Wookii
Member
What do you think is causing the drop in pH in tank D - it is just peat etc included in that product, or does it contain something else to acidify the soil (when used in gardening for example)?
-
You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up
- Status
John q
Member
Well I guess from an experimental point of view it would be interesting to see at what point the plants fail to uptake nutrients in these extreme conditions, I'm also curious to see if any of the nitrifying bacteria can still function in such low ph levels.
I'm guessing any snails in this tank have already succumbed to the acidic water?
_Maq_
Member
The manufacturer does not describe the carrier. It only looks like a soft peat. Manual instructions say it should be put into the soil several centimeters deep. No guide for aquarium hobbyists...
_Maq_
Member
I've introduced some juvenile snails with the plants but they disappeared since long. In all tanks.
_Maq_
Member
Day 51: Measuring. Water change 50 %. An hour later: Measuring again.
2
27482
Guest
Hopefully @LondonDragon and @Tim Harrison will allow me to note here, at least in this brief form, that @_Maq_ has been permanently banned on this forum, so he cannot post any more posts, nor can he respond to any private messages.
Wookii
Member
Moderation Team are evaluating this member after various complaints from members about his way of responding to messages, he had been asked to tone it down a few times over the last few months and ignored those requests and was actually abrupt towards the team. He was not banned, a discouraged was placed in the account for further discussion!
Also note that Dolos has requested for his account to be deleted.
Andy Pierce
Member
@_Maq_ was one of the only people here doing and reporting even vaguely controlled experiments, so this is a real loss. Like this last one... don't you want to know whether root tabs actually do any good (I suspect they do not) and likewise isn't it worth understanding whether aquasoil is better than plain sand (I suspect it is) and can plants really grow at a pH of 4 (I wouldn't have thought so)? I'm willing to put up with some snarkiness to get real answers to those questions.
As Paulo has said we are evaluating the situation. Unfortunately, this member’s behaviour has often been in violation of the forum rules. We also received several complaints from other members. Further our continued efforts to moderate this behaviour were ignored. These decisions are never taken lightly.
MichaelJ
Member
I very much agree with this Andy. I am fan of the experiments and insights as well and I think it would be a real loss to impose a permanent ban. But I can certainly also see if from the perspective of the casual beginner/intermediate members (which are the vast majority around here) that just pops in for a quick question or feedback. Especially towards such members there are absolutely no reason to come across as prickly or patronizing or take the opportunity to make seditious and largely unhelpful know-it-all statements rather than just play-along and actually provide the best possible answer and insight within the context of the question.
Cheers,
Michael
John q
Member
Love him or hate him this forum will be at a loss if he leaves, is forced to leave.
I remember a campaign way back when, anybody else remember it. 😆
I remember a campaign way back when, anybody else remember it. 😆
Last edited:
John q
Member
I honestly didn't agree with half of what he said, the bits I didn't agree with I ignored. Also never put a complaint in against him.
MichaelJ
Member
I did on a couple of occasions earlier on.
If you're smart (allegedly), knowledgeable and outspoken as in trying to educate people, being kind and cordial is such an enormous multiplier. Curtness, sarcasm and the like just wont work in a setting like UKAPS or any other online forum for that matter... If you end up getting complaints, being "ignored" and just generally dis-liked, I just don't see the point of being on a forum focusing on elevating peoples skills in the first place.
The whole thing makes me (m/s)ad because he is such a knowledgeable guy, with many great insights for further research and discussions - we only have a handful of people on the forum with that breadth and depth.
Cheers,
Michael
Last edited:
jaisol
Member
I'm in favour of Maq being reinstated.
Yes he has his own opinions but don't we all, and everyone has good days and bad.
This is a really good high quality forum with very knowledgeable people. (just compare it to face book as base line. This forum is right at the top with 2 or3 others).
Having read quiet a lot of posts, I work nights so have time too, any iffy posts are quickly noted and other members push people in the desired direction. Some people are able to write enthralling, descriptive epics that run on, and you can't wait for the next part (hufsa, and a few others), others are more direct at the other end of the spectrum (Ceg and a few others). Ceg is a clever guy but disapeared.
Maybe there are other issues at play here, language, money, love life, family etc. I know he is skint judging by his posts, I'd happily throw a few quid his way every so often for his input (experiments) with growing plants and aquariums in general. How many people just sit here awaiting the next interesting post to read.. Maq does the what ifs, maybe we should be asking what if..
james
Yes he has his own opinions but don't we all, and everyone has good days and bad.
This is a really good high quality forum with very knowledgeable people. (just compare it to face book as base line. This forum is right at the top with 2 or3 others).
Having read quiet a lot of posts, I work nights so have time too, any iffy posts are quickly noted and other members push people in the desired direction. Some people are able to write enthralling, descriptive epics that run on, and you can't wait for the next part (hufsa, and a few others), others are more direct at the other end of the spectrum (Ceg and a few others). Ceg is a clever guy but disapeared.
Maybe there are other issues at play here, language, money, love life, family etc. I know he is skint judging by his posts, I'd happily throw a few quid his way every so often for his input (experiments) with growing plants and aquariums in general. How many people just sit here awaiting the next interesting post to read.. Maq does the what ifs, maybe we should be asking what if..
james
Bradders
Member
As new to the forum, I think it is tough to call on both sides.
Maq seemed like a knowledgeable and capable guy who focused heavily on experimentation and added a lot of valuable insights as a result. The issue was with how that value was sometimes delivered and the impact of that delivery - especially to inexperienced members or those who were easily intimidated. From my limited exposure to Maq, it was never really the 'what' that was the issue - it was the 'how' it got delivered that became challenging. When you are an established forum like UKAPS, and it promotes itself as a friendly forum (some have commented on that aspect in their welcome post), you have a decision to make when you have someone who behaves conversely to that. For those with strong personalities and a great deal of confidence, Maq could be pulled into line or ignored. For others, that could affect them, and they rely on the policing and rules.
It sounds like a massive loss of experience from the forum, and I got on just fine with Maq and accepted his abruptness and strong (sometimes one-directional) view. But as a forum administrator, how long do you put up with complaints and witnessing inappropriate interactions before you act? If you have been asked to dial it down a little but don't, that also makes a strong statement. Hence, I can see the Admins dichotomy of the decision between keeping experience and not accepting challenging behaviour.
Maq seemed like a knowledgeable and capable guy who focused heavily on experimentation and added a lot of valuable insights as a result. The issue was with how that value was sometimes delivered and the impact of that delivery - especially to inexperienced members or those who were easily intimidated. From my limited exposure to Maq, it was never really the 'what' that was the issue - it was the 'how' it got delivered that became challenging. When you are an established forum like UKAPS, and it promotes itself as a friendly forum (some have commented on that aspect in their welcome post), you have a decision to make when you have someone who behaves conversely to that. For those with strong personalities and a great deal of confidence, Maq could be pulled into line or ignored. For others, that could affect them, and they rely on the policing and rules.
It sounds like a massive loss of experience from the forum, and I got on just fine with Maq and accepted his abruptness and strong (sometimes one-directional) view. But as a forum administrator, how long do you put up with complaints and witnessing inappropriate interactions before you act? If you have been asked to dial it down a little but don't, that also makes a strong statement. Hence, I can see the Admins dichotomy of the decision between keeping experience and not accepting challenging behaviour.
I think many of the more experienced and knowledgeable members have no issues with the cut and thrust of a spirited debate.
On the other hand, it seems to be a matter of common sense to adopt a more 'helpful' tone towards new members who may well be beginners starting out in this journey (i.e. everyone was a beginner at one time).
For balance beyond opinion and conjecture, the 14 rules and guidelines of the forum that enable UKAPS to be the community that it is.
UKAPS Forum Rules and Guidelines
1. Treat others how you would like to be treated yourself. Remain polite at all times and avoid aggressive styles of communication. Criticisms are often welcome, but ensure they are constructive.
2. The written word can be easily misinterpreted, so carefully consider your post's content before submitting. Consider how the post may be interpreted by others, especially if the content is directed towards a member, personally.
3. Try to avoid ambiguity and make an effort to use correct spelling and grammar. You will likely receive more constructive replies if you put some effort into your posts.
4. Abusive language, swearing and being aggressive will not be tolerated. See Rule 5.
5. The safety, health, and well-being of livestock is always number one. Be careful when adding CO2, chemicals to your aquariums. Also, UKAPS does not promote any experimental practices, or any other practice, that might put livestock in danger. Practices that might encourage other members to risk their livestock will be removed from the forum.
6. A three strikes rule is in force. Any transgressors to these Rules and Guidelines will receive two warnings via PM. Further inappropriate behaviour will result in a ban. Obvious 'spammers' and troublemakers will be banned immediately without warning.
7. Any complaints towards our Sponsors should be dealt with privately with the sponsor via PM, email or telephone, in the first instance. However, in the interest of maintaining transparency, a degree of free speech and to educate other members, you should feel able to leave feedback on products and service. Remember to be constructive in any feedback, as per Rule 1.
8. Any complaints regarding other, non-sponsor suppliers, manufacturers etc. should also be dealt with privately with the relevant party in the first instance. UKAPS do not wish to deal with potential libel cases. As always, be constructive in your feedback about products/services, one bad experience doesn't mean it's all bad.
9. The Sponsors are responsible for moderating their own sub-forums, but the Moderating Team will take action if seen necessary.
10. The Sponsors are politely requested to post exclusively in their own sub-forums. We recognize that the Sponsors have a wealth of knowledge worth sharing with the UKAPS membership, so would encourage the Sponsor to post under a pseudonym username.
11. Employees of aquatic retailers are not to promote or advertise their products and/or services without prior permission granted from the Administrators. However, they are welcome to contribute to the forum as a regular member.
12. Any personal issues with any UKAPS Member, Moderator, Admin or Founder should be dealt with privately via PM. Public displays of aggression and inappropriate comments are not acceptable. Refer to Rule 1 and 5.
13. Please do not register duplicate accounts just to ask the same questions over and over again, in the event you have forgotten your credentials of your old account or you no longer have access to the email, just contact UKAPS, and we will resolve the issue for you. You can always use the Contact Us button on the footer of the forum.
14. UKAPS wish to operate under a positive environment for the benefit of its Members and the planted aquarium hobby. The Founders, Admin and Moderating Team reserve the right to edit/move etc. post/threads with this in mind. However, if the above rules and guidelines are followed, then this should not be necessary.
We thank you for your co-operation.
The UKAPS Founders, Admin and Moderating Team
UKAPS Forum Rules and Guidelines
1. Treat others how you would like to be treated yourself. Remain polite at all times and avoid aggressive styles of communication. Criticisms are often welcome, but ensure they are constructive.
2. The written word can be easily misinterpreted, so carefully consider your post's content before submitting. Consider how the post may be interpreted by others, especially if the content is directed towards a member, personally.
3. Try to avoid ambiguity and make an effort to use correct spelling and grammar. You will likely receive more constructive replies if you put some effort into your posts.
4. Abusive language, swearing and being aggressive will not be tolerated. See Rule 5.
5. The safety, health, and well-being of livestock is always number one. Be careful when adding CO2, chemicals to your aquariums. Also, UKAPS does not promote any experimental practices, or any other practice, that might put livestock in danger. Practices that might encourage other members to risk their livestock will be removed from the forum.
6. A three strikes rule is in force. Any transgressors to these Rules and Guidelines will receive two warnings via PM. Further inappropriate behaviour will result in a ban. Obvious 'spammers' and troublemakers will be banned immediately without warning.
7. Any complaints towards our Sponsors should be dealt with privately with the sponsor via PM, email or telephone, in the first instance. However, in the interest of maintaining transparency, a degree of free speech and to educate other members, you should feel able to leave feedback on products and service. Remember to be constructive in any feedback, as per Rule 1.
8. Any complaints regarding other, non-sponsor suppliers, manufacturers etc. should also be dealt with privately with the relevant party in the first instance. UKAPS do not wish to deal with potential libel cases. As always, be constructive in your feedback about products/services, one bad experience doesn't mean it's all bad.
9. The Sponsors are responsible for moderating their own sub-forums, but the Moderating Team will take action if seen necessary.
10. The Sponsors are politely requested to post exclusively in their own sub-forums. We recognize that the Sponsors have a wealth of knowledge worth sharing with the UKAPS membership, so would encourage the Sponsor to post under a pseudonym username.
11. Employees of aquatic retailers are not to promote or advertise their products and/or services without prior permission granted from the Administrators. However, they are welcome to contribute to the forum as a regular member.
12. Any personal issues with any UKAPS Member, Moderator, Admin or Founder should be dealt with privately via PM. Public displays of aggression and inappropriate comments are not acceptable. Refer to Rule 1 and 5.
13. Please do not register duplicate accounts just to ask the same questions over and over again, in the event you have forgotten your credentials of your old account or you no longer have access to the email, just contact UKAPS, and we will resolve the issue for you. You can always use the Contact Us button on the footer of the forum.
14. UKAPS wish to operate under a positive environment for the benefit of its Members and the planted aquarium hobby. The Founders, Admin and Moderating Team reserve the right to edit/move etc. post/threads with this in mind. However, if the above rules and guidelines are followed, then this should not be necessary.
We thank you for your co-operation.
The UKAPS Founders, Admin and Moderating Team
Thanks @Geoffrey Rea for posting that, sometimes it's worth reading those again, did take a long time to get those right, and my vision for UKAPS when all the Founders/Admins lost interesting in UKAPS and left me to it pretty much to handle on my own for over a decade, was to create a nice and peaceful environment for all members of all ages, genders, and walks of life.
I am getting a lot of flack lately, but I was the one insising on giving maq the benefit of the doubt regardless of some of the quirks if he kept it to his own threads, rather than go around being obnoxious in responses to everyone else, in the last 12 months I had at least 10 members asking for their accounts to be deteled because of responses they were getting to threads (had 1 in the previous 10 years), I have a lot of reports on messages which then we have to clean up or remove, I had members stating that they have ignored this member so they no longer have to see his posts/threads (which then also breaks up conversations in threads if some posts are hidden, not a great experience)
At the end of the day I am starting to feel like the bad cop here, and I am questioning if I am actually enjoying doing this any longer, I have been feeling this for a while now and will have to think about it a lot harder in the coming months!
We had to remove a member last year because of similar actions, creates a thread about an idea, no one engages with it and then goes spamming the forum, when questioned about it becomes abusive and plays the victim, such member is now badmouthing UKAPS elsewhere for not being open to new ideas, FFS I have always said YES show us your ideas, provided evidence, and let the members decide on it, but keep it to your own threads, but if members don't engage with your idea, don't go spamming the forum and creating confusion to new/existing members, this type of behaviour actually accentuates our decision for removing such member from UKAPS. Funny enough, no one as ever asked where those threads went, I did leave them up for a few months, then hide them!
For example, I don't use CO2, yet going and spam every post about CO2 negatively! If people want to use CO2 they have the right to do so! Every post about E.I. spams with negativity, people have a choice to use whatever they want to use, prove them wrong on your own thread! Most won't care if you can grow plants at PH4.0, a handful of people will!
Anyway, I am going to close this thread, if you want to discuss this any further I am always open to a chat in private, but for now the situation remains as is.
Edit Note: The restriction was not because of this thread, it was overall behaviour across the forum!
I am getting a lot of flack lately, but I was the one insising on giving maq the benefit of the doubt regardless of some of the quirks if he kept it to his own threads, rather than go around being obnoxious in responses to everyone else, in the last 12 months I had at least 10 members asking for their accounts to be deteled because of responses they were getting to threads (had 1 in the previous 10 years), I have a lot of reports on messages which then we have to clean up or remove, I had members stating that they have ignored this member so they no longer have to see his posts/threads (which then also breaks up conversations in threads if some posts are hidden, not a great experience)
At the end of the day I am starting to feel like the bad cop here, and I am questioning if I am actually enjoying doing this any longer, I have been feeling this for a while now and will have to think about it a lot harder in the coming months!
We had to remove a member last year because of similar actions, creates a thread about an idea, no one engages with it and then goes spamming the forum, when questioned about it becomes abusive and plays the victim, such member is now badmouthing UKAPS elsewhere for not being open to new ideas, FFS I have always said YES show us your ideas, provided evidence, and let the members decide on it, but keep it to your own threads, but if members don't engage with your idea, don't go spamming the forum and creating confusion to new/existing members, this type of behaviour actually accentuates our decision for removing such member from UKAPS. Funny enough, no one as ever asked where those threads went, I did leave them up for a few months, then hide them!
For example, I don't use CO2, yet going and spam every post about CO2 negatively! If people want to use CO2 they have the right to do so! Every post about E.I. spams with negativity, people have a choice to use whatever they want to use, prove them wrong on your own thread! Most won't care if you can grow plants at PH4.0, a handful of people will!
Anyway, I am going to close this thread, if you want to discuss this any further I am always open to a chat in private, but for now the situation remains as is.
Edit Note: The restriction was not because of this thread, it was overall behaviour across the forum!
Last edited:
- Status
