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
New set up II
- JSleator (Jason Sleator)
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I was eyeballing the API quick start, but instinctively not convinced that is is giving me any real advantage. Is the denitrol a good one? any better?
Also, I am using hardscape that was in a tank that I shut down recently The gravel was laden with tiny snails. The gravel sat in a bin bag for 2 weeks at the back door. I didnt wash or rinse the gravel, just put it in new tank dirty thinking surely there is some good bacteria in there. I was surprised to see that the snails have actually survived, and are ok in the non cycled tank (been running a week now) Im now wondering perhaps I did infact keep the good bacteria on the hardscape, even tho it was stored in cold dark non aerated conditions, there was moisture, could this be possible?
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- JohnH (John)
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However, whilst being a pain, your snails will, in fact become handy little workmen on your behalf and when they start eating the small amounts of food you are putting in to the water their droppings will definitely help speed up the process as digested food will more quickly break down than undigested.
John
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We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
ITFS member.
It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- derek (Derek Doyle)
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Although I agree that the snails can be useful in helping to keep the water healthy, they have been the bane of my fishkeeping life for 30 years. They are indestructable and I have never succeeded in eliminating them, other than putting suitably hammered tank in a skip lol.
30 tanks specialise in african cichlids, angelfish and various catfish
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- JohnH (John)
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These live within the gravel and rarely venture out in times when the tanks are illuminated.
Sort of long pointed efforts for want of a better description (check them out on goggle).
They might be a problem with Ancistrus eggs - but in the main the Ancistrus male is pretty attentive of his eggs that I shouldn't think he would let any into his 'domain' - I have watched one fanning out a snail with quite exaggerated fin activity.
But, as Derek points out, snails are quite hard to eradicate from our tanks anyway.
So, personally, I would think snails wouldn't be any problem for your new project. It will be interesting to hear if anyone has had different experiences with snails and - especially Ancistrus - eggs?
I'm going to split this thread as we have rather taken over Deaglan's original post.
John
Location:
N. Tipp
We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.
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It's a long way to Tipperary.
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- JSleator (Jason Sleator)
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Its not the MTS I have. different shape and size. these guys are miniature and round and in my last tank there were literally hundreds of them, in the filter and everything, i never bothered with them. They were a cross infestation from a planted tank i had going, the "family" is easily 5 years old now. When I broke down the tank, I switched the heater off, when the water got cold they all came out of the gravel up the sides of the glass, pretty crazy to see actually.
I dont think the population is anywhere near the same as i didn't reuse all the gravel, a fraction of in in fact, and i think many died during the storage of the gravel, if i see them on the glass now i squish them!
I will try the lettuce in a jam jar trick and see if i can capture them, just dont like the idea of them being in there if they serve no purpose and add to the bio load, and start breeding up to big numbers again... especially with a new project...
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