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
Advise on cleaning sand ?
- barr (declan)
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I'm looking to add sand to a new set-up. Anyone advise what the best way to clean the sand before I add any water?
Thanks

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all my tanks have sand as a substrate
half fill a bucket with sand, add warm water, swish it around a good bit, pour out the water
do this about three times for each half bucket of sand and it'll be nice and clean
take your time now and you won't have to pay for it later...
when it comes to doing water changes, there's a nack to using the syphon
just try to keep it about 1cm from the substrate and you'll be fine...
the best of luck

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- dar (darren curry)
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Check out the angling section, it is fantastic
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before using the syphon give the substrate a good mixing around with your hand or a net or whatever and when it settles all the dirt will rest on the top of the substrate making it easier to syphon out...
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- joey (joe watson)
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Location: Portlaoise, Midlands
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also if you see some sand going up the syphon, just pinch the hose to slow the flow down and the sand falls out, then release and the muck goes back up
exactly
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i use 75% river sand / silver sand (whatever you wanna call it)
and 25% coral sand
i put the river sand in first and then keep adding the coral sand untill i get the desired PH
others mightn't agree with this and say that your PH will soon plummet but it works wonders for me and always stays at the set PH
it would be interesting to hear other opinions on this ?
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...and that's about all i can tell ya about using sand, hope it helps

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- andrewo (andrew)
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I came across this accidentally when i was setting up my marine tank

I now use arogonite substrate; its fine sand the one used for marines and ph seems to stable near 8 and i gradually cut down on the buffers.i have even recorded ph of 8.5 with this substrate; definitely good for tangayikans i think.It is said to reduce nitrates too but i dont see it

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- stretnik (stretnik)
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Kev.
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- barr (declan)
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- andrewo (andrew)
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i like the way the fish waste sits on top of the sand
it makes syphoning the substrate much quicker
i used to hate having to dig the nossel of the syphon into the gravel and then agitating each spot of the substrate inch by inch untill i'd finally reach the other side
there's no agitating involved when you use sand, just a quick hoover along the substrate
i find you end up removing a lot more aquarium water when use gravel, not to mention the tediousness of it...
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- dar (darren curry)
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Probably a silly question by why does it need to be cleaned before it goes into a tank?
god knows wat it could come in contact wit via delivery, dealers care"ish" some shops care, we care but wat about people delivering it do they give a rats bum wat goes in your tank? always clean everything before adding it to your tank
Check out the angling section, it is fantastic
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everything other than the fish that is...

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- joey (joe watson)
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touch off topic, but when it comes to getting the fish, i always net out the fish after acclimatising in a bucket, i will NEVER trust anyones water, even my own (when i move fish from tank to tank)
Location: Portlaoise, Midlands
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