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
River rocks
The principle of using river rocks is fine, but there are risks.....
introduction of disease is one, and knowing if the rocks are chemically safe in a fish tank is the other.
Although mildly damaging rocks would have little or no impact within a river system, the enclosed quarters of a fish tank could see an ever increasing level of hazards.
The so called "vinegar test" is only any good at indicating if you might have limestone/marble/chalk in the rocks;
it does not tell you if the rocks are safe or not to use.
limestone/marble/chalky rocks may have mainly dissolved in the river water, but if present they can increase pH, hardness and alkalinity (as well as increasing conductivity etc).
If your particular species of fish don't like those conditions, then avoid them.
But, in general, the carbonate content of the rocks is the least of the concerns on the chemical safety of rocks as the rocks may contain heavy metals, iron, zinc, sulphides, and arsenic (to name a few).
So, there are risks........but not all rocks are hazardous (well...thrown at the tank front would be a hazard I guess !)
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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