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
Bog wood a float
- fishhead88 (Aaron)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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- fishhead88 (Aaron)
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- dyco619 (steve carmody)
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- pkearney (Phil Kearney)
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Phil.
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- BillG (Bill Gray)
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I think perhaps on harm to microwave the wood briefly before soaking as a means of sterilising it, would certainly kill and biological contaminants on the wood. Most people simply osak the wood for a period of several weeks until it getss waterlogged and sinks naturally. A lot of people recommned boiling the wood several times too before use, also kills biological contaminants and has the added advantage of removing a lot of tannins from the wood.
Think the video link posted by Kev shows about the best option to sink the wood if you do not want to take the time to soak it first. Would advise cation on the kind of screws you use to attach the suction cups to the wood as they could corrode and add dangerous contaminants to the tank water. would recomend using either stainless steel or bronze screws intended for boatbuilding use, available from plenty of sources on e-bay and gaurenteed not to corrode even in salt water.
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- fishhead88 (Aaron)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- BillG (Bill Gray)
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I guess I should have qualified my statement about the risk of explosion when micro-waving the wood. It is ont only dependant on the moisture content of the wood, but is also dependant on how long it is micro-waved for. If it’s not overcooked, there is no significant risk. Did you use the microwave to sterilise the wood? or was it intended to help it sink? I know would not take long in a microwave to kill any pathogens on or below the wood surface.
Billg
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- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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Regards craig
at the end of the day it becomes nite
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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The reason I nuked it was because I hate the White Snotty substance that appears on it after a few days, I'd imagine it was a Fungus of some sort, I wanted/hoped it would kill off any spores etc that might be responsible for it, it was a happy accident that it caused it to sink, I'd imagine, like you, that the heat was causing the wood to expand and it caused voids in it to open , sucking in Water causing it to get heavy.
Kev.
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- root (Stuart Hart)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- fishmad1234 (Craig Coyle)
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at the end of the day it becomes nite
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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