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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

Oily film on surface

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11 Jan 2012 08:34 #1 by CruelCoin (Roy Rentes)
Well lads.

Tank is now up and running, and after 4 days, has developed a slight oily film on the water surface.
I have tried raising the internal filter, but i can't get it high enough to break surface tension.
Is there any other way to combat this, and is i necessarily a bad thing?

Is it necessary to do partial water changes during the first cycle to keep nitrate levels down, or do i just leave the nitrates until the cycle is complete?
I started the tank, with 50% fresh water, and 50% from a friends tank, and some of his mature filter media.

Ammonia i can't get above 2ppm and nitrites and nitrates have both risen steadily.
I've taken the prawn out to stop giving it ammonia, and will see if the tank will get to 0 ammonia and 0 nitrite by itself now.
Is this the tank cycled, or am i better off waiting another week or so to mature the water?


To Long Didn't Read:

1: How to get rid of oily film. (without getting external filter)
2: Do i need to keep nitrates down during first cycle?
3: Tank will be cycled at 1 week mark. Good for fish now, or should i wait a bit?


Cheers for any and all advice,

CC.

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11 Jan 2012 13:30 #2 by ghart (Greg Hart)
CC,

I raised a Topic on this in November 2011.
Have a look at the suggestions for the forum members..

TOPIC: Dealing with oily film on water surface

Not sure how to create a link to the above topic so you will have to do a search for it.


Greg

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11 Jan 2012 13:55 #3 by ger310 (Ger .)

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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11 Jan 2012 14:38 #4 by ger310 (Ger .)
Heres a bit of a read for yeh CC

www.google.ie/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=nitrogen%...htwkCd9zWfeGeee6Ja6w

And can i ask why you cant get you filter up near the surface?

bring a sample of your water to your nearest pet shop and they will gladly test it and tell you if your ready for fish.....if they give you the all clear for a few fish,ask them about zebra danio's as there as tough as old boots and maybe a mollie as they will create a lot of waste,oh and they will help with your oily surface so double the help!!

Ger

What do you call a three legged Donkey?

A Wonkey....duh ha :)

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11 Jan 2012 21:34 #5 by wylam (Stuart Sexton)
Hey CC,

I started to cycle a tank at the start of december , i didnt put any fish in until the 26th. And as ger just said , i got some zebra danio's. I also planted some valisneria in the tank around the same time and got an oily scum appearing on the surface which had small bubbles in it. So to be safe i removed the plant and stuck in fake ones for now. the oily stuff has not returned.So it could be down to the plants in your tank. the guys suggested skimming the surface to get rid of the oil and have plenty of surface adjitation to break it up .I'm not sure about doing water changes while the tank is cycling, the experts on the site can answer that one lol.

Stuart.

Multi tasking: Screwing up more than one thing at a time.

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11 Jan 2012 22:20 #6 by m4r10 (m4r10)
I was in the same situation regarding w/c during cycling, so I didn't take any chance as the information on the net is sparse about this. Saying this, I have to admit that I kinda cheated as I was pouring the water from the established tank into the new one to try to speed up the cycle. After 3 weeks, I'd say my tank is almost fully cycled, but as I don't have any test kits, I'm going to a LFS in the next few days to confirm this for me.
I'd be curious myself as well to find out the general opinion on the w/c during cycling.

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