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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

backgrounds

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13 Dec 2008 19:44 - 11 Jul 2012 02:19 #1 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
was looking at the price of these online and was shocked, so i've decided to make my own this is gonna be my test piece
so gotta piece of styrofoam, stanley knife and a few hours of messing with it and volia

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any thoughts???

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick
Last edit: 11 Jul 2012 02:19 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie).

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13 Dec 2008 20:01 #2 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Nice work Sheag,
What did you do to get it looking like that? Its every bit as good as the ones you'd buy online.
Top marks.
Gavin

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13 Dec 2008 20:55 #3 by gerryberry (Jeff Daly)
Fair dues Sheag35 thats some piece of work. Have a 3D backround myself but it has joints in it that have to be covered by plants. If i knew you could do this kind of work i would of commissoned you:cheer:

because its nearly christmas i think your name for this month should be Joseph because that looks likes a class bit of craftmanship :lol: :lol:

Whats you plans do you have for colouring the piece??

GB

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13 Dec 2008 22:08 #4 by Johnmorrin (John Morrin)
Looks good sheag , Looks better than the mass produced ones. And the best thing is when someone is looking into your tank you can point at it and say I made that :) . Id love to have seen the mess that was left on the floor after carving tho lol. Keep up the good work.

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13 Dec 2008 22:32 #5 by mickeywallace (Michael Wallace Cath Woods)
Very nice!!!!!!
Mickey

Mickey Wallace & Cath Woods

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14 Dec 2008 00:10 #6 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
thanks for the encouragement guys, got stuff ordered to colour and seal it so will keep you posted, if all works out who knows gerryberry i might take that commission, we'll see

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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14 Dec 2008 00:48 #7 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
A tasty piece of work. Well done.
Can you tell me what type of paint and sealer you are going to use. I know you can use acrylic paint and polyurethane to seal it, i'm just wondering what you ordered.

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14 Dec 2008 02:39 #8 by duzzy1 (Martin Kennedy)
hmmmmm ... that would look pretty damn cool in my tank shea ..... any chance ???

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14 Dec 2008 03:03 #9 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
using a coloured pond paint (stone colour) to seal it and have food grade resin and hardner coloured to stone colour as well for a sealer for it....
Duzzy you might just get lucky with this, if it turns out ok (as its too small for my 6 footer) i'll might just let you have it ;)

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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14 Dec 2008 06:38 #10 by cardinal (Lar Savage)
Hi Sheag
That looks excellent,as a matter of interest,what depth/thickness of styrofoam did you start out with..???

Lar

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14 Dec 2008 08:42 #11 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
Hi Lar,
thanks i think it turned out ok for a first attempt, on the next one i might try to be even more creative, thinking roots, caves etc. if i can???
to answer your question its a piece of styrofoam 48" long 17" high and just shy on an inch in thickness.. one hell of a mess on the floor after all the carving, thank god the missus was at work when i did it spent an hour tidying up afterwards, but on the plus side i got brownie points for doing some house work (ha ha) ;)
Seamus

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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14 Dec 2008 13:33 #12 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Another handy way of carving Styrofoam is using a soldering iron to cut the shapes in to it and give it a blast of a hot hair dryer to melt shapes in to it.

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14 Dec 2008 18:07 #13 by LimerickBandit (Donal Doran)
Seamus that’s a great piece of work, it looks as good as any from a shop :)

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31 Jul 2009 02:23 - 31 Jul 2009 02:30 #14 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
well after a long time tooling around and lots of mess later i restarted this project, and have carved out a new background which i glued to the back of the tank






then after the silicone had set i covered it with a sandstone coloured pond paint to seal it and colour it, think it may be a little light in colour but kinda suits the lava rock you can get so must decorate the tank when filled with this lava rock...





so as you see then i also painted the base in the same pond paint, as i thought i might leave it substrate free for added cleanliness...

any comments????

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick
Last edit: 31 Jul 2009 02:30 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie). Reason: adding pics and spelling correction

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31 Jul 2009 02:32 #15 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
now the only job left is to leave it finish curing and then fill it and add fish... will add more pics when fish included, have two filters maturing for the last 2 months and water aging in a 180l so this can be done quicker... hope you like it

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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31 Jul 2009 09:41 #16 by Valerie (Valerie)
Replied by Valerie (Valerie) on topic Re:backgrounds
This looks really cool.
Looking forward to seeing it full of water and fish !
Well done sheag35!

Valerie

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31 Jul 2009 13:42 #17 by alkiely (alan kiely)
Replied by alkiely (alan kiely) on topic Re:backgrounds
That is cool lookin nice one

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31 Jul 2009 22:23 #18 by derek (Derek Doyle)
Replied by derek (Derek Doyle) on topic Re:backgrounds
good project shea. looks very artistic. is that pic of the background before painting?

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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31 Jul 2009 23:00 #19 by Tom (Tom Brecknell)
Replied by Tom (Tom Brecknell) on topic Re:backgrounds
Thanks Shea for all your photo’s and info on this thread, looks great...........Tom.B)

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31 Jul 2009 23:03 #20 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
derek the top pic is unpainted, the bottom pic is painted with a sandstone coloured pond paint is very light but hopefully will age well

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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31 Jul 2009 23:04 #21 by derek (Derek Doyle)
Replied by derek (Derek Doyle) on topic Re:backgrounds
looks brilliant. can u get black or dark brown pond paint?

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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01 Aug 2009 00:27 - 01 Aug 2009 00:28 #22 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
yes Derek I got mine on ebay and they do it in CLEAR, GREEN, BLACK,STONE, LIGHT BLUE, DARK BLUE,WHITE,RED,GREY
.. I got the stone which is a sandstone colour..
heres a link to their ebay site
shop.ebay.ie/merchant/ask-coatings_W0QQ_...mrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_ipgZ

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick
Last edit: 01 Aug 2009 00:28 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie). Reason: adding colours available

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21 Aug 2009 18:25 #23 by derek (Derek Doyle)
Replied by derek (Derek Doyle) on topic Re:backgrounds
hi shea
i was thinking of making artificial rocks from fibreglass or polystyrene as they would be lighter and easier to manage.
have you any info on these or did you ever make them.

30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish

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21 Aug 2009 20:18 #24 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
Hi Derek,
the one in the picure here is polystyrene just cut and shaped siliconed to the tank and covered in pond paint, the problem with fibreglass i've found is getting food grade resin to set the fibreglass so it wont harm the fish.. if you can get hold of it, its the best to use

Fishkeeping the Only way to get wet and wild

currently 25 tanks, and breeding is the aim of everything i keep
location:Limerick

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