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
bottom glass protection
- Dejwys (Deividas K.)
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David
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- Dejwys (Deividas K.)
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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The only problem that I could see is the possibily of having an anaerobic microbial slime layer build up between the perspex and the base of glass.
It is, however, difficult to fully predict if that would have any detrimental effect or not when the tank is fully set-up as the effect would depend upon a number of factors.
ian
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- Dejwys (Deividas K.)
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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It is a potential hazard, but if the water is in good condition and well balanced then you may find it is fine.....I just mentioned it as it is a realistic hazard.
I would, however, suggest that when you evenually come to clean it out then take normal protection for yourself (as we should all be doing really in any form of handling water)...ie don't be messing with cuts on your hands or eating your chips whilst messing with the slime on the bottom of the glass.

If this is for freshwater, then I would recommend not allowing your nitrates go to zero (that may sound like somethign that goes against normal aquatic logic....but there is logic in it)
ian
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- dar (darren curry)
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Check out the angling section, it is fantastic
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- igmillichip (ian millichip)
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ian dont leave us hanging here, explain the logic man
I was hoping nobody would ask

It isn't as simple as an easy reply could show, but the anaerobic bacteria that reduce nitrates to nitrogen gas are not bad for competing for nutrients and energy.....in doing so, they out-compete anaerobic bacteria that produce hydrogen sulphide (for example). If, however, nitrate is totally removed then that leaves the anaerobic sulphur reducing bacteria to get a better grip and produce toxic hydrogen sulphide.
It's more to do with water-balance than concentrating on one particular water parameter.
ian
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- wastegate (Joseph Farrell)
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You know you're addicted to fishkeeping when...you spend €200 to accomodate a €5 fish.
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- dar (darren curry)
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Check out the angling section, it is fantastic
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- JustinK (Justin Kelly)
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You might want to silicone some off your rocks too, to prevent crushes from rock falls aswell as cracks.
Is that the plastic stuff for wiping your feet on ? You'd be aswell to put something like that in before the sand.
@ Dar: A bed of silicone or close even would be fine.The more contact the better.
A run around the perimeter of the tank with a grid of silicone lines, place the perspex in, then another run around the edge when its in place would also do the job.
If your ever underwater in a car, you can break the glass with a key. That one point concentrates enough energy to break the glass. Similar to a stone or sand under the perspex against the glass or just having one or two lines of silicone.
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