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
Where can I buy chemical reagents for fertilizing?
Thanks a million. I had no idea there was an explosive reagent on my list! I wish I was better student at chemistry lessons - now I wouldn't be happily divorced but happily widowed!!
3 of the reagents from my list are just components of Estimative Index that works perfectly in planted tanks. The 4th one was adviced as a good supplement to the other 3.
According to my knowledge it is cheaper to buy chemical reagents than branded fertilizers, unfortunately. A small bottle of Kallium/Potasium I bought 3 weeks ago is empty by half at the moment...
This one MgSO4x7H20 (how do you translate it into English?) I bought at chemist but found that exactly the same component bought in a shop with chemical reagents was several times cheaper than at chemist.
I would like to find a place in Ireland where I could buy it or ready mix for EI.
Kath
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DJK - I will check this path. Who knows maybe it will work again!
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when written as "MgSO4x7H20" is is Magnesium Suplphate Heptahydrate.... ie if you have pure Magnesium Sulphate (MgSO4) and for each molecule of that magnesium sulphate you hydrate it with 7 molecules of water then you have MgSO4x7H20.
Now it is very important that if weighing things that you take the exact molecular formula into account.
For example, if your recipe says add 246 grams of MgSO4x7H20 (epsom salts) but you only have the pure anhydrous (dry) Magnesium Sulphate then you would have to use 120 grams of that.
If you added 246 grams of the pure anhydrous magnesium sulphate then you would be putting over 2 times as much as is needed.
@Katherine..... I would doubt you have bottle of Potassium/kalium. Potassium is a metal (soft as butter, violent to go with it when it touches your skin) and needs to be kept in an oil. It does not exist in nature either.
I recon it was a salt of potassium.
(and for Pub Quiz..... the word Alkali, for alkaline etc, comes from the other name for Potassium you mentioned as Kalium....old arabic for the ashes of a plant, and Potash comes from the same meaning...along with Potassium).
There you go, a bit of useless chemistry for you on a sunday afternoon.
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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Thanks for pointing out the danger of overdosing raegents that could happen to me. Would you suggest me buying a very accurate scale if I don't get a ready EI mix?
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Ian, by a bottle of Kallium/Potassium I meant this one:
Thanks for pointing out the danger of overdosing raegents that could happen to me. Would you suggest me buying a very accurate scale if I don't get a ready EI mix?
That is NOT a bottle of Potassium..... it is NOT what it says on the tin.
It is just a potassium salt mix.
As for measuring....you would need good scales really, but some of the new digital house scales are pretty good and weight to a gram.
My bible for gardening is a book by Montegue Allwood (famous for his development of carnations). A very old book, and it has making your own fertilisers.
I also have my photographic bible by a chap called Croy on developing photos.... it has some great film developer recipes in it, but looking at the ingredients: no wonder the old fashioned gardeners and photographers were loopy (they probably slowly poisoned their brains).
ian
Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.
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