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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

T5 Bulb Arrangement

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16 Mar 2010 17:17 #1 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
Hey folks,

So I picked up my lighting unit for my new salty setup. Its a Betta 6x54w T5 unit. The bulbs that came with it are 4x54w white and 2x54w blue actinic. At the moment they are arranged with the four whites at the front and the two actinic at the rear. Will this do or would a different arrangement be better? Also, I know I can get away with just having four of these babys on instead of all six and was thinking about having the actinics coming on only at night. Is this ok or would it be a bit strong? If so mabey I could pick up a small LED unit for night viewing? Cheers,

Jay

Location: Finglas, North Dublin.

Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.

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16 Mar 2010 18:42 #2 by irishfirepics (Dennis Prior)
Hi Jay

on my tank i have a metal halide and a luminaire with blue actinic bulbs, i have the blues coming on an hour before the halide(white ligh) and stay on for a half hour after it's on and then come on a half hour before the halide goes out and stay on for an hour after,

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16 Mar 2010 18:56 #3 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
Cheers Dennis, have been reading about systems that employ a similar type to yours. According to Robert M Fenner (Conscientious Marine Aquarist) the actinics are more for our enjoyment by bringing out the flourescent blues and greens of the corals rather than actually being beneficial to them as a lighting requirement. My unit has the three swiches all connected to the one power source so what I plan on doing is having the whites come on in the morning on a timer and in the evenings manually turning on the actinics. Do you think this would be ok? Cheers,

Jay

Location: Finglas, North Dublin.

Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.

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16 Mar 2010 19:08 #4 by irishfirepics (Dennis Prior)
should be fine, on my luminaire there are 3 bulbs on 2 switches, i have one blue on with the halide because my corals closer to the top of the tank flouress a bit even with the halide on, looks great, the other blue is just used to give a nice colour in the morning and evening.

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16 Mar 2010 19:15 #5 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
Sweet, those halides do give off a savage effect. Thanks for all your help mate, much appreciated ;) .

Jay

Location: Finglas, North Dublin.

Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.

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16 Mar 2010 19:21 #6 by irishfirepics (Dennis Prior)
no problem

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16 Mar 2010 20:19 #7 by murph (Tony Murphy)
These:
www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=34147

make great moonlights!
You need a 1A regulated 12v (or 9v for darker) dc power supply to power the inverter.
I haven't tried the UV tube, only the blue, but I'm sure some effect would be seen with corals that are closer to the surface. They are usually in stock in Jervis (not sure about Blanch?).

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16 Mar 2010 20:32 #8 by Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
Thanks Murph ;) .

Jay

Location: Finglas, North Dublin.

Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.

Please Log in to join the conversation.

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