum tank

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05 May 2015 13:22 #31 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Could do that I suppose
Tho my diy track record is not great recently

It's almost like my ability to do stuff just got up and ran off one night!!!!

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05 May 2015 21:01 #32 by carlowchris (chris)
Can't beat the red sea mature kit....used it before and everything worked out exactly as it described....supposedly it never does but it did for me.

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05 May 2015 22:18 #33 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
So far, the results are exactly as described in the instructions!

Hopefully they will stay on target! I'm told if your careful with dosages etc and you start with dry rock then there is no reason your readings won't be as they predict!

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06 May 2015 21:38 #34 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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Done a bit of work to the tank itself to try make it look a bit prettier

How's it looking now?

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07 May 2015 14:39 #35 by Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
Looks nicer in my opinion, but not 100% sure... it is hard to get a full picture by just looking at the picture.

You might want to leave room between the rock and the glass (in the picture it looks they are very close) otherwise it will be a pain to clean

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07 May 2015 15:30 #36 by LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)

it is hard to get a full picture by just looking at the picture.

What hey on the what now? :blink:
That's almost makes no sense... :crazy:

"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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07 May 2015 17:23 - 07 May 2015 17:24 #37 by Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
ok ok

"It is hard to get the full picture just by looking at one photo"

Probably a bit better now

Means that I can only see it from one angle
Last edit: 07 May 2015 17:24 by Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez).

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07 May 2015 20:42 #38 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
There is an inch or so between the rock and the glass, so it's not too bad!
Yea I know what ya mean about it being hard to tell from just 1 angle!
I might try to get a few more pics from different angles later on if I get a chance

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08 May 2015 14:38 #39 by ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
I think it looks nice so it does :-) how about may an arch . Is there much space for flow between the rocks ?

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08 May 2015 15:13 #40 by Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
I would try to leave at least enought space to fit your hand between the rock and the glass. This is something I have regretted many times in the past and even do in my current tank (although I dont mind as it is only a temporary thing)

If you want my opinion, I would try to leave more space in the middle and move more to the back and maybe make something landscapey like these







Now I am not saying this is best it is just a matter of taste, just make sure that you like it, if you really like it and you think this is it then go for it, but remember whatever layout you chose it will be there to stay! ;)

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09 May 2015 08:39 #41 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
I thought about an arch, but wouldn't be confident in making it as it's bare bottom, if there was any dropped or falling rock the tank would crack for sure!
I would have to drill it and put acrylic rods or something into it and even still I wouldnt be confident in that!

As I'm down to 1 filter to add more movement I now have 3 wave makers in the tank, plenty of movement now!

Plenty of gaps and spaces in the rocks for hiding places and water flow!

I'd say it will probably change again before the final layout is chosen!

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19 May 2015 20:22 #42 by carlowchris (chris)
How the tank??cycle d yet????

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19 May 2015 21:02 #43 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Its getting there cycle wise!
Ammonia and nitrites are still slightly elevated but due a water change tomorrow aswell so I'm not too concerned at this stage!
The reef mature kit has suggested that I should introduce the cleanup crew, but I'm going to hold off till I'm happier with the ammonia etc

Must get a spin down to sh and a few other vendors soon to see what they have for cleanup

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20 May 2015 22:29 #44 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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right so, lights on too long?
This brown scummy algea is starting to cover everything

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20 May 2015 23:18 #45 by carlowchris (chris)
From what I remember from when I used the reef mature kit .. it's going to get a lot worse but all that algae will be a food source for your clean up crew... I used live rock but dry rock is supposed to take longer so maybe amonina and nitrates still being there is normal..bohrio might be the best to answer on that....looking good though..

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21 May 2015 22:03 #46 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Was cleaning the tank up this evening and moved some of the rock around while I was at it!

Ammonia looks to have actually dropped
As does nitrites
I'm going to test again this weekend and pending results I might go and get a turbo snail and a couple of shrimp

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what ya recon? Better layout?

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22 May 2015 20:02 #47 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
Well done on setting up your tank. It looks good. I saw that you said one of your tetratec is broken. I have a spare tetratec ex600 in the shed. It leaked from the head somewhere. ( it was brought 2nd hand) I did buy a new seal and pipe adaptor thing but haven't fitted it yet.
When it broke I phoned tetratec in the UK and they sent me a new one. Happy days.

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22 May 2015 20:36 #48 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Must give them a call and see what happens! I have 4 tetra tec filters here, but only 2 of them are any use to me at the min!

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22 May 2015 20:52 #49 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
I sent them a number of email through their web site and got no answers. Yet when I phoned the UK number about it, ( it's on the tetratec site, under contact us) they were very good and got new filter within a week.
Let us know what happens.
Good luck with tank and call!

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23 May 2015 03:33 #50 by gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
That latest layout looks great Neil !

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31 May 2015 11:02 #51 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Well Chris wasn't wrong when he said it would get worse.....
Im looking at maybe getting cleanup crew this week! Probably 2 cleaner shrimp and various snails!
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I spoke to tetratec and they said they are sending me a replacement motor head for the ex1200 but they don't stock replacements for the ex700 any more so that filter is basically scrap now! But I have a bit of an idea of what to do with it!

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31 May 2015 15:43 #52 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
Glad you got something for the sake of a phone call. It's always worth giving manufactures feedback on their products, the you never know what will happen.
Hope the tank clears up soon.

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31 May 2015 18:24 #53 by Kmd (Keith mc donagh)
Hi. The rock work looks a lot better :cheer: . Is it glued together?

I don't know if I'm picking this up wrong, but the cleaner shrimp won't help with the algae. They only eat meaty foods.
I also got two of them, for my first marine tank, and ended up giving them back for stealing food from my lps. If your thinking of getting lps it might be something to think about. But there great for manicures :laugh:


Snails are great for algae.

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31 May 2015 21:27 #54 by carlowchris (chris)
Looking good......kmd s kind if right about the shrimp too....I'd hold off on them.....most shrimp aren't going to eat algae....they eat dead skin off fish and left over food....in a tank that's been cycled with live rock there'd be copepods and stuff that they could much on.. .but you had pretty much just rock . . ..they'll starve well before any fish are in there.....

Cleaner shrimp aren't the hardiest either. ...but there top dwellers and always on show....fire shrimp..lovely little guys but hide alot but tend to hang round the middle of the tank......dory in my tank goes to bed every night with him.......but boxer shrimp are the most interesting shrimp ..with the most character.....but bottom dewllers.....and any sick fish they'll clean them till nothing's left...totally ruthless......love my ones.......sexy shrimp had two of them in the past.and tbh there just too small ... some fish at some point just sees them as lunch..

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31 May 2015 21:35 #55 by ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
Loving the rock work now :-) i had the same outbreak and i turned my lights off for the week and it cleared up fully. You dont need light for the liverock . I would wait on the shrimp. Afew snails would be a good start i think :-) looking realy nice though :-)

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02 Jun 2015 23:26 #56 by carlowchris (chris)
When cycling the tank ..would it not be better to keep the lights on ????and try and encourage the,algae to grow????was just thinking if hair algae is growing at least it's using up some phosphates and nitrates..but if turn the lights off the algae won't grow but wouldn't those phosphates and nitrates be absorbed by the rock??????

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03 Jun 2015 01:04 #57 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
I turned the lights off today and will keep them off for 3 or 4 days see if it clears off a bit!
My nitrate is not even registering on the test kit at this stage nor is ammonia, but as I'm working nights, itll be at least the weekend till I can go.about getting cleanup crew in there (Unless I'm workin weekend too)

Basically everything is ready to start stocking (slowly does it)
Wife gave me her "I'd love you to get these" list there the other day!
A pair of clowns, a mandrin, (best 1) "something pink", and a few other requests that the tank is too small for..... haha
Looks like I'll be choosing corals and she will be deciding on the fish now at this rate!

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07 Jul 2015 21:02 #58 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
Great to see you up and running bud!!

As for a Clean up crew don't touch anything until your water is bang on especially phosphate and nitrates
And don't get shrimp until your 110% the water is good
Turbo's are brilliant and they will also clean the bottom
I still have crabs..........

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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07 Jul 2015 21:05 #59 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
Fucking sick of this! I write a huge reply to hammie and it's cut short again,and ending with I have crabs, I do find the crabs thing a little funny but not loosing my post this is why I'm not on anymore, sorry lads but I'm out if here (again) best of luck niel

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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08 Jul 2015 13:10 #60 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Ah Jeff, I told ya to go to the doctor about that.....
Thanks for the reply fella, even tho it was cut short for whatever reason!
The Cleaner shrimp and a few hermits are in there already and doing very very well
Ive had a complete disaster with bloody filters on this tank with one after another failing and starting to leak.
Im on a 2 brand new filters now, an EX1200 plus tetratec and a Aquaone 1250 Series 2 Water is crystal clear and all levels are good
Phosphate level is a little unstable, but i think it could be a dodgy test (it expired a month ago), Ill replace the test kit and test again
KH is stable at around 10.

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