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
30h war / power cut
We have been without power for a good 30+ hours now and it feels like me and my fishes have been through a war.
There has been moments of sadness (losing fish) and brief moments of hope and joy (battery driven air pumps arriving), and moments of despair (I had bought the wrong batteries for the air pumps).
The time included very little sleep and a LOT of driving to get supplies, mainly warm water. In the end I did around 8h of driving.
There are a few things that I can share:
* Buy the equipment you need in advance, I had checked out that my LFS had battery driven air pumps for instance but not counted on that the shop would close during a power shortage. I eventually got them in Dublin (thanks Seahorse and understanding gf). Stock up on the RIGHT batteries.
* Make sure you have proper torches and a battery driven radio, I had neither and it was really hard to work without light or knowledge about how long it would last. Some supplies for yourself is not a bad idea either, you don't want to spend precious time getting food for yourself.
* My styrofoam insulated tank worked really well, it kept the heat noticeable better than the others. All the fish in this tank seems to have survived very well.
* I need to sort out some battery powered heater and one of those electricity storage devices, whatever they are called.
* The sponges (kept in oxygenated water) seem to have kept the bacteria alive pretty well, no massive spikes so far.
All in all it was very stressful and I sadly did lose some nice fish but It could have gone far worse. I was not prepared enough but I was not completely in the nip either, I had not however counted on a power cut lasting this long.
Did anyone else struggle?
Andreas
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i have a generator which is very handyi was just gonna ask the same ,surely for people with a bigger setup a portable generator is a worthwhile investment,also have a look at these
battery back up
when i was building the house i wired it so i can switch from mains to generator on my big tank in the house
at least i have the tank sorted and i can plug in my fridge to keep the beer co
olsorry to hear about your fish andreas
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I really feel sorry for all who lost fish. I have done a head count and I am very lucky in that many of my fishes have survived, my losses were mainly from a temporary set up (with very poor insulation) with L129s. I can’t imagine poor Johns nightmare, and he was even prepared for it, seems unfair.
The generator is a good solution, fair play Mossy I would gladly have traded the stress for a relaxing beer.
A diesel generator is however not an option for me, due to the location and I suspect the same for many others. I will scout for an electric alternative.
I’m afraid that there probably is no such thing as a battery driven heater. This is the battery driven air pump I used and they worked well. I suspect many LFS’s have them, I got mine I Seahorse.
The battery back up looks great, I just wonder if it would be strong enough to power the heaters. Has anyone tried these?
Paul is right in that it is a wake up call, I'll certainly make sure to be better prepared for the next one.
All the best,
Andreas
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