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
help with plants
- robert (robert carter)
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- ger310 (Ger .)
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hi all ,looking for a bit of help with my plants, very new to keeping live plants , tank 350 litres ,lighting 4 by30w t8 tubes , should point out the tank is 24 inches deep . I am getting small amounts of brown algea on the leaves but the thing that worries me is that a lot of the leaves have small holes in them as though they are being eaten ,don't mind this if this is the cause ,but watching the tank I have never seen any of the fish eating then . lights are on timer 10.5 hours daily adding easy carb daily and easy life profit weekly after water changes . as I said new to live plants so any help would be welcome . keep safe all on this stormy night . thanks Robert
I'm not very knowledgeable myself when it comes to plants (among other things) but 10.5 hours of lighting a day seems a lot to me and 30w tubes does not seem strong enough especially as it's 24 inch deep but that would probably depend on the plants you have really............Anubias and Java fern are all I can grow and I once fluked successfully growing Vallisneria (all easy to grow plants really) so i'm probably not the best guy to be giving advise!!.....All the best
Ger
What do you call a three legged Donkey?
A Wonkey....duh ha

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- robert (robert carter)
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- robert (robert carter)
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- helix8008 (Tomas Novak)
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Good practise is to fertilize daily instead of weekly. Plants will use it all and nothing will be left for algae.
Light period over 9h can actually do more harm than good to plants even that your light is not so strong.
Try above for a month and see if any improvement. Then you can think about upgrading the stronger light, it really depend on plants you have. Some doesnt really need strong light especialy when you dont inject co2.
Hope it helps.
Tom
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- robert (robert carter)
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- helix8008 (Tomas Novak)
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Also SAE and oto affinis are top algae eaters so I would recommend to get a group of these.
Post some photos when you get a chance.
Tom
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- robert (robert carter)
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- gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
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They will even eat green spot algae off glass and that stuff only comes off with a razor blade...
Nerite snails come in different shapes and sizes...I recommend Horned Nerites as they are smaller and can get about the
tank better....They get to the most awkward inacessible places and as a result are awesome algae eaters...They wont damage
plants either....The other bonus is that they dont breed in normal fresh water (they need brackish conditions) and as a result you
wont end up with a snail plague that comes along with other snails....
I also recommend you reduce your lighting period to a max of 8 hours....
Toms idea of dividing the Profito dose into 7 is also an excellent idea...I actually divide it in to 3 over a 7 day period and find it works
well for me...
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- robert (robert carter)
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- gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
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3 Euros each
I have nine in a 240 litre and they are doin a great job for me!
I put them in all my tanks as the initial inhabitants when setting up new tanks so algae cant take hold...
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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what are your nitrate and nitrite levels like?
are you adding additional oxygen to the tank etc
Bare in mind that the nutrients will be removed during waterchanges etc
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- robert (robert carter)
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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It'll take a bit of time but soon you will see a difference! I have 1 planted tank at the min, nothing fancy just easy to grow plants and a single t5 bulb! No reflectors no nothing! It's growing slowly but healthily so I'm happy! I don't dose with frets as much as I did at the start, I haven't done any waterchanges in months and the fish are healthy and happy! (Channa don't even have heaters or filters this time of year)
So it's more a case of letting everything bed in properly, and finding your balance between dosing, water changes and healthy happy fish!
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- gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
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The light output rapidly depletes after that....This will lead to poorer growth...
Also the tube replacement (if there are multiple tubes) should be staggered over a period of a couple of weeks..
Dont change them all at once...It can shock the plants and encourage algae to grow...
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- robert (robert carter)
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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Other than that I don't see many major issues arrising
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- robert (robert carter)
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- helix8008 (Tomas Novak)
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So now its either snails or clown loaches, or you can get SAE or oto but they might not be as good with green algae as nerite snails, they are great for brown algae though.
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- robert (robert carter)
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- hammie (Neil Hammerton)
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have a look at the Aquaone Tropiglo range of LED bars, they come in 4 sizes from 45cm (13watt) to 122 cm (37watt)
and the price seems to be not too bad!!!!! or the Plantglo range that is slightly stronger, again 4 sizes 45cm (18watt) to 122cm (49watt)
perhaps this would be a good way to suppliment some of your T8's instead of changing the whole system?
Ive used some of these lighting systems in the past (mainly the smaller plantglo and mariglo ones) with some good success
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- robert (robert carter)
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