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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
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apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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21 Aug 2007 21:45 #31
by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Hi Sabrina,
never used the carbon sponges unless I wanted to get rid of medications. They also filter out plant nutrients. So if you want a planted tank carbon isn't the best of ideas.
Anyway, start from scratch and add Tetra Safe Start. Richard Bunn here on the forum swears by it. You might want to drop him a pm. Tetra also do bacteria in pill form. I can't recall the name of them. Have a look on the Tetra website. You should find it there. Worked for my sister-in-law's new tank.
The red and black fish you were referring to is Boeseman's rainbow fish (Melontenia boesemani). It is very slow growing and needs over a year to fully colour up. The young are so slow growing that it isn't funny. I used to breed them. It's not all that hard once you are prepared to run several infusoria cultures at the same time. On the other hand they can get quite old and are noy fussy on water parameters. They used to have a tank in Heathrow with parrot cichlids, malawis and boesemai in it. The biggest rainbows I have ever seen. These suckers wouldn't have been out of place in a frying pan, sizewise.
Holger
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21 Aug 2007 22:57 #32
by Mr Algae (mralgae mralgae)
mwdragondk wrote:
carbon is always good except when you are using meds.
agree with you totaly M. the tank you see in the pic is running with carbon filters at the moment, but wouldnt use if i had to med the tank.going to open a can of worms with this one but IMO there is to much hipe about carbon in a planted tank. i have and still do use carbon in my filters, NOT all the time and with no adverse effect on the plants.even in the 60L i did and still do use it.
i only leave it in for about 1 week at atime as it will reverse its own action and leach back into the water colmn if it is not taken out.
have a look at this table.
www.plantedtanks.proboards107.com/index....mp;thread=1181155741
for what sabrina wants it for will cause no harm to plants only if she is medding the tank for some reason as it will strip out the meds. it will certainly clean up a lot and shine the water.
May your fish be with you:
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21 Aug 2007 23:07 #33
by Mr Algae (mralgae mralgae)
apistodiscus wrote:
The red and black fish you were referring to is Boeseman's rainbow fish (Melontenia boesemani). It is very slow growing and needs over a year to fully colour up. The young are so slow growing that it isn't funny. I used to breed them. It's not all that hard once you are prepared to run several infusoria cultures at the same time. On the other hand they can get quite old and are noy fussy on water parameters. They used to have a tank in Heathrow with parrot cichlids, malawis and boesemai in it. The biggest rainbows I have ever seen. These suckers wouldn't have been out of place in a frying pan, sizewise.
Holger
haaa my little babies. had these 18mths, one of my first. they came from gavins finest stock and were approx 4/6mths old and already coloring up when i got them. by the time most of the fish reach over here they already a few mths old so not much longer for them to color up nicely. again you can see a full pic in my tank pics in the photograph threads.
beautyful fish sabrina and with a charactor all of their own. would recomend to any one with a planted tank
May your fish be with you:
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apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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22 Aug 2007 08:18 #34
by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Mr Algae wrote:
i only leave it in for about 1 week at atime as it will reverse its own action and leach back into the water colmn if it is not taken out.
[/quote]
Another urban myth. That's just PFK trying to flog carbon for their advertisers. Nothing leaches back into the water. They just become inactive and stop any further pollutants from getting into the water. That's just a lot of people repeating stuff they have read somewhere. Let's put it this way, most of us do not have the possibilities to measure if activated carbon actually realeases pollutants back into the water. The only two people on the forum I can think of are Sushi and Georgina since they have access to a chemistry lab. I wouldn't want to bother them with it just to proof my point though, Sushi's starting in his final year in biochem and Georgina is up to her eyeballs in work with her PhD. See if I can dig up a scientific paper somewhere.
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SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
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22 Aug 2007 08:54 #35
by SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
I'm guessing that those Rainbow Fish are at least semi agressive - all the very beautiful fish are, I am learning.
You would not believe how beautiful my tank looks this morning. It looks for all the world as if someone took out the water and, well, polished it!!!!! The fish are gloriously happy - and so am I.
It has been such a learning curve. I think I might write an article about the experience as it may help others.
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Valerie (Valerie)
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22 Aug 2007 09:00 #36
by Valerie (Valerie)
Hi SabrinaSummerville,
Glad you are now through your difficult times and wish you all the best, spending lots of time looking at your fish.
If I were you, I probably would let things stabilise for a few weeks/months before adding any new ones.
Happy fishkeeping !
Valerie
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SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
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22 Aug 2007 09:06 #37
by SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
Thanks Valerie - that's great advice.
I dumped all my plants as they had black hair algae so I think maybe I will add plants only for now and leave things settle.
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apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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22 Aug 2007 10:01 #38
by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
@Sabrina,
rainbow fish do best in small groups. The only bit of aggression if you want to call it that is males posing at each other. You might also want to look at Melontaenia praecox
www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/mel-pcox.htm
Another peaceful stunner but stays a good bit smaller than the boesemanis
Holger
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SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
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22 Aug 2007 10:25 #39
by SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
I believe I have one of those Holger. In fact I bought three in Kilkenny about three weeks ago, but two perished in the great tank disaster. This is one of my favourite fish and I didn't know what it was, so thanks.
Now that my tank is clear I will take pics of some of my babies and post them. My tank is still simple but take it as a work in progress:)
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22 Aug 2007 11:28 #40
by Mr Algae (mralgae mralgae)
SabrinaSummerville wrote:
I'm guessing that those Rainbow Fish are at least semi agressive - all the very beautiful fish are, I am learning.
You would not believe how beautiful my tank looks this morning. It looks for all the world as if someone took out the water and, well, polished it!!!!! The fish are gloriously happy - and so am I.
It has been such a learning curve. I think I might write an article about the experience as it may help others.
glad you got it sorted sabrina. like stated rainbows are not aggresive.
have a look at this if you are interested in rainbows:
members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/
watershed3.tripod.com/rainbows.html
May your fish be with you:
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apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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22 Aug 2007 11:47 #41
by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
@Sabrina,
you would really want 6 or more of them. Only then will you see their full behavioural spectrum and colours.
Holger
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SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
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22 Aug 2007 12:15 #42
by SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
I have a very mixed tank at the moment but I am learning which fish are for me. I like the little ones that swim in shoals as they are fun to watch. I also like the dramatic looking ones such as my Red Fire Gourami and my Turquoise Gourami. I have a great fondness for Tiger Barbs and all but one of mine have died. I have seen a green tiger barb in Petmania but they are marked as semi agressive.
Those rainbow fish look like just the fish for me
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apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
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22 Aug 2007 13:32 #43
by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Tiger barbs and gouramis don't mix since the barbs will nip the gouramis fins. rainbows are a much better choice with gouramis
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SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
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22 Aug 2007 16:22 #44
by SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
Just as well I haven't bought any more barbs so - I'm off to look at those rainbow links.
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SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
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22 Aug 2007 16:31 #45
by SabrinaSummerville (SabrinaSummerville)
So far I love the threadfins, and then maybe the blue eyes; amazing looking fish.
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