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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

Native Marine Filtration

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04 Feb 2012 19:11 #1 by CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)
Hello Everyone,
I am going back to my first love, Native Marines. It has been a while since I have kept them, but the rock-pools just keep on calling..........
I have a 200x 60x60 Eheim/MP, (full of mbuna at the moment) that I will use.
Now for the decisions.....
I have been thinking about the live rock route as regards to filtration, but at a temp of 10-15 oC. Tropical live rock would have a heart attack placed in that temperature, but the bacteria found on and within the rock is the same species. Could I seed reef-rock, reef-plate (soaked in advance to remove any phosphates, etc.) from some tropical live rock, approx mix 50/50, and slowly reduce the temperature? Any input on this idea, would be most welcome.
The tank has 2 Eheims running on it at the moment, a 2080 and a 2180. These I could use to filter the aquarium, but the pump-head on the 2180 thermo would have to be changed for a new pump-head (a 2080) Has anyone done this, and /or is it a straight swap with the pump-heads? Once again ideas would be welcome.

Thanks

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04 Feb 2012 22:46 #2 by igmillichip (ian millichip)
Welcome to the forum.

A native marine tank is a nice project.

As for the "live-rock" question..... the answer runs in a similar light to moving filtration media from coldwater to tropical etc. There are some uncertainties, and a bit of 'try it with care'.

There are quite a few different species of bacteria or algae or other organisms within the live rock; some will survive better than others the lower temperature and the transfer to a lower temperature from a tropical one.

Some of the bactetia involved within the nitrogen cycle are quite sensitive to changes, and can take some time to establish themselves.

I'd recommending curing it at the lower temperature with no fish present and testing the ammonia (etc) until you are sure that, even if the rock is no longer 'live rock' it is not going to poison your fish with products from decaying organisms.

Ian

Irish Tropical Fish Society (ITFS) Member.

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04 Feb 2012 23:05 #3 by CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)
Hi Ian,
Thanks for the welcome and the information.
I knew that many organisms on tropical live rock, would die off in the colder temperature, I was hoping that many of the bacteria would survive and colonize the reef-rock and become live, in time. It might be an option to seed the reef rock with bacteria from the filter media in an other native tank. I have a feeling that I have a few months of skimming ahead of me..............

Pete

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27 Mar 2014 10:42 #4 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
How do you plan to keep the water at a lower temp in mid summer last year think I struggled to keep any tank under 28d??

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.

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27 Mar 2014 17:07 #5 by CrustyCrab (Peter Biddulph)
Hi Jeff, there are a number of ways to keep the temp down.
You can use a Beer Cooler, on the return from an external filter, or on a loop.
Or one of the many Aquarium coolers on the market.
I loop the return feed from an external filter in a double loop through my pond.

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17 May 2014 23:31 - 17 May 2014 23:32 #6 by jeff (Jeff Scully)
Excuse my ignorance mate haven't really been on that much thank you for the information, still working on the oh for another tank small steps very small, while walking killiney beach today my son found a 5" orange star fish which I explained to the wife now if we had a native marine tank we could have made our sons day and brought it home.... So far I was told to cop on haha, as I said very small steps

Where the tongue slips, it speaks the truth.

A life making mistakes is not only more honourable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing at all.
Last edit: 17 May 2014 23:32 by jeff (Jeff Scully).

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