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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

using rock from beaches

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18 Sep 2009 11:18 #1 by lynched (Terry)
Can you put stones from a local beach into a tank if you soak them in boiling water

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18 Sep 2009 13:27 #2 by PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
i've got a tank full of rocks from my local beach,just gave them a good scrub in hot water and dropped them in,never had a problem with them

paul

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18 Sep 2009 13:58 #3 by lynched (Terry)
thanks for that will have to pop down to the beach tomorrow

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18 Sep 2009 14:30 #4 by dubfish (Alan Martin)
Bray seafront has some great rocks,but you need to boil them several times.

Regards Alan..

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18 Sep 2009 14:33 #5 by scubadim (scubadim)
Replied by scubadim (scubadim) on topic Re:using rock from beaches
Hi,
just a little note to say that depending on the geologic nature of the rock itself it can be alright or wrong.
some rocks are inert in water,they don't affect water quality.
some rocks aren't inert,they affect water quality.you would affect in general the hardness of the water if the rock has alcaline origins,the pH would raise.
so if you're keeping high pH fish,most rocks are safe or even good.
for every other fish you'd want to avoid these rocks that raise the pH of the water.
to find out what's what,take a rock you like,pour some vinegar(or any type of acid) on the rock,if it fizzies(not sure of spelling,makes bubbles) it will raise pH,if it doesn't there's a good chance it won't.
Hopes this helps.
Dimitri.

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18 Sep 2009 20:04 #6 by cardinal (Lar Savage)
Just a warning lads.....
Strictly speaking... It's illegal to remove rocks ect from beaches.....So don't say you haven't been warned

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18 Sep 2009 20:11 - 18 Sep 2009 20:11 #7 by paulbohs (Paul Doyle)
There is a sign up in Bray right near the aquarium letting us fish keepers know that it is illegal. The sign also mentions some huge number of tonnes of stones they have to replace on the beach yearly.

Kind of like: Yes its illegal but we don't monitor it and we will replace them. 2 boxes per car sound fair?
Last edit: 18 Sep 2009 20:11 by paulbohs (Paul Doyle).

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18 Sep 2009 20:36 #8 by Acara (Dave Walters)
I recall reading somewhere as a young fishkeeper,some 20yrs ago,that it was not a good idea to boil rocks,but cant remember why.Certainly a lot of people do it with no apparant problems.As mentioned,a good hot scrub does wonders(for the rocks too).I have put a load through a dishwasher about 3 yr a go,and had no problem(too lazy to scrub)

always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!

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18 Sep 2009 21:05 #9 by pkearney (Phil Kearney)
about 30 years ago i collected a couple of hundredweight of gravel/sand from the beach at donobate for undergravel filters.i gave it the usual wash in a bucket. never had any problem.in those days we always added sea/cooking salt to the water as a rule.we were not of course keeping discus type fish.
phil

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19 Sep 2009 09:06 #10 by Puggy (Fergus Cooke)
pkearney wrote:

about 30 years ago i collected a couple of hundredweight of gravel/sand from the beach at donobate for undergravel filters.


I live in Donabate, I'd wondered why the beach is getting smaller! Only joking, I also got some lovely black rock from the beach, boiled them for a weekend and put them in my Rio 300. After a month, with weekly water changes and RO water, the Ph was nearly 9! And there was an awful stink form the tank. I'd got limestone! So be careful.

Also as mentioned, its illegal... When I was returning the stone I'd collected, three cooler boxes full, the local garda asked me what I was doing, and he said it was illegal to remove any material from the foreshore.

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29 Sep 2009 14:05 #11 by neil0r (Neil Sisson)
I have four decent sized stones I dug out of my garden (dont ask!) that I boiled for a couple of hours after giving them a good scrub with a brush to remove dirt.

My pH reading when I did it last night was off the charts (8.5) ...wondering if maybe the rocks are having an effect...

Is there anyway to test what type of rock they are? (I'll try the fizzy vinegar test tonight if I can)

Thanks,
Neil

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30 Sep 2009 12:51 #12 by neil0r (Neil Sisson)
The aforementioned bloody rocks are very much the reason my pH is off the charts as they went bananas when I poured vinegar on them...huge fizz of two rocks in particular.

Big set back to my tank :-(

Still the problem has been solved and I've removed them now...

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