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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

"Shrimp Towers" - Carpeted tank Dry Start Method

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20 Apr 2017 17:14 #1 by davet (Dave Treacy)
My CRS have happily lived in my 20 litre Fluval Spec for the past year but after coming across a special offer in Petmania I found the perfect excuse to upgrade their accomodation.

I decided to do a heavily carpted planted tank. The seeds I had were bought of the internet and not entirely sure exactly what I bought at only a few euros.

Picked up the Beamswork 300 LED lights off e-bay and am seriously impressed by the quality and power of the system. Used a small bag of Amazonia Powder that I had not used as the substrate and picked up the stone for the hardscape.

Day 1 - 04/04
Layout decide upon. I had painted the back of the tank with acrylic paint the evening before,





Day 6 - 10/04
Starting to see plants germinate. Tank light had been on 24 hours a day and sprayed down with water containing liquid fertiliser daily. Tank was covered with cling film to keep humidity up and stop plants drying out.



Day 7 - 11/04
What a difference 24 hours make



Day 9 - 13/04
Decided to drop lighting to day time only. Hope to flood tank in a week after plants have best chance to develop strong roots and not float away. Have a air driven sponge filter cycling in the big tank since the start of this.





More updates to follow.
Dave

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20 Apr 2017 17:26 #2 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
Wow, those have grown quick.
Are they the sort of seed you buy from China on eBay and they just say 'carpeting seed' or something?
Can't wait to see it filled and see what happens to the plants then.

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20 Apr 2017 17:52 #3 by davet (Dave Treacy)
Thanks Jonlate. Yes it was two different seed varieties described as carpeting plants from Chine. Not off eBay but Geek (similar enought) 4 euros for 4 packets including postage. You wait about a month for them to arrive mind you !!

Decided to flood the tank yesterday as I'll be away this weekend. Just water no agitation in it as filter not added. Now that I have this once it settles I think I'll transfer the fish from the 170 litre tank. About 20 tetras and do the DSM planted method on it.

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20 Apr 2017 17:54 #4 by davet (Dave Treacy)
Flooded tank yesterday. Will add filter after another week and heater.

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21 Apr 2017 07:54 #5 by PondScape (Alexander Hahn)
Wow! real nice. Will have to look into getting some myself.

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21 Apr 2017 08:45 #6 by iain54 (Iain Minchin)
Wow that looks class. Have you a link for seeds ?

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21 Apr 2017 12:34 #7 by Jonlate (Jon Late)
I will be interested to see how tall they grow as well. I have often wondered about getting some, but didn't know big they would grow.

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21 Apr 2017 16:20 #8 by robert (robert carter)
Wow , incredable looking , will see how you get on ,but might try them myself , only one question what about doing gravel cleans ?

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21 Apr 2017 19:46 #9 by davet (Dave Treacy)
Not the link I bought from but the packet is the same. Look at this on eBay www.ebay.co.uk/itm/192118738128

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21 Apr 2017 19:49 #10 by davet (Dave Treacy)
Robert hopefully any poo will stay on top of the carpet. Stir up the water column to get it to rise and vacuum would be the plan.

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21 Apr 2017 19:52 #11 by iain54 (Iain Minchin)
Were the seeds tiny I bought some off aliexpress I've a ton of them to use haha

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24 Apr 2017 17:21 #12 by davet (Dave Treacy)
Yes super tiny seeds Iain like sugar granule size.

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24 Apr 2017 23:37 #13 by iain54 (Iain Minchin)

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26 Apr 2017 09:46 #14 by davet (Dave Treacy)
Photos taken on Sunday which is 19 days since the start. Added air filter and heater yesterday plus API Quick Start. The filter had been in my big tank since the start of whole project so happy it's almost cycled. Monitor levels in it for a week.

Plan is then to move the 28 or so tertras from my big 180 tank while I do the same DSM on it.

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26 Apr 2017 12:06 #15 by PondScape (Alexander Hahn)
Coming along very nicely! Looking forward to see fish in it!

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26 Apr 2017 17:15 #16 by robert (robert carter)

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17 May 2017 14:05 #17 by davet (Dave Treacy)
Moved the 17 tetras, 1 Betta & 2 SAE's from the 180 litre while I do the DSM method in that. Started the DSM in big tank 3 days ago already germinated.
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