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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

How to kick start a tank.

  • Anthony (Anthony)
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27 Apr 2006 09:52 #1 by Anthony (Anthony)
How to kick start a tank. was created by Anthony (Anthony)
Here is an easy and effective way to kick start a tank if you have an extra tank.

Fish thing to do is to place some tank water from a mature tank in a bucket. Next take your sponges and clean in the water. Do not squeeze.
Just remove the gunk from the sides.
Throw out the water and take out some more tank water. Squeeze the Sponges into the new tank water.
Put this water straight into the filther in your new tank. Just make sure the temp is almost the same and the water in your new tank is de-chlorinated and volla you have kick started your new tank.
This is a very effective method that i have used many times to great effect.

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27 Apr 2006 10:14 #2 by monty (monty)
Harry,

When you mention take the sponges and clean in the water, I take it you mean the mature sponges and not the new ones and are using this method to do a bacteria transfer into the new tank.

I prefer to actually do a filter media swap by putting the new media into the mature tank and the mature media into the new tank - after up to temp etc. I don't swap all media just half and only on the internal filter - I leave the external filter alone so I don't get any spikes on the mature tank.

Works for me.

I've read about using handfuls of substrate, running the new filter (internal or external) on the mature tank for a week or so before setup of the other tanks etc etc

Monty

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27 Apr 2006 10:17 #3 by Pablo (Pablo -)
I do the same as Monty plus i try to fill the new tank with as much water of the old tank as possible... :D

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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27 Apr 2006 16:22 #4 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: How to kick start a tank.
yes the old sponges.
This way you dont get the nitrate from the old tank. Mature filther and fresh water. I use to use the water myself but this iss a better way in my view.

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28 Apr 2006 14:27 #5 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
I keep a sponge or 2 spare in a tank just in case.
I have also used shrimp skins to kick start a tank. This works great in larger tanks as it will cut the cycle time to about 10 days for a 450L tank using 2 shrimp skins. But be warned the Amonia will spike VERRY quickly.

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28 Apr 2006 15:56 #6 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: How to kick start a tank.
But you still have to add bacteria. That will just feed the bacteria. I am kick starting a tank by adding millions and millions of bacteria in one go. Cutting out the maturation time by weeks.

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01 May 2006 14:51 #7 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
If you have a brand new tank set up and dont add anything but water.
The tank will cycle in its own good time.
By adding the shrimp skins i am just pouliting the tank slightly which in turn gets the necessery bacteria going.
I do agree that using some sort of zyme or cycle is a lot more straigh forward.

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  • conor (conor)
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12 Jun 2006 11:53 #8 by conor (conor)
Replied by conor (conor) on topic Re: How to kick start a tank.
Not sure I trust those zymes. I would simpy de-chlorinate, and throw in some gravel & filter / sponge from a well cycled tank to kick start it.

Even doing so, I would wait for at _least_ two weeks prior to adding fish.
A good idea would be to plant it though. As the leaves & roots will be covered in lovely bacteria.

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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12 Jun 2006 16:47 #9 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: How to kick start a tank.

Not sure I trust those zymes. I would simpy de-chlorinate, and throw in some gravel & filter / sponge from a well cycled tank to kick start it.

Even doing so, I would wait for at _least_ two weeks prior to adding fish.
A good idea would be to plant it though. As the leaves & roots will be covered in lovely bacteria.


I have added 8 Discus plus catfish into a 2 day old aquarium using this method and I never had a problem.I only waited the 2 days for the tank to heat up. I have done this in the petshop where I work partime for customers who have lost fish due to ammonina levels and they were pleased as punch. I do it everytime I buy a new tank and I never get N.T.S.
I got this from a very knowledgeable person when it comes to fish keeping, Lets call him Fred G who Tony V knows very well and this guy would leave us all standing with his nowledge of Discus.

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