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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

Lighting upgrade

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06 Dec 2012 20:20 #1 by ck1 (chris)
Lighting upgrade was created by ck1 (chris)
I am planning on upgrading the lights on my fluval roma 125. it currently has two 20 watt t8 bulbs. i am going to get a Glo 2x24k T5 ballast or else the Arcadia Electronic T5 Controller 24-39W which would give me 48 watts. My questions are would i see a big diffenence in replacing the t8 with t5. The only thing putting me off keeping the t8 and adding the t5 is the electricty cost i would have a total of 88 watts but i think this many be too much as i dont have any plan to add co2 so i will be staying away from the very demanding plants.

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06 Dec 2012 22:32 #2 by manius112 (Mariusz Kaminski)
ck1 with 88W you will have total 0.7W/L of water. You beter read bit more about lighting as 0,7W/L will cost you algea problem if you dont ballance nutrients.
More light will get better conditions for algea and to dont let them take over tank you need more plants. Dosnt matter if you go for easy or mid grow plants with 0,7W/L they will grow fast and if you wont them grow nice and healthy you need to feed them.
Also dont forget about bulb temperature (mesured in Kelvins) as its more important than amount of Watts in your tank.

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06 Dec 2012 22:42 #3 by ck1 (chris)
Replied by ck1 (chris) on topic Lighting upgrade
so would it be better to take the t8s out of the hood and replace them with t5s and have 48watts.What bulb tempreature would you reccomend. I am dosing easycarbo and profito. 8 watts dosnt seem like much of an upgrade for the cost

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06 Dec 2012 23:01 #4 by manius112 (Mariusz Kaminski)
In this case 6500K up to 8500K will be right what you need.
Im not saying you cant add extra lighting. you only have to be awere what extra light may cost you (part of extra electricity):-)
Algea love ligh more than plants so if you not gona do it right you will have trouble wit them.

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06 Dec 2012 23:23 #5 by zabol001 (Marcin)

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06 Dec 2012 23:33 #6 by dzukas76 (audrius)
Replied by dzukas76 (audrius) on topic Lighting upgrade
CO2 is easy enough to make your self instead spending hundreds euros on fancy sistem.only thing you have to buy is diffuser.i bought one on ebay for 17€ with the bubble counter. 1 kg bag of sugar would last for a month.in two goes. tea spoon of dry yeast and bit of soda...

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06 Dec 2012 23:34 #7 by ck1 (chris)
Replied by ck1 (chris) on topic Lighting upgrade
co2 is not the route i want to go dont have the money for it.are the lights on the tank not ok for a tank with no co2 or would i see a differece changing to the t5s

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06 Dec 2012 23:43 #8 by manius112 (Mariusz Kaminski)

CO2 is easy enough to make your self instead spending hundreds euros on fancy sistem.only thing you have to buy is diffuser.i bought one on ebay for 17€ with the bubble counter. 1 kg bag of sugar would last for a month.in two goes. tea spoon of dry yeast and bit of soda...


Did you ever try to use "fancy" co2 system:-) dont take me wrong its like compare bike and morobike on a speed race. You ge ther on your bike but how much efford and time sill cost you:-)
For nice and healthy mid and fast grow plants you need to have 20up to 40mg/l of CO2 so DIY for his 125L tanks will last for max 2-4 days.

ck1 if you stay with less than 0,5W/L and plant few anubias or cryotocorynas you will be ok without CO2. For thous plants CO2 you get from biological filtration (if you have one - external canister filter minimum cap 3l) will be enought. But if you plant some more CO2 demanding plants they will absorb CaCo3 from minerals you have in water and it will get your KH (carbon hardnes) close to 0 and with this you may have very unstable ph.
In my opinion if you want to have more than 0,5w/l CO2 its first think you should to get.

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06 Dec 2012 23:46 #9 by dzukas76 (audrius)
Replied by dzukas76 (audrius) on topic Lighting upgrade
it cost nothing to make one ,but that your choice.as far as i know t5 is just smaller version of t8 .lumens and kelvins that matters

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06 Dec 2012 23:54 #10 by dzukas76 (audrius)
Replied by dzukas76 (audrius) on topic Lighting upgrade
i don't diminish the fancy sistem,i just cant afford one,my point is ,if you need co2 and cant afford ,diy way to go!

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07 Dec 2012 09:47 #12 by ck1 (chris)
Replied by ck1 (chris) on topic Lighting upgrade
But will i see a difference if I change to the t5 bulbs. I will not be adding co2 at any stage soon

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07 Dec 2012 21:53 #13 by lawrenceog (Lawrence O Gorman)
You could use easycarbo, I find it good, it would give a source of carbon for the plants, and help with the algea too if you do upgrade.

Easycarbo is a source of gluteraldehyde, this carbon compound has algeacidal properties and is proven to promote aquatic plant growth, it acts as a carbon source but keep in mind your plants have to work harder to absorb it than dissolved CO2 making it less effective and it will not help with certain plants ( I need to investigate more ). It has a half life of 8-12 hrs so daily dosing is required.

This is a good link that explains a lot more, even though it is describing a different product it is essentiall the same thing. Easycarbo

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07 Dec 2012 21:56 #14 by lawrenceog (Lawrence O Gorman)
The link also gives a good idea of how far you will be push your lighting

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16 Dec 2012 16:33 - 16 Dec 2012 16:43 #15 by ck1 (chris)
Replied by ck1 (chris) on topic Lighting upgrade
Im already using easy carbo and profito. would i see much of a difference if i added something like this www.ebay.ie/itm/12V-5M-5050-SMD-300led-C...&hash=item2324f2960e or maybe a different colour
Last edit: 16 Dec 2012 16:43 by ck1 (chris).

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