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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

New marine tank project

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08 Jan 2012 13:14 #1 by plawlor37 (Philip)
Guys,
Setting up a marine tank (fish, live rock and hardy inverts), going for a 6 foot long x 24" x 30" high tank (not purchased yet) i am unsure about what equipment i need versus nice to have.
thinking in terms of
1) fiteration (do i need an external canister or will live rock be enough)
2) substrate (what is the best type to enable filteration )
3) rock type and how may KG ( what type and weight do i need to start of with)
4) water movement ( do i ned wave makers or what are the options)
5) maintenance equipment (whats essential here and what are the most reliable brands)

what would you guys do if you could do it again from the start ?

thanks in advance
all the best philip

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08 Jan 2012 15:57 #2 by Jambomac (James McConville)
Welcome to forum philip

1)Yes you need external filtration unless you want to change about probably 50 litres a day
a sump would be better as you will probably need a skimmer.

2)The only substrate to my knowledge is live sand you could use gravel but if you get sand sifting creature then you have a problem.

3)Rock type live rock you can get man maid about 1kg per 10 litres as for start probably 20%
of the final amount initially if you keep an eye on this forum you can get stuff cheaper
then the shops.

4)Wave makers you need to make your live rock an efficient filtration system as it will
move the current through it.

5)Maintenance equipment buckets for mixing your salt water. A blade to scrape the glass clean
a floaty to clean the glass daily.

“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”

quote Bruce Lee

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08 Jan 2012 19:09 #3 by plawlor37 (Philip)
Hi Jambomac,

Tank volume.. 870 liter plus about 200 liter sump.. approx 1070 minus rock sand etc = 800 liters maybe.

Filtration : The marine tanks i am looking at as a sump so i am planning to use a skimmer there. For the filtration i would like to reduce the amount of electrical equipment to a minimum and use live rock as much as possible to do the dirty work, but i take your advice re external filter.
I see different types of live rock mentioned and also substrate, what i have picked up so far is that Indonesian live rock is the best as it is so porous and that argentite substrate is the best here as it is of a high quality in terms of buffering the water ?

sump Pump : how can i calculate the correct outputs in relation to the tank size here ?

wave makers : how do i calculate the quantity and output of each if more than one is needed?

Water changes : What % are most people changing and how often, everywhere is saying 10% weekly but for a 1000 liter tanks and the price of salt that's about €500/Y ...ouch.

Nitrate filters : do these extend the time between water changes ?

Thanks in advance
Philip

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08 Jan 2012 19:15 #4 by paddyc1 (Paddy Corrigan)
Welcome along Philip.
I think this will take a lot of investment for an 800l tank.
€500 a year on SW is going to be the least of your expense. I'm more of a fw fan myself so can't give you the advice some of the other guys can. That said, do as much homework as you can and best of luck with the setup

Paddy

Tallaght, Dublin 24

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08 Jan 2012 22:27 #5 by wylam (Stuart Sexton)
Hi philip, you should take a look at the posts about the 10ft reef tank. it looks awsome and probably in around the range of what ur looking at. I think he has pictures and spec's of his equipment used which could be usful to you.

Stuart.

Multi tasking: Screwing up more than one thing at a time.

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08 Jan 2012 22:40 #6 by Jambomac (James McConville)
Ok first of all the sump will be your external filtration and thats where you will put your
external fiter items.

As for pumps will tell you that they will do a salt water tank of size x.

I do 20% every 2 weeks but my tank is only 130 litre's i think you will definitely get away with
a lot less water changes as it will take a while before you will be heavily stocked.

I want to save money you could go the LED route in lighting as if you want corals thats where
the real COST LIE

“A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer.”

quote Bruce Lee

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08 Jan 2012 23:05 #7 by plawlor37 (Philip)
Where is the 10" reef thread?

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08 Jan 2012 23:34 #8 by davey_c (dave clarke)
www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/fforu...0ft-reef-tank#113466 :cool:

as stated a sump will be needed but otherwise you would have all the equipment hanging out of your tank.. doubt you'd realy want that :)

Below tank is for sale

my plywood tank build.

www.irishfishkeepers.com/index.php/forum...k-build-diary#137768

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08 Jan 2012 23:49 #9 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
Welcome to the forum.

Hope to see some more of your tank.

ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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