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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

COSTS

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27 Aug 2010 10:54 #1 by daveyw (david whitham)
COSTS was created by daveyw (david whitham)
I know its nice to spend your money on nice fish / decoration . That new filter or heater.
The new shiny gravel.
That fab looking plant .

But what about the daily cost involved No not food , the dreaded ESB bill.

Could somebody breakdown costs invovled per liter of water to heat and filter per hour
I know this can vary depending on watts and size of tank .

But is there a simple equation that could be used to determin cost .
This could be invaluable when buy hardware such as heaters and aprimary factor when looking a that massive tank in lfs that you would love to have as your centre piece .

Especially in the time we are in now cents make euros , look after them cents and the euros are sorted.

Finally has anybody every looked at trying to utilize night time electricty charges .
Kind of a storage heater for tanks

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27 Aug 2010 11:15 #2 by roealdo (j)
Replied by roealdo (j) on topic Re:COSTS
I was getting fish off some one recently and they said the ESB can be €500 some months!

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27 Aug 2010 11:20 #3 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:COSTS
wow how many tanks were they running and what sizes mega dosh ,

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27 Aug 2010 11:23 #4 by roealdo (j)
Replied by roealdo (j) on topic Re:COSTS
10-12 that I can remember and a good few 400l+

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27 Aug 2010 11:26 #5 by dar (darren curry)
Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:COSTS
roealdo wrote:

I was getting fish off some one recently and they said the ESB can be €500 some months!


that's an obsession, or the single life

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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27 Aug 2010 11:28 #6 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:COSTS
major obbsession ,
or else he is eating boiled fish for brekie lunch and dinner

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27 Aug 2010 11:28 #7 by roealdo (j)
Replied by roealdo (j) on topic Re:COSTS
I'm not going to say who it is as he is on here (and encase I got the amount wrong) but I wouldnt mind the set up he has. Just need a shed!

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27 Aug 2010 13:10 #8 by Daragh_Owens (Daragh Owens)
In winter I dream of €500 ESB bills!

IT totally depends on the size of the and the ambient temperature of the location where the tank is, the colder the room or the shed the more heat required. There is no simple formula to work out the cost. The size of the heater does not matter a large heater will be on for a shorter time than a small one, it more or less balances out.

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27 Aug 2010 13:40 #9 by Ma (mm mm)
Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:COSTS
Lights lights lights:) The real killer for me as I don't have 20 tanks. I think it would be cheaper to heat the room the tanks are in than heating the tanks in a cold room.

Slap on 3 sets of T8 up to 54w and 2 T5s 54w and watch the meter spin. ESB went to €400, so if you have many planted tanks it can be expensive if you aren't using leds. Or if you have 10 FX5s running:)


Mark

Location D.11

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27 Aug 2010 14:06 #10 by dubfish (Alan Martin)
Replied by dubfish (Alan Martin) on topic Re:COSTS
roealdo wrote:

I'm not going to say who it is as he is on here (and encase I got the amount wrong) but I wouldnt mind the set up he has. Just need a shed!

I'm guessing its me,(roealdo) is talking about and yes Ive had ESB bills of 500euro during that very cold winter we had.I plan on improving my insulation on my fish house next month,as the insulation i installed is not effective enough as i watched the snow on the roof literally melt in front of my eyes!.

Regards Alan..

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27 Aug 2010 14:18 #11 by roealdo (j)
Replied by roealdo (j) on topic Re:COSTS
I cant keep a secret

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27 Aug 2010 14:34 - 27 Aug 2010 14:35 #12 by Acara (Dave Walters)
Replied by Acara (Dave Walters) on topic Re:COSTS

always on the lookout for interesting corys.pm me if you know off any!
Last edit: 27 Aug 2010 14:35 by Acara (Dave Walters). Reason: was testing something,and messed up!

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27 Aug 2010 14:39 #13 by daveyw (david whitham)
Replied by daveyw (david whitham) on topic Re:COSTS
DUBFISH I have about 9-10 insulation boards . They are the high impact one you would see in bNq The are really used as underlay for wooden floors to keep in the heat .

You can have them if you want to do you for now .Till you get sorted?

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27 Aug 2010 14:43 #14 by roealdo (j)
Replied by roealdo (j) on topic Re:COSTS
daveyw wrote:

DUBFISH I have about 9-10 insulation boards . They are the high impact one you would see in bNq The are really used as underlay for wooden floors to keep in the heat .

You can have them if you want to do you for now .Till you get sorted?


Thats why boards like these are so good to use

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27 Aug 2010 15:00 #15 by dubfish (Alan Martin)
Replied by dubfish (Alan Martin) on topic Re:COSTS
daveyw wrote:

DUBFISH I have about 9-10 insulation boards . They are the high impact one you would see in bNq The are really used as underlay for wooden floors to keep in the heat .

You can have them if you want to do you for now .Till you get sorted?

Pm sent

Regards Alan..

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27 Aug 2010 15:16 - 27 Aug 2010 15:17 #16 by tommyt (tommy tee)
Replied by tommyt (tommy tee) on topic Re:COSTS
Yep the ESB is a royal pain, i suppose as kids we just took it for granted but now when we're the payee of bills it does become an issue,

I am going to see what could be done with a cheapish Solar solution, is there one available?, i'm sure its only a matter of time before it is feasible.
I dont mind the filters at all as they suck up little wattage but the heaters are the killer, and you can't live without them. Lights I can live with to restricting certain hours (When I am home :P ) and no plants in tank (malawi setup).

magic formula:
i'll look into it and if i get any leads then I post my findings

T

Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue.
Last edit: 27 Aug 2010 15:17 by tommyt (tommy tee).

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27 Aug 2010 15:21 #17 by mossy (gavin blanchfield)
Replied by mossy (gavin blanchfield) on topic Re:COSTS
running 10x2x2ft,5x2x2ft and 2 4ft tanks
just got my elecy bill last week for 588euro

the joys of it

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27 Aug 2010 15:40 #18 by dubfish (Alan Martin)
Replied by dubfish (Alan Martin) on topic Re:COSTS
Wow that's big mossy for the summer,my last was 380..I'm running
5x Fluval FX5s
2x " 405s
Numerous internals
About 15 300/200W heaters on...
2x 600L
3x 400L
2x 220L
2x 100L

Regards Alan..

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27 Aug 2010 17:49 #19 by mossy (gavin blanchfield)
Replied by mossy (gavin blanchfield) on topic Re:COSTS
dubfish wrote:

Wow that's big mossy for the summer,my last was 380..I'm running
5x Fluval FX5s
2x " 405s
Numerous internals
About 15 300/200W heaters on...
2x 600L
3x 400L
2x 220L
2x 100L


it might have a bit more to do with my 2 daughters that spend about an hour in the elecy shower washing their long hair:ohmy:
think i will have to go back to the water hose outthe back:laugh:

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27 Aug 2010 18:21 #20 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:COSTS
I think it would kill me to have to hand over €500+ to the ESB.

My latest bill is €110
Thats with 15 tanks on the go and the usual around the house appliances.

Tom had done an excellent article in one of the show schedule before on fishhouses and covered the costs of heating them.
Unfortunately i cant find it at the moment.
Maybe someone on here has a copy on there computer and could post it for all to read?

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27 Aug 2010 18:59 #21 by dar (darren curry)
Replied by dar (darren curry) on topic Re:COSTS
Cichlidguy wrote:

wow €500 is alot of money for a hobbie to be paying:woohoo: im goin setting up a 500 litre wonder wat the cost will be on that


ours is 150ish that's with a 500ltr, dryer, washing machine and dish washer constantly running, 3 laptops an xbox 2 tellies and every bleedin light in the gaff on 24/7

Check out the angling section, it is fantastic

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27 Aug 2010 19:24 #22 by dubfish (Alan Martin)
Replied by dubfish (Alan Martin) on topic Re:COSTS
platty252 wrote:

I think it would kill me to have to hand over €500+ to the ESB.

My latest bill is €110
Thats with 15 tanks on the go and the usual around the house appliances.

I'm assuming your bills are monthly,as mine are 2 monthly but 110 a month is sweet with 15 tanks included.


Regards Alan..

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27 Aug 2010 23:08 #23 by platty252 (Darren Dalton)
Replied by platty252 (Darren Dalton) on topic Re:COSTS
The €110 is for 2 months.
Thats the cheapest in a long time. They are usually just under the €200 mark.

The room is hot this time of year so i only need heaters in 8 of the tanks. The rest are 22-24c which is fine for the fish in these tanks.
5 external filters, 1 hi-blow air pump used for aeration/filtration and mostly T-5s for lights.

I hope to change over most of the lights to LED's once i find a cheap way to make some or if i can buy cheap one's.

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28 Aug 2010 00:37 #24 by Ma (mm mm)
Replied by Ma (mm mm) on topic Re:COSTS
platty252 wrote:

I hope to change over most of the lights to LED's once i find a cheap way to make some or if i can buy cheap one's.



The cost really takes the saving out of them, unless you use em for a few years.

The way the electricity price is goin up it may be too expensive not to:laugh: :laugh:

Mark

Location D.11

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28 Aug 2010 02:43 #25 by Xeon (ioan micu)
Replied by Xeon (ioan micu) on topic Re:COSTS
For the exact reason in march, don't remember the exact date, I installed a electricity meter only on all the fish appliances. They are 20 heaters, fluval 405, 6 x 18w lights, 18w uv filter, small hang on back filter with protein skimmer, air pump and surely I forgot something. The reading now is 1296kw. In the worst case that is all in daytime. 1296x13c = 168.48. I'll say that most of that electricity was actualy used at night considering that it's mostly heaters and the temp whould drop at night so we can even drop more out of the 168. That is a max of 30e a month with 20 heated tanks with 5 or 6 tanks at 28•C+ . We will see how things are going to be in the winter.

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