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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

very high nitrates from tap water!!!!

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12 Dec 2007 19:54 #1 by ricko10 (jamie)
I have very high nitrates now from my tap water. 160ppm to be exact and my fish are dying. need to lower it asap. all advice welcomed

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12 Dec 2007 20:55 - 12 Dec 2007 21:00 #2 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:very high nitrates from tap water!!!!
Call me if you need a loan of an RO unit. Or get yourself some containers and fill them up in Cork City. Water is OK today. If you are looking for some free 25 l containers call into that water treatment company between Cork Builder Provider and the Sorting office off the South Link. Take the Togher exit. They have containers with blue and green bottoms. Get the blue ones and wash out thoroughly. The ones with the green bottom have some sticky stuff in it that even a power washer won't remove
Last edit: 12 Dec 2007 21:00 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus).

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12 Dec 2007 20:58 #3 by ricko10 (jamie)
Thanks Holger,
If RO water will help then i can get an endless supply of that. im just wondering if changing them over to RO water would shock them, or what ratio of RO to tap should i use?

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12 Dec 2007 21:06 #4 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:very high nitrates from tap water!!!!
You will have to play around with that for a bit. Keep an eye on the kH and pH. Avoid pH jumps greater than 1 degree in a day and don't let the kH slip below 5 or 6 to avoid a pH crash. What are your tap water parameters? The Mallow area has quite hard water if I remember correctly so adding some RO won't make much of a difference.
I would also test for ammonia and nitrite. Nitrate isn't all that poisonous, nitrite is and ammonia is even worse.
Some fish can take more abuse than others so it would also be helpful to know what fish species are dying.

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12 Dec 2007 21:21 #5 by ricko10 (jamie)
ok.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Ph At the moment is 5.5, but it has always been 7.6 and gets reduced to 6.8 in the tank.
current lost fish,
11 Various Killis, 6 female bettas and half a dozen blue shrimp.
Its a 50 gallon tank with an external filter going at about 250 gallons per hour. I have sand substrate with various rocks and bog wood.

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12 Dec 2007 21:34 - 12 Dec 2007 21:35 #6 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:very high nitrates from tap water!!!!
Ph is pretty low but your bettas shouldn't have any problems with that. I would do a 50% water change with RO water and add some bicarbonate of soda (baking powder)to the RO water first. It's a bit hit and miss but take a 10l bucket and add half a teaspoon of baking powder and see how that influences your pH and kH.

You could also take a couple of water containers and fill them up where the tapwater is better and thus save yourself the messing around with RO water and bicarbonate of soda
Last edit: 12 Dec 2007 21:35 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus).

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12 Dec 2007 21:39 #7 by ricko10 (jamie)
Cheers holger,
I think i will try filling the containers route. I was planning on thinning out my killis in the future and concentrating more on the bettas but i didnt plan on doing it this way:(

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17 Dec 2007 09:47 #8 by apistodiscus (apistodiscus)
Replied by apistodiscus (apistodiscus) on topic Re:very high nitrates from tap water!!!!
Just read a manual for a nitrate filter. You'll have to sacrifice some Vodka but 2-5ml/day for a 300l tank shouldn't even hit the biggest alcoholics amongst you too badly :lol:
On the plus side, no more water changes...
The manual is in German and if I get the time over Christmas I will translate it (well, the bascis anyway since I couldn't be bothered to translate 25 pages) For those of you who speak German, here is the link www.wodkafilter.de .

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21 Jan 2008 16:54 #9 by Dobarchu (Adrian Redican)
For high nitrate tap water there's a product called nitrazorb or nitra-zorb which could be worth looking into.

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