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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

Water Changes

  • georgina (georgina)
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02 Feb 2006 06:32 #1 by georgina (georgina)
Water Changes was created by georgina (georgina)
Hey all,
Just want to pick your brains on water changes. When i change the water I normally try and take out everything and give the gravel a good mix, but I'm after getting some new plants and dont want to be uprooting them, how does everyone do water changes??
G

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  • CasimiR (CasimiR)
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02 Feb 2006 07:08 #2 by CasimiR (CasimiR)
Replied by CasimiR (CasimiR) on topic Re: Water Changes
Hi Georgina,

i can speak for myself .. weekly 25% changes, using a pump to get the water in and out of the tank directly to/from the sink
Also rince filters .. and use a vacuum for the gravel

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  • georgina (georgina)
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02 Feb 2006 10:19 #3 by georgina (georgina)
Replied by georgina (georgina) on topic Re: Water Changes
Do you uproot your plants? I use a gravel vac but its hard to disgurb the stones with the plants. And do you put in all cold water or do you mix hot and cold. I read somewhere that hot water coming from a copper cylinder can be bad for fish and that the water should be boiled, so what i'm doing at the minute is boiling water and mixing it with cold water (from the cold tap).

G

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  • CasimiR (CasimiR)
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02 Feb 2006 12:08 #4 by CasimiR (CasimiR)
Replied by CasimiR (CasimiR) on topic Re: Water Changes
i try not to touch the plants as much as possible .. i use an small electric vaccum that doesn t disturb things too much .
Not sure what you mean about cold or hot water ? i use water at the tank temperature so i dont disturb the fish... but i ve noticed getting it slightly colder helps spawning.

Boilding the water sounds mad .. how big is your tank ? would take you hours to do

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02 Feb 2006 17:09 #5 by Pablo (Pablo -)
Replied by Pablo (Pablo -) on topic Re: Water Changes

I read somewhere that hot water coming from a copper cylinder can be bad for fish and that the water should be boiled


Never have any problems.... you can use the hot water from the tap :)

And do you put in all cold water or do you mix hot and cold


The water going in has to be at aprox the same temp as the one in the tank so mix the water until you get the right temp, extreme temp change could stress and kill your fish :shock:

Do you uproot your plants?


One evry 3 Months i take everything out and give a good rinse with water from the tank... other than that i just use a gravel hoover to remove the dirt from the tank :wink:

Hope this help
Pablo

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  • conor (conor)
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03 Feb 2006 02:06 #6 by conor (conor)
Replied by conor (conor) on topic Re: Water Changes
Siphon out the water, change it with preheated water. Do not worry about cleaning the gravel too much. I only do this once every two months (if I do it at all) in my planted tank.

I do not like disturbint the roots too much.
However, I plan of doing so this week-end as I have some re-arranging to do.

Its been three months since I last cleaned the gravel (the filters seem quite efficient so I do not worry too much about this)

Its a good idea to let the water flow from the tap for a few seconds (some of the water may have been sitting in the pipes and will be full of metallics) prior to using it for the refill water. Always dechlorinate, always preheat.

Regards
Conor.

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  • georgina (georgina)
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04 Feb 2006 16:23 #7 by georgina (georgina)
Replied by georgina (georgina) on topic Re: Water Changes
Thanks for all the tips and advice guys. it really helped. Maybe changin the water wont be such an orderl now :D

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  • Anthony (Anthony)
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19 Apr 2006 13:12 #8 by Anthony (Anthony)
Replied by Anthony (Anthony) on topic Re: Water Changes
I do 33% w/c every week and I always suck the gravel up.
I have sand in all my tanks and the dirt sits on top so to easy to clean and the tank is much ceaner too.
I don`t bother using any hot water when I am doing water changes anymore.

I did 33% w/c every week and 10-20% every day when I had discus,

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  • gm333 (gm333)
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24 Apr 2006 21:36 #9 by gm333 (gm333)
Replied by gm333 (gm333) on topic Re: Water Changes
I do 20% a week on my more particular tanks, and 30% biweekly on my larger tanks. I also clean the gravel on all tanks except the planted tank, I just skim the surface to take out excess waste that has not been broken down yet.

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  • conor (conor)
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25 Apr 2006 01:20 #10 by conor (conor)
Replied by conor (conor) on topic Re: Water Changes
I go from daily changes to weekly to bi-weekly, and since my RO pump died this past month I have yet to do one.

The good news is that I've no more dying discus - I managed to erradicate the infestation without resorting to any chemicals in the tank.

Mostly down to water changes and tons of carbon/zeolite.

Now the discus no longer cower as they did when they were moved to the attic - turned out to be related to the disease rather than not seeing people as often.

I do have 25 litres of fresh RO ready to go, aswell as 25 for my marine to cover evaporation issues. Might do one tonight :)

p.s.: my daughter wants me to put an angry face - no other reason for it :evil:

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