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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

Need A Refresher Course!

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04 Feb 2011 18:45 - 04 Feb 2011 18:49 #1 by alan61979 (Alan)
Right here goes, a little bit of history first......

I've been keeping fish for about 20 years so I'm not really a beginner. Started with freshwater, went into Marines, back into freshwater, had a total wipeout thanks to some Denisoni Barbs. Then I went back into Marines where I've been for the last few years. You might have noticed I'm in the process of selling my Marines and going back into freshwater (for the last time)!

So I want to pick the brains of the freshwater experts here as I go along. At the moment my Marine tank has been stripped down and I'm in the process of removing the coraline algae and rinsing out the whole tank.

My first purchase is going to be substrate.

I'm going for a planted Amazon tank, a big shoal of Rummy noses and maybe cardinals or another tetra and a few other fish that I haven't researched. I'll definitely be keeping a handful of Corydoras Catfish, species as yet undecided and maybe an L number plec or 2.

Bearing that in mind what substrate should I be going for? I've used silver sand in previios Aquariums and I'd be happy to use it again, but I fancy something different this time.

I'll post my next questions when I have my substrate sorted!

Here's one of my previous Aquariums. . . . . . .

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Last edit: 04 Feb 2011 18:49 by alan61979 (Alan).

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04 Feb 2011 19:07 #2 by sheag35 (Seamus Gillespie)
Ok welcome back to the freshies world,like what you seem to have planned, may i be bold enough to throw in a few suggestions for cories my favourites are the gossei, sterbae and anaeus venezualan black, for shoaling fish agree with your choice cardinals but as for something different try blackchin livebearers which have recently become one of my favourite little fish and of course the galaxy rasbora, as for plecos most would grow to large and uproot a planted tank but go for an ancistrus maybe the L59 and why not add some shrimp for colour and some sulawesi snails which i personally think are the nicest snails.
enjoy
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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04 Feb 2011 19:49 #3 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
I do not have such long record of being in fishkeeping but I hope information I give you will be just a beginning. So, in my oppinion at the top of the quality ladder for planted tanks, there is ADA Amazionia substrate and full ADA range of products. Extremely expensive but worth this money. I do not know if anybody sells it in Ireland - there is no distributor. The cheepest offer I found in the USA, but they do not want to deliver to Ireland...
Then I will put AquaSubstrate and AquaSubstrate II - do not know if available in Ireland. There can be some other substrate but I do not know their names.
You can find JBL Manado in some shops. I even bought it but after gathering opinions on other forums, I returned it to the shop. It is not a fertilized substrate, just very light, small 'balls' (in lovely terracota colour) that have to be very carefully washed and even boiled. From the opinion of users I lernt that it didn't keep plants very well and with full of energy fish or those that like to dig in surface, you will have the substrate swiming in the tank. You have to put a fertilized substrate layer under it.
You can also use an ordinary gravel and under-root fertilizers (eg JBL's balls). Quartz sand looks very nice and is neutral for water as I know.

I hope this information will help yuo but I think there will be different opinions on every substrate depanding on the experience of users.

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04 Feb 2011 22:36 #4 by alan61979 (Alan)
Thanks for those replies. All imformation/advice/opinion is appreciated.

I never thought about inverts. I might look into that when I get ready to stock. Think I'll visit a couple of shops in Dublin tomorrow and see what type of substrates are available.

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07 Feb 2011 21:09 #5 by alan61979 (Alan)
What's the general consensus regarding using gravel from local rivers? I run an aquarium in my local school and I set it up using gravel from the river in Powerscourt. It's only got plastic plants in it, but I've never had any problems. Would real plants grow ok in local gravel?

Here's a photo of the school aquarium,

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07 Feb 2011 21:24 #6 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
I have also such gravel and it's OK but I prepared it. I washed it very carelully and then baked in 200C till was dry. It ensured me I got rid off bacterias and other unwanted stuff. Some people simply boil washed gravel. I don't know if it's exageration but I believe it works.
I also use under root fertilisers (balls) and EasyLife products. You can put a layer of substrate under gravel and it will be also good.

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07 Feb 2011 22:50 #7 by joey (joe watson)
ok here goes my input, on what i have just done with a new planted project myself. after only a week with just plants and a small powerhead i have had considerable growth on all my plants (that includes a good number of new growths off your plants katherine in just a few days)

i used sera floradepot and jbl aquabasis fertilised substrates, topped with <5mm plain washed gravel (natural) - its cheap and cheerful but does the trick with low maintainance plants. esylife easycarbo is dosed at just under the recommeneded 1ml per 50l, and jbl's 7 balls are placed under the gravel beside the slower growing plants to give the roots a wee boost. easylife's ferro and profito fertilisers are dosed at just under minimum recommendations - there is plenty food in the substrates but i add liqiud for plants to take extra out the water column. get t5 plantpro tubes from arcadia they are blummin good

so long as your gravel is smooth and around 5mm its ok for both cory's and plant roots, if you are not planting too much into the substrate then dont bother with soils just dose liquids and put fertiliser pellets at the roots of the plants.

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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08 Feb 2011 18:11 #8 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Joey, nice to hear the plants are growing up! They have better conditions in your tank as I am still waiting for replacement delivery of tubes and plants were to survive on 1 daylight and 1 marine :angry: tube since November...

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15 Feb 2011 12:06 #9 by alan61979 (Alan)
At the moment, I have the sand and a bit of bog oak in. The water is heated up to 25 degrees and I've started the filter maturation process (started on Sunday). At what stage can I start adding plants? Am I better off waiting untill the filter is mature and ready for fish or can I add before then?

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15 Feb 2011 12:28 #10 by joey (joe watson)
you are far better off getting the plants in before you fill the tank as it makes it very easy to plant and re-arrange them too

but yes you can go ahead and plant the tank out, do you have any fertiliser? you should add a little of it for the start as the plants need food (you can stop when the fish are in) i dont do this as i have a very fertile substrate

cut the roots to around 1" at 45deg and plant them using tongs. planting before the fish go in so they get a chance to root down before the fish start digging/pulling at them

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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15 Feb 2011 13:03 #11 by alan61979 (Alan)
Do you mean liquid fertiliser or some other kind?

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15 Feb 2011 13:38 #12 by alan61979 (Alan)
Anyone ever bought plants online? Just looking at a couple of places at the moment. One in particular seems to good to be true! I won't mention names, due to the fact it might upset sponsors, unless the Mods allow me too.

I'm not an online buyer myself, I much prefer browsing in a shop and seeing exactly what I'm getting. I'd be curious to know if anyone has any online plant buying experiences though. You can PM me if you prefer!

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15 Feb 2011 18:04 #13 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)

Do you mean liquid fertiliser or some other kind?


Both liquid and under root fertilizers. Depanding on kind of product (make) put balls or sticks in required quntity - sometimes even every 10 cms or nearby the plant roots. Then on a daily or weekly basis add liquid fertilizers. Start to feed your virtual fish (not present in the tank) - all this will help to mature your filter. After 2 weeks your plant's root system should be strong enough to survive first fish in the tank. Under gravel fertilisers in some cases should be replaced with a new ones every 2-3 months (JBL says their ball last for 12 months - well I didn't try them but I am not convinced about it - let say up to 6 months).

Regarding purchases of plants in e-shops. I think that if the delivery takes longer than 4 - 6 days it's risky to buy but it's my personal opinion. There were also opinions here in our forum on quality of plants received from Malaysia (2 weeks long delivery): moss generally did not survive while bulb plants needed time but were quite good at the end. I bought moss balls from UK and they were OK (3 days in delivery). In an e-shop you are not able to check quality of plants - picture is picture...

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15 Feb 2011 19:13 #14 by alan61979 (Alan)
Thanks for that Katherine.

Now if only I could find some decent plants in Dublin :(

Had a look in a couple of my fish shops (I only use a couple), and neither had any plants worth talking about. Hopefully a new delivery will arrive soon.

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15 Feb 2011 19:57 #15 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Well Dublin... But there is another very good place for plants: other fishkeepers tanks! Ask for plants you are interested in and maybe someone has them!!

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16 Feb 2011 00:58 #16 by joey (joe watson)
oh yes katherine, other peoples tanks ;) bloody lovely and what i was looking for

alan, there is purrfect pets on the longmile road, stephen gets tropica plants in and can order what you want (look up tropica.com get the codes from the e-catalogue)

seahorse just round the corner from red cow have had good plants and massive variety in before, but the last few times they were un-labelled (i had a very specific plant list and am pants at plant id so i need the names)

i think fins fur and feathers in swords do tropica, i know there were some lovely mother plants there last time i was up that way, but i haven't been there for a while you may ring gavin

i would not trust internet sites for anything other than dry goods, and at that you really do want to go for very secure shopping from a reputible seller

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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19 Feb 2011 22:36 #17 by alan61979 (Alan)
This is where I am at the moment. In the cycling process, added a few plants today, just to see how things go.

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20 Feb 2011 00:21 #18 by joey (joe watson)
some very nice bits of bogwood you got there

is that cabomba on the right? if so, there's another thread about it and stretnik (plant expert) says its best to leave it floating till roots develop on it, then plant it, else the plant will rot away. good tip!

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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20 Feb 2011 11:25 #19 by alan61979 (Alan)
Good tip that, i'll leave them float for a while.

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22 Feb 2011 14:55 #20 by alan61979 (Alan)
How long should I have the lights on for? I just have about 8 plants in there, I'm adding fertiliser as per instructions on bottle. Tank is currently a little over a week into the cycling process.

I just put the lights on for 4 hours in the evening at the moment.

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22 Feb 2011 21:34 #21 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Allan, according to my knowledge it doesn't matter how many plants you have. The most important is that plants need light to photosintesis (hope it's spelled properly) = life. 4 hours is to short for plants. They cannot grow up and will die soon. I keep up to 12 hours a day.

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23 Feb 2011 12:04 #22 by joey (joe watson)
in a well planted tank the plants will outgrow the algae if you have long lighting periods but i wouldn't go any more than 12. if your lights are on too long you can get green spot algae which is a pain to scrape off.
if you have just a few plants the normal 8-9 hrs is fine. think of how much light we have here, usually the sun is up and bright by 8/9am and starts going dark by 5pm, giving us 8-9 hrs of useful light this time of year

Location: Portlaoise, Midlands

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23 Feb 2011 19:36 #23 by alan61979 (Alan)
Thanks for the replies.

I spotter a rather large piece of twisty wood yesterday so bought it. I rearranged the tank to accommodate it. Here's the way the tank looks now,

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01 Mar 2011 17:52 #24 by alan61979 (Alan)
I have a bit of fungus growing on the wood I put in. Is this anything to be concerned about? Nitrites almost down to zero, so will be adding my frst fish soon.

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01 Mar 2011 18:26 #25 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Is it white or green? If white - could be fungus otherwise algae. Easy Carbo should do the job or some apple snails. I had similar situation and as far as I rember white fungus desapeared itself or with the help of apple snails...

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01 Mar 2011 18:45 #26 by alan61979 (Alan)
It's white.

I'd say it'll syphon out easily enough if needs be. If harmless I don't mind leaving it there. Are Apple Snails South American?

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01 Mar 2011 20:13 #27 by Katherine (Katarzyna Glebocka)
Apple snails are from South America their other name is ampularia (pomacea bridgesii). Yes, you can try to siphon this white cover - I forgote about the easiest way of getting rid of it :)

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01 Mar 2011 21:56 #28 by Mike53 (Michael)
I'm just in the process of setting up a new 100g tank and I'm looking at an amazon style with light coloured sand and bog wood. What type of sand/gravel did you get and where did you get it if you don't mind me asking. Also what size tank do you have. I'm a few weeks behind your set up.
Unsure whether to fix the artificial rock to the back of my tank. It's pricey and don't want to buy it and then not like it, does it look good/real and do you think the fish pefer it to a plain glass background?

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01 Mar 2011 22:15 - 01 Mar 2011 22:54 #29 by alan61979 (Alan)

I'm just in the process of setting up a new 100g tank and I'm looking at an amazon style with light coloured sand and bog wood. What type of sand/gravel did you get and where did you get it if you don't mind me asking. Also what size tank do you have. I'm a few weeks behind your set up.
Unsure whether to fix the artificial rock to the back of my tank. It's pricey and don't want to buy it and then not like it, does it look good/real and do you think the fish pefer it to a plain glass background?


I used silver sand and I got it in Lisburn. I'm sure it's easy enough to get anywhere. My tank is similar size to yours, it holds 468 litres. I think that's around the 100 gallon.

I don't have artificial rock in my tank, but I have had it a few years ago in a previous tank, one of those living back grounds. I didn't really like it and ended up taking it out. I have pictures of it. I'll put a couple up later when I get back to the lap top. I think the fish look better with a dark back ground, whether they prefer it or not is another thing!

Edit, there you go

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I didn't like it, I neglected the tank and eventually ripped it out and started again.
Last edit: 01 Mar 2011 22:54 by alan61979 (Alan). Reason: adding photo.....

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02 Mar 2011 08:22 #30 by Mike53 (Michael)
Thanks Alan. Think I'll leave the background off to start with. Hopefully I'll put a few piccys up in a month or two when I get mine going. Getting my tank built into shelving so will be a while yet before I fill her up.

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