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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

Planting my already established tank?

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10 Mar 2013 22:00 #1 by Gonefishy (Brian oneill)
Advice appreciated if possible...

Had a gravel based tank but now want to a planted tank or part thereof...

I removed all gravel earlier today (well over last week during two separate water changes).

Now thinking about planting two corners (back to front) of the aquarium with JBL probasis and JBL Manado...with remainder of tank with light coloured aquarium sand.

Here's my concern: it's an established predominantly discus tank and I don't want to really interfere with the water chemistry and parameters...

1. I'm thinking of thoroughly cleaning the substrate and sand and having them ready to go...

2. Temporarily removing most of the water from the tank along with the majority of my fish (I might leave in the smaller tetra, plecos and the like)...should I take it all out or could i use a pipe or funnel to direct where I want the substrate to go while having the tank say a third full?

3. Build substrate, add some dividers and the add in sand.

4. Add back all or most of the water (depending on whether or not I have to take all the water out or just 2 thirds of it as above) and then add fish back.

5. Done and actually plant the substrate at a later stage.

I've read a lot about ammonia spikes with manado but I don't know if this is fact, fiction or just crap...

I want the planted look but really don't want to affect my discus...

Help much appreciated...

Thanks..

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10 Mar 2013 22:14 #2 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Be interested to see answers to this!
I want to change substrate from gravel to sand in the cichlid tank!
From what I have read (Google search) its possible, but if anyone here has done it before I could do with yourexperie ce and advice!

Best of luck Gonefishy
If you don't mind, would you put up some pics of how your doing it? Start to finish....

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10 Mar 2013 22:18 #3 by Gonefishy (Brian oneill)

Be interested to see answers to this!
I want to change substrate from gravel to sand in the cichlid tank!
From what I have read (Google search) its possible, but if anyone here has done it before I could do with yourexperie ce and advice!

Best of luck Gonefishy
If you don't mind, would you put up some pics of how your doing it? Start to finish....


Will do for sure but not going to do anything more before knowing I'm safe enough. Have had gravel in my tank since I set it up and it's weird looking being bare bottomed right now...great for the water quality and keeping discus to breed but not the look I'm aiming for....hopefully my plan is solid...

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10 Mar 2013 22:25 #4 by hammie (Neil Hammerton)
Worst case scenario (really don't want too) I'll put the fish into another tank with their own water and filter while I do the change over

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10 Mar 2013 22:28 - 10 Mar 2013 22:30 #5 by newbejkjimk (damien kelly)
Did you experience a ammonia spike when you took out the gravel as it holds a lot of your beneficial bacteria?
As for the plant situation you can have a lot of plants in sand without any other substrate if you add ferts and co2 either in liquid or gas form and reasonable lighting would this not be an easier option?
jim
Last edit: 10 Mar 2013 22:30 by newbejkjimk (damien kelly).

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10 Mar 2013 22:34 #6 by Gonefishy (Brian oneill)

Did you experience a ammonia spike when you took out the gravel as it holds a lot of your beneficial bacteria?
As for the plant situation you can have a lot of plants in sand without any other substrate if you add ferts and co2 either in liquid or gas form and reasonable lighting would this not be an easier option?
jim


Shite...I didn't really think about that...how long would I have to wait to see if this happens??

Sand on its own would be an easier option but I'd like to go the manado route in certain areas of the tank with simple sand in all others...

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10 Mar 2013 22:49 #7 by newbejkjimk (damien kelly)
jeezzz i'm not sure i'd imagine it would happen fairly quickly after removing the gravel did you test?
The only other thing i'd think of doing to keep fish save would be to use your established filter and place it in a temporary tank with fish and heater so you can work on your main tank as you please and when you have done what you need to do then place filter back in the main tank and then put back your fish and keep an eye on your water over the next few days but they should be ok seeing as you have kept your filters beneficial bacteria alive.
jim
PS. You could use any food safe container as a temporary home!

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11 Mar 2013 13:12 #8 by theangryman (chris)
When I changed my 125L tank from gravel to planted I did the same thing but had the substrate at the back and sides and the sand more to the front, have to say it looked well for about a day and now to be honest (about 9 months later) you would`nt know there was sand in there, the gravel and saubstrate dont be long spilling onto the sand and the fish soon mix it up as well, if I were doing it all again I would leave the sand out.I cant remember what substrate I used but I didnt have any problems with spikes or such.
As usual just my experiance and would like to hear how you get on, there are some pics of when I did my tank on the forum as far as I remember.

regards

Chris

"I try to incorporate melody. Even though I'm screaming, I still like to think I bring melody into screaming."
Tom Araya

If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read "President Can't Swim........Lyndon B Johnson

All my...

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11 Mar 2013 15:40 #9 by anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)
You could pot your plants in the end of cut of 2ltr bottles
And arrange them in such a way that you can hide the bottles with bog wood
Works great tbh!

Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,


And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN

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11 Mar 2013 19:07 #10 by Gonefishy (Brian oneill)

You could pot your plants in the end of cut of 2ltr bottles
And arrange them in such a way that you can hide the bottles with bog wood
Works great tbh!


There's a thought......thx!

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11 Mar 2013 20:12 #11 by anglecichlid (ciaran hogan)

You could pot your plants in the end of cut of 2ltr bottles
And arrange them in such a way that you can hide the bottles with bog wood
Works great tbh!


There's a thought......thx!



Side view!


Head on view!
This is a basic set up but I'm sure with some more stone and
Bogwood it could look better
I'm sure you get the idea!
Hope this helps!

Anyone with a aquarium can keep fish,
But it takes real skill to be a fish keeper,


And it's spongeBob,
SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea
BLANCHARDSTOWN
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