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
Good evening.
I am ready to admit that the failure trail which you have experienced is is an embarrassment, to put it mildly, and I do apologize that you have had to make this experience. I am certain that you will appreciate, however, that with all products they will after some time stop to function or develop faults. Whether this is a car, a stereo system, a mobile phone or whatever. And this may also mean that the spare parts required to get the products back to normal working conditions is felt to be abnormally expensive compared to the price of the complete new product, in our case the aquarium.
Light Units
WE are probably the only manufacturer in Europe trying to fulfill the regulatory requirements of the International Norm for Aquarium Light units. This means, that the ballasts have to be electronic and that the light unit has to be watertight (technically this means IPX 7). For you as the consumer this has two downsides:
1. The failure rate of electronics is noticeably higher than the failure rate of the classical magnetic ballast, which basically never fail.
2. The light unit itself cannot be opened. Thus the replacement of the failed ballast is impossible (but would be a lot cheaper than having to replace the complete unit).
But there is nothing, we can do about this, I am afraid, other than to continuously improve the quality of the ballasts, which we are doing. The newest version, which we have introduced last year (after another stringent increase in the regulatory requirements), has a failure rate, which we cannot see a chance to improve further. It is below the 1% mark.
Hopefully their next light unit design will be more reliable. I am not sure I belive the 1% claim but mind you, unhappy customers tell 10 people, happy ones only tell 1/2.
Finally, he couriered me a box full of goddies, so I am a happy fish keeper again!
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Well at least he admits that by adhering to the new regulatory requirement, the consumer has two downsides:
1. The failure rate of electronics is noticeably higher than the failure rate of the classical magnetic ballast, which basically never fail.
2. The light unit itself cannot be opened. Thus the replacement of the failed ballast is impossible (but would be a lot cheaper than having to replace the complete unit).
Seems crazy!
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(is that the correct term?) and this evening the female seemed to eat the 20+ fry! She was minding them for hours and then shortly after I fed the tank she started to gulp them in one's and two's and disapear into a cave and then come back out again and gulp a few more. Is she spitting them back out in the cave or has she actually eaten all her off spring?
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There is 3 cave shaped rocks where they can hide.
I will buy some liquid fry tomorrow in the LFS here in Wicklow Town.
As for liquid fry starter culture, I am afraid that has gone completley over my head
but am happy to follow your instructions on this one?BOB
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