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
First tank
- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Sooooooo jealous about them mandarins can't believe you get them eating frozen food well done
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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- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
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1 in 10 he says that he gets do normally. This batch he has 3 that are eating frozen. If i had a bigger tank i would have one for sure

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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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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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- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
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Ceech would he post to Dublin
I am not sure to be honest if he would we have 2 stores here i have seen Mandrins eating frozen food.
Being honest you can train them also. Thats how the stores do it put them in a tank which they feed frozen too.
I would think it would cost allot to send 1 fish from Norway to you , As he would want to use 24 hr shipping .
I will ask him for you.
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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If he would ship them I'd take two if the cost wasn't to mental, infact ask if he could do say 6 of them Im sure hammie is not the only one who would like one, I can cover the costs and the lads can sort me out,
Anyone else interested can comment below, and ceech if you could find that out when you get a chance that would be fantastic (if yeh don't mind)
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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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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for a mandirin try and get a female, they are alot smaller and don't need to eat as much as the males to keep healthy looking. There is a frozen food lobster eggs that ismade for problem eaters like mandarin and 6 lines etc that has gotten my male moving around alot better in the tank.
I had the female mandarin in the tank a few weeks before getting the male and she was fine. It's only the make I'm having a bit of an issue with. But then again he's nearly 2 months in the tank and I havent lost him yet.
Cleaning tanks today so I'll post pics of tanks and corals tonight. Up early to watch the f1 ☺
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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- Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.
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- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
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I've had these before and failed each time trying to get them to eat
If he would ship them I'd take two if the cost wasn't to mental, infact ask if he could do say 6 of them Im sure hammie is not the only one who would like one, I can cover the costs and the lads can sort me out,
Anyone else interested can comment below, and ceech if you could find that out when you get a chance that would be fantastic (if yeh don't mind)
He has a red mandrin and a green mandrin that he has now in stock. i am taking green mandrin after easter he wants to make sure he stays eating frozen food. I seen him eating mysis last week , but as i will be away for a week i will wait until i am home.he sold the other 2 green mandrins on saturday who were also eating frozen.I asked and he does not have a licence to send live fish to Ireland he told me.Went in this morning after a meeting as the store was close by.
He is charging 65 euro each and delivery to ireland would be expensive for 24 hrs shipping even if he could. Also he said even if he did send there is no gaurentee , if they arrive dead .Which he does not like either as he gives in Norway for all customers on overnight shipments.He said he will have a look into how he could send and a shipping price.
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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But thank you so much for taking the time to investigate the sinario fair play, cheers buddy
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- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
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- jeff (Jeff Scully)
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i know the feeling mate, its like if she hasn't got any use for something, its not going to happen without a heartache
but when you do win!!!!
That would be a great project and most satisfying, and id love a new post all about how it gos
Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.
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- ceech (Desmond Gaynor)
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cheers
i know the feeling mate, its like if she hasn't got any use for something, its not going to happen without a heartache
but when you do win!!!!
That would be a great project and most satisfying, and id love a new post all about how it gos
One step at a time i will walk before i run- She gives out give an inch i take a mile

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- Coiledserpent (Patrick Quinlivan)
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any issues with the tank are lights good,plumbing work etc....
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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well I had a look at the reef space and by just looking at it I would go for that lol. The m90 has a back compartment sump which actually takes away from the 136l capacity of the tank. So its really just a 108l front capacity tank.
lights of the tank are giving off great light throughout the tank, not much shadowing and everything is growing quite well.
sump wise, the design is not great, it overflows from each compartment at the top which with the return in the last section seams to flow mainly over the top. I've to test placing new sections to make the water travel up and down the sump but I haven't had a chance yet.
equipment wise that comes with the tank,
skimmer : it's noisy but good. Will do up to a 175l and giving good skimming.
Power head, it's good but I have upgraded for better flow.
heater, fine but he upgraded to 300w ehiem
return pump, need to cleaned every week to make sure flow is good.
Cleaning wise, it's quite hard to get to the sump, the other tank since its under the tank would be so much easier.
If you need to know anything else mate let me know.
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- Coiledserpent (Patrick Quinlivan)
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Do you know where they stock the reefspace anywhere in galway or ireland ?
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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Firstly, the male mandarin has gone to fishy heaven. Was trying for afew days to get him to eat after he stopped but one morning came home and he was no more. The female is doing very well tho, fat andalways seams to be happy.
Secondly, I was trying to mate a pair of clowns, a phantom and a premium snowflake, but was stopped after my yellow tang decided to stab my premium snowflake and after 2 days he died. If anyone has any snowflakes let me know as im looking for another.
Next item, my cardinals decided to breed in the tank but the male didn't keep the babies for more than a few days, but hoping they will again.
Everything is growing well, have added some cloves, and lovely Duncan corals into the large tank.
Will put pics up later. Had a electrical issue during the week so have to tidy up tanks and put them back into place again.
Small tank, my mated percula clowns are very happy, all my zoas are growing. Having an issue with some algae growth so trying to sort that out.
Hope everyone is happy with the update and will put pics up soon.
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- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
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How is the tank doing?

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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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The M90 is going great ill get some pics of it during the day tomorrow. It currently has these as its occupants :
Fish :
2 snowflake clowns
2 breeding cardinals (breeding not progressing past holding eggs tho)
1 purple dottyback
3 Chromis
1 neon damsel (one died)
1 female mandarin (still going really well, lost the male after 4 months in tank)
1 cleaner shrimp
2 peppermint (had an outbreak of aiptasia but they sorted it out after a little aiptasia x help )
varies snails and other housekeepers
COrals:
2 different frogspawn
3 monti's
purple acro
green star polyps
metallic green star polyps
pom pom zenia
duncan coral
Clove polyps
2 unknown corals (will show pics when i get them)
1 large fungia
1 small fungia
3 fungias growing on fungia tree
1 fungia trying to grow on another fungia tree but always annoyed by bubble algae
As for the small tank
fish wise
2 percula clowns
1 yellow clown goby
1 red scooter blenny
corals
pom pom zenia
numberous zoas
i huge toadstool

As for eveything else all is going well. In the process of thinking about a new tank, 6 footer and moving everything into that tank and then selling off the m90 and m60
I have older pics on my phone which im uploading now and will add other newer ones when i get time
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- robert (robert carter)
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- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
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What lighting are you using? how much have the SPS grown since you got it?
I found LEDs on their own struggle a bit to grow this corals, or at least they dont thrive as much.
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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Im using the Fluval Sea LEDs that come with the tank still on them.
With SPS they are not great on their own. I have had some growth but not a huge amount, plus with the fish im keeping and the feeding to keep the mandarin alive they do suffer every now and again and have to recover.
Changing to a new tank soon so they are going to be running on T5 for the growth so everything in both tanks are going to be moved into new tank. with both tanks there are over 50kgs of live rock plus im putting in another 30+ in the next tank. I ahve new pics which i hope to put up once i get a spare moment in work tonight.
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- Sukahn (Shane Doorley)
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- Bohrio (Alex Rodriguez)
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Nice pics man
Yes, I found LEDs dont grow SPSs as much as T5s, however I find hybrids (a combination of LEDs and T5) to be the best option, or at least so I have been reading
I am getting some for my new built as well, I will let you know how I get on.
When are you planning of upgrading?
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