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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

× Aquarium (and Pond) Safety.

Water changes in ponds

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25 Aug 2017 19:12 #1 by Mallet (Barry Fitzpatrick)
Just a quick question.
Should you do a water change in a 1000+ltr pond and by how much and how often, is it worth keeping a barrel of rain water on hand or just use the garden Hose and tap water ?

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26 Aug 2017 09:54 - 26 Aug 2017 09:55 #2 by JohnH (John)
Replied by JohnH (John) on topic Water changes in ponds

Just a quick question.
Should you do a water change in a 1000+ltr pond and by how much and how often, is it worth keeping a barrel of rain water on hand or just use the garden Hose and tap water ?


I'm not too certain about percentages of water to change in ponds - or how often, maybe more pond-oriented members will comment on this.
All I'll add is that the considered opinion is that the sorts of fish we regularly keep in our ponds (mostly Carp species - or Carp derivatives) seem to do better in harder alkaline conditions so if your tap water is anything like mine this might be the better plan of action.
Having said that, my pond is constantly topped-up (overfilled...) with rain water from the roof of my garden shed and the Koi don't seem to mind - they haven't complained to me, anyway.

Maybe we can get some more informed comments from proper pond people.

John

Location:
N. Tipp

We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl - year after year.


ITFS member.



It's a long way to Tipperary.
Last edit: 26 Aug 2017 09:55 by JohnH (John). Reason: spelling

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26 Aug 2017 10:27 #3 by Mallet (Barry Fitzpatrick)
Thanks John only asking because I noticed my fish were getting a bit sluggish latly, maybe it's just the water temperature dropping
I have 4 goldfish 2 of which are sham unkind nice big long fins they looknow good, not koi though

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26 Aug 2017 12:50 #4 by robert (robert carter)
Hi , my view on this is that it depends on the variety of fish kept , filtration , feeding and most importantly stocking level. Now my own situation is 1000 gallon pond massively overstocked , filtration is a very big pressure filter and a 4 tier trickle tower , feeding is 4 times per day using a 42% protien pellet food . So according to the book i am doing everthing wrong . Water changes are 50% twice weekly , refill with tap water using sodium thiosulphate crystals as a declorinater . I have crystal clear water and my koi all seem happy ,healthy and feed well

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26 Aug 2017 15:17 #5 by Mallet (Barry Fitzpatrick)
Whao, thank goodness we don't have water charge, yet (:=))
I only have four 8" gold fish and 25ltr homemade bucket filter and a 2 m gravel street for extra aeration hope to upgrade filter soon water is getting some string algae

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26 Aug 2017 22:43 #6 by robert (robert carter)
Hi ,upgradeing your filters will not stop string algae , which is in fact blanket weed , luckerly dont seem to get much of it ,but when i do a use a product called BLANC KIT from ebay and it does the trick

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27 Aug 2017 08:17 #7 by gunnered72 (Eddy Gunnered)
Test your NitrAte and Phosphate levels...

NitrAte max 20ppm

Phosphate max 2ppm

Any higher and algae will start getting out of control..

The ONLY way to reduce them is with larger water changes...Be careful if you havent been changing large amounts of water regularly...Dont bump the amount up too suddenly...You will shock the fish....Build it up gradually over a few weeks...

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