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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

Substrate?

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30 Jun 2008 20:56 #1 by Fishowner (Gavin fishowner)
Okay so Im getting itchy now and want to start setting up my 160 litre tank sooner rather than later. Im still somewhat undecided what exactly to put in there. Ive a few options in mind but thats for another day. The 160 litre is likely to remain as a community tank Im guessing. Next question, Ive presently got a 90 litre tank with pea gravel. Ive looked at a few tanks etc and find sand substrate can be very nice.So what type of sand do I get etc..Also I presently clean my 90 litre tank weekly doing 20% water change etc..I use a vacum type cleaner that syphons the water up a pipe, I place the larger vacum part onto the gravel and it removes the debris,waste etc...would the sand now be sucked up the the hose if I was to use this method?
Sorry for being so raw on this issue, I dont know what substrate to get and want to make sure I know whats what before setting my tank up and then learning later Ive done something wrong. I also hope to do a diary of the set up etc when I get around to doing this.
All advise as ever will be most appreciated, Id actually be lost if I didnt have this website to hand. Ive the 90 litre going nearly 6 months now and Ive only lost 1 fish from the original lot of fish and have breed fish also from it, so far so good! (Hence the 2nd tank now !).
Gavin

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30 Jun 2008 21:23 #2 by MagiC (Maciek Czarnota)
Hi.I've got a \"silver sand\"(it is bright brown) in my tank and it works out perfect.i was afraid of cleaning it with gravel cleaner,but if you do it slowly and keep the end of the syphon bout 1cm abowe sand You will collect dirt and You want hoover any sand;)And my plants are growin mad now.

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30 Jun 2008 23:10 #3 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
You can vacuum the gravel the same as the pea gravel. The only difference is the sand is lighter so you need to slow the flow down a bit. There are 2 ways to do this. 1 use your finger at the end of the hose to restrict the flow. 2 add a valve or tap to the end of the hose.
I would normally do a quick hover then stir the sand. Go back a short time later when all the debris has settled and hover again.
In the long term sand is easier to keep clean if it is not deep. This also helps eliminates dead spots that turn black resulting in Hydrogen sulfide (bad for your fish). It will smell like rotting eggs when it is stirred up.

If you use one of those magnet glass cleaners be careful not to get sand on it. The sad will scratch the glass.

Dont have the intake of the filter to close to the bottom or it will suck up sand.

Hope this helps, Darren.

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30 Jun 2008 23:18 #4 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
Substrate really depends on what your gonna keep in the tank, fine pea gravel, silver sand are great for fish who like it acidic to neutral-ish in the ph reange but if your thinking of trying some fish from hard water alkaline area eg rift cichlids the some think like coral sand is great at hardening the water and raising the ph.... the choice is yours, and best of luck with the new tank.
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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