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
Build Plans - Advice will be needed -NOW INSTALLED
- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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Not to sure what postage will be but im expecting £15-20.
Thanks for the tip pete

I'll collecting my ehime 300w heater for €30 tomorrow.
All thats left now is...
The tank,
The Filter Media
The cabinet.
Running Total
Lights (Rapid LED Lighting System) | €340.00 |
BulkHeads (Imperial Measurement) | €46.87 |
Pumping (Imperial Measurement) | €120.00 |
Sump Pump (Ehime Compact 3000+) | €115.00 |
Daily Auto Feeder (Ehime) | €40.00 |
Heater (Ehime 300w) | €30.00 |
Running Total : €691.87
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- CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)
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Some ideas for filter media,
Coarse Foam, Medium Foam, Alfagrog ,Eheim Substrat Pro, Filter Floss, Purigen, Phosguard, Carbon ....
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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I'll will be looking into that

Have re-jiged the design to incoperate 2 things.
+ the larger than expected 300w heater
+ I dont want the overflow stuck the back glass - makes a large ugly silcone stip when i look into the tank
[img]http://www.stephen-walsh.com/misc_hosting_files/fish/tank v3.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.stephen-walsh.com/misc_hosting_files/fish/overflow catch.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.stephen-walsh.com/misc_hosting_files/fish/new overflow.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.stephen-walsh.com/misc_hosting_files/fish/new overflow2.jpg[/img]
some over flow numbers,
Overflow area is 468mm x 30mm (since i dont want the brace submerged we subtract 10mm.)
Hence 468mm x 20mm = 9360 square mm
we have 4 x 1" return pipes which totals 8108 square mm
So the pipes will easly hacdle the over flow area, and the sump will not overflow to the floor

Running Total
Lights (Rapid LED Lighting System) | €340.00 |
BulkHeads (Imperial Measurement) | €46.87 |
Pumping (Imperial Measurement) | €120.00 |
Sump Pump (Ehime Compact 3000+) | €115.00 |
Daily Auto Feeder (Ehime) | €40.00 |
Heater (Ehime 300w) | €30.00 |
UV-C (TMC Vecton V2 600) | €61.27 |
Running Total : €753.14
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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Other than that,
Just expanded the filter chambers in the sump and added a nursery.
The return pipes will now go the nursey and overflow into the sump.
Think that its for the design now. Anyone see any problems with it?
[img]http://www.stephen-walsh.com/misc_hosting_files/fish/complete 1.jpg[/img]
[img]http://www.stephen-walsh.com/misc_hosting_files/fish/complete 2.jpg[/img]
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- LemonJelly (Johnny Cowley)
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"The only thing that burns in Hell is the part of you that won't let go of your life; your memories, your attachments. They burn them all away. But they're not punishing you.They're freeing your soul."
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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But I'm still waiting on the deeds to the new house but said I'll give making the sump ago.
Deceided to use one long tank rather than 2smaller ones so I picked up a 1200 x 300 x 370mm tank to play aaround with.
Watch this space

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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=39072
sheag35 has a few of these on the go. Contact him for more info.
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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and designed
Running Total
Lights (Rapid LED Lighting System) | €340.00 |
BulkHeads (Imperial Measurement) | €46.87 |
Pumping (Imperial Measurement) | €120.00 |
Sump Pump (Ehime Compact 3000+) | €115.00 |
Daily Auto Feeder (Ehime) | €40.00 |
Heater (Ehime 300w) | €30.00 |
UV-C (TMC Vecton V2 600) | €61.27 |
Sump Shell (4ft clear seal tank | €50.00 |
Running Total : €803.14
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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- Mr B (C B)
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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well we're still waiting to sign the contract on the house so i haven't given the go-head on the tank construction yet. (3 months later.....

But hopefully we'll get that sorted soon.
But I have converted my existing tank into a green house for the plants I need for the new tank.
Many thanks to neriusad for the sale
so plants 20 euro
2nd 300 watt heater for 15
Running Total
Lights (Rapid LED Lighting System) | €340.00 |
BulkHeads (Imperial Measurement) | €46.87 |
Pumping (Imperial Measurement) | €120.00 |
Sump Pump (Ehime Compact 3000+) | €115.00 |
Daily Auto Feeder (Ehime) | €40.00 |
Heater (Ehime 300w) | €30.00 |
UV-C (TMC Vecton V2 600) | €61.27 |
Sump Shell (4ft clear seal tank | €50.00 |
2nd Heater (Ehime 300w) | €15.00 |
Countless Staurogyne repens | €20.00 |
Running Total : €838.14
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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(15 weeks later ...)
this project has completely stalled until I get the feckers to pull their figure out.




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- Mr B (C B)
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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Just more annoying than anything else... Nealy been 4 months!
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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Next step is to check that the floor can take the weight

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- Redser (Richard)
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Anyhow I suggest you build your stand frame using 2" X 4" wood and then clad the frame in pine and you will not have any problems.
This is the design of base unit I followed.
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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Not to worried about the stand holding up the tank (about 200 stone also) more worried about the floor not collasping.
Works out at nearly 150 pounds of pressure per square foot
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- Redser (Richard)
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Meant to say in last reply your work so far is seriously impressive, an your attention to detail is to be commended.
I have a question about your sump if you don't mind.
Why do you have so many dividers in it and what do you intend putting in it?
R
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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If you look closely at the last pic, I changed the many chambers to just 3 - based on some feedback from seahorse aquariums

O by the way, GOT THE KEYS TO MY NEW HOUSE!!! Only took 6 months!
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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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- Redser (Richard)
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Fantastic that it has concrete floor 1 less worry

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- Darkslice (Stephen Walsh)
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