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
Water Colour!
- siamesefighter (Andrew Watters)
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Thanks Andy!
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- PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
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paul
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- Viperbot (Jason Hughes)
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Totally agree with Paul there. Most likely the bogwood is leeching tannins into your water which can leave it looking like strong tea after a while. It wont harm your fish and it totally natural, in fact it is what gives rivers like the Rio Negro and sections of the Amazon their dark colour. Just give it a good soak and it should be fine.
Jay
Location: Finglas, North Dublin.
Life
may not be the party we hoped for, but while we
are here we might as well dance.
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- siamesefighter (Andrew Watters)
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Thanks lads
Andy
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- PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
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- siamesefighter (Andrew Watters)
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- PAULHARTE25 (PAUL HARTE)
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- siamesefighter (Andrew Watters)
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- Markku (Markku)
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I have bogwood blackwood and driftwood and never got green water, may hbe dried out algae in the wood from previous use or storage.
Scrubing the surface and soak till it sinks, kind of soak 2 hours scrub soak 2 hours scrum process for 8 hours, if you use a slightly abrasive pad to scrub the wood to give it a surface plecos and other fish appreciate as they get some ruffage and bits of algae growing to pick at as some pieces can be very smooth and hard tho they will still get what they need either way. This also gets rid of most of the heavy leechage, a word even?

But what do i know lol, I'm nautically paranoid.
Good luck
Mark <<Newbie
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- Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
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On Saturday/Sunday I'm going to change 50 % of water. By the way when should I replace carbon for sponge in my filter?
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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Have you taken all of the sponge out of your filter....?
lar
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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There are two things you need to consider, one is that after a while a newly cycled tank has what is called a Bacterial bloom, it happens when the pollutants in your tank reach a level where there are equal amounts of pollutant ( Food ) and Bacteria which eat the food, there is normally a decline in both after this period. It normally drops away when both are in harmony and the water clears. It's difficult to gauge the problem without pictures or Video.
Where Tannin leaching is involved, this is a normal process where the Tannin stains the water and will continue to do so for a very long time becoming weaker and weaker over time. You can remove this by putting activated charcoal, after rinsing the charcoal dust that accumulates during shipping from it, into a cannister Filter, internally or externally, it doesn't matter which. When you remove the Charcoal, the colour will return as the bogwood will pretty much always leach Tannin to some degree.
Tannin is no danger in a Tank and is deemed beneficial in breeding softwater species.
If the colour is because of suspended particles, you may need to use a fine poly wool in the Filter. If you can turn off the filter for a while, check to see if the substance settles on Plants or decorations, if it does it is more likely to be dust material from substrate.
Sorry for the long winded Essay but as I said, pics or vid would help a lot.
Kev.
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- Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
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Hi Katherine
Have you taken all of the sponge out of your filter....?
lar
Hi Lar,
Yes, I have. Probably I shouldn't.

Kate
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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Lar
PS...never wash your sponges under the tap as tap water will kill the bacteria in the sponge, always use water from the tank
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- Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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1st, take a breath and take things one at a time, your fish are ok re vitamins etc, they , the Guppies that is, are hardy Fish, they get enough of them from their food, start from the beginning and leave your money in your pockets.
Do what the Guys before have suggested re your Sponges etc, do weekly small water changes, make sure your fish have eaten their food in five minutes, if they have not eaten it all you have given too much, more Fish die through over feeding. Too much food in the tank turns to fungus which looks ugly but it's the Nitrates that result from it's decay that cause problems.
Nearly every outbreak of disease come from bad water maintenence, if you keep on top of your water quality you are half way there, go slowly and you'll be fine.
Kev.
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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I'd suggest as kev says
....dont wash ornaments gravel ect in the morning.....
....dont worry about "dirt" or vitamins at the moment
..... replace half of the sponges into the filters
.....Don't[/b] feed for a day or two...the fish will be ok ....don't worry about them..... you will learn that fish are very opportunistic... if they see movement in the room they will
rise looking for food,only feed enough that they will eat in a few mins
......get a gravel cleaner and use it during water changes
Don't put any more fish in for the time being until we sort out your tank
do you have a water test kit...? if not I'd recommend you pick up a master test kit for freshwater .... this will take care of nearly all your needs....you should be able to pick one up in portlaoise for around €30
most importantly....dont worry .......this can all be sorted out .....
Lar
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- Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
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I got in to panic. I'll do my best to do everything according to suggestions: 1. I'll replace carbon (water looks nice) for sponge. (Sponge will be additionally washed in tank water.)
2. I'll try to give them less food,
3. change some water in the tank, but not so much as I wanted in the beginning
4. try to clean tank bottom
5. and wait for results.
(I wish my guppies were big enough to add some corries and algae-eaters to the tank)
Thanks,
Katherine
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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you will have time to put in lots of fish once we sort out and stabilise your tank....




Lar
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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As Lar said, we WILL sort this out for you, it isn't unusual, you are only doing what you think is best and being alone so to speak makes it difficult to deal with but don't stress, it's fixable.
Try posting some pics of your setup, it might help. To do this, take your pics with a digital Camera, then upload them to either flikcr or photobucket on the web, then post the address of the pictures on this forum, that way we can go to the website you choose and view your pics.
Kev.
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- Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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Thats good to hear that.....try and come along to the IMAS meeting on weds night....and we can try to help further.....
Lar
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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It's like shootin' Fish in a Barrel !

Well done...
Kev.
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- Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
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- stretnik (stretnik)
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I have a couple of other bits nd bobs for ya too.
Kev.
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- cardinal (Lar Savage)
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