Tropical Fish Forum

Think Fish Website => What's going on at Thinkfish => Topic started by: Think Fish (Peter) on September 19, 2012, 01:57:06 PM

Title: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on September 19, 2012, 01:57:06 PM
For those who are not aware, the 'Community Creator' (CC) was a program on the old site which allowed you to put fish species together in a list, and the CC would tell you if those fish had any problems (e.g. one would nip at the other or something)
I am currently finishing of the brief and layout for the new Community Creator. I will then pay for a programmer to develop the code to run the system (and then spend ages inputting all the data. Hopefully we should have the Community Creator back in the next couple of weeks.

In the new system I will be integrating it with a fish search system, so we will be able to search for fish based on size, plant safe, region, etc.. as well as only search for fish compatible with those saved in our lists. There will be a login to save lists as before, as well as an improved stocking calculator and warnings on fish sizes.
The only bits I will remove are the temperature and hardness errors, as I think these are a subject of debate.

Any ideas for features wanted in the new CC would be welcome! ;D
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: aaronmelanie on September 20, 2012, 11:19:04 AM
I think the CC needs to be a bit more conservative. It was a bit liberal with fish stocking.

I think a more comprehensive CC would be excellent as well, with most tropical and coldwater fish listed.
I think a good addition as well would be color coded fish.

Green = Easy
Blue = Medium, needs some research
Red  = Hard, recommended only for experienced fishkeepers, or has needs which are beyond the avg. keeper.

So an example would be, Xiphophorus maculatus, Platy

Also I think different shrimp and inverts should all have specific pages.

I think also, some fish should have a minimum tank LENGTH. Some fish can live in a 400l tank, but that tank is 2 foot long and massively tall, which isn't at all ideal for that fish.

Also is there any way to maybe get some biotope info's going? For people who may want their fish in a local familiar environment?
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Sue on September 20, 2012, 12:04:49 PM
I agree with aaronmelanie about taking tank length into consideration. At one time, the CC asked for the tank dimensions rather than volume. As an example, zebra danios are small enough and have a low enough bioload for a small tank, but their behaviour needs a tank with at least 3 ft swimming length.

Something that was asked several times on the old forum - what is the difference between an internal/external filter and an oversized internal/external? Perhaps an explanation could be given of the difference. I use an internal filter in my 125 litre tank that is rated for 160 to 240 litre tanks, though I don't consider it to be oversized. Maybe I should!
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on September 20, 2012, 07:49:00 PM
A few good points.

Most people think the stocking calculator was a bit liberal and I spent a lot of time fighting battles about it before! The previous stocking calculator was more realistic and accurate for many reasons, but many people did not like it!
However, being stubborn won't help me so I have to listen to the majority and I think the solution might be simply to have two stocking values with a FAQ icon to explain the difference. (I will use FAQ icons throughout the CC to explain different bits.)

Re Color Coding:
I have seen countless systems with color coding which don't work. Most shops have color coded labels which don't work. The problem with many fish is that they are too complex to fit into such tight categories. Typical examples are things like Guppies which are considered easy and would be a green, but they are also prone to bacterial problems so are actually not a great fish to start with. Also fish like Black Neons which are peaceful and will mix with anything, but put them with a male guppy and theres a good chance they will nip the guppy.
In this case we have two easy to keep, peaceful, small, 'green' fish which don't get along.
However, there are some fish which have virtually no issues, like white cloud minnows, and it would be good to mark these out as good starter fish.

Minimum length:
This definately needs doing. I can do a simple system whereby you enter tank Length and Volume. Volume can be used to work out stocking while length can be used to work out a max fish size. I wont do width, height etc.. or it gets too crowded.
The CC originally worked out volume from tank dimensions, but of course this only worked for rectangular tanks, so it got switched to just asking for volume

Shrimps & Inverts
These def need more detailing

Biotope,
I will introduce a new search system which will have search by region

Filters are a tricky issues, since one of the factors which determines your stocking level is the quality of your filter, but all filters rated at a certain volume are not equal. The adjustment of filter type is what increased stocking level above the base norm. I will keep this but attempt to explain it better.

I have been working on the layout template so I will try and get this done and then everyone can have a look at the  non-functioning template page.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Chucklett on September 21, 2012, 09:53:01 AM
Hi Peter,

Ive not had time to check out the site properly, but its great to have ThinkFish back online!

My tuppenceworth...... When I set up my new tank, I wanted to stock large shoals of only a few different species of small fish. Cardinal Tetras and Dwarf Chain Loaches were both a definite must-have. I wanted something yellow to go with them. Maybe its just me, but at that time it would have been very handy to be able to search by colour then eliminate according to size/compatability. I realise this may not be feasible given that one fish can be all sorts of colours or come in different colours... but its just a thought!

(I ended up with Forktail Rainbows, by the way)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: marjanb021 on September 22, 2012, 01:11:24 PM
Community creator was one of the best aquarium software I used. I hope that the new one will be even better. Good luck! :)

I' also think that is a good idea to add Color Code. To avoid problems, you can add additional colors (for example add Beginners fish), so we have e.g:
Light green - Beginner fish
Dark green - Easy to keep
Orange - Medium, needs some research
Red - Hard to keep

Beside of length I also think that is very important height of tank for some fish species e.g. Angelfish, Discus etc.

About a size of filter I think that would be maybe a good idea to define what you can consider with a oversized. Maybe give some percent directive or request from user to add type of filter and his volume.

I forgot to say that there's a very small fishes that they are very territorial (not aggressive) and require much more space then other fishes of the same size like some Dwarf Cichlids, so I think that they must have much bigger stock size number, and the number of that fishes must be in relation due tank dimensions unlike some schooling fishes that when they are together not require much space (mean stock size, tank dimensions also should not be ignored), but here is very important number of schools.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: peter on September 22, 2012, 03:50:28 PM
I have been very impressed by the community creator.The volume of my tank is about 80 litres taking into account the depth of gravel. I am running a fluval roma 90 with a eheim ecco pro 130 so the filter is oversized but not double the volume so i would say it is normal external filter by sites community creator. The tank is heavily planted with a small amount of swimming space, however most of the fish prefer to swim within the plants. Stock is mostly ten Cardinal, three lemon and ten rummynose tetra. There are five peppered cory, one bristlenose and a bolivian ram.There is a SAE who doesn't really belong, but he gets along fine. I would never have risked such a heavily stocked tank without using the community creator. I was very sceptical at first, my local fish shop thought calculator was much to generous so i bought test kits. I test for ammonia, ph and nitrite. Ph is always at the max but that is because i live in a hard water area, fish don't seem to mind rummynose have red running from nose to well past gills a good indicator of water quality. Ammonia and nitrite are always zero. I think the plants help along with the external filter. I usually do a 20% water change once a week but this sometimes stretches to two weeks. Ammonia and nitrite have never registered on API test kits. I am intending to add more lemon tetra soon as the three i have are quite old and three have recently been lost to old age. I calculated my stock with a volume of 75 litres which gave me a maximum stock level of 128cm. The stock level sizes seem sensible as small tetas I have being calculated 1cm smaller than their actual size, allowing for more fish. Be interesting to hear if you think plants help. I believe they help use up fish waste and excess food. I am looking forward to using the new community creator.  I would like to see more clarity on filters though as to oversize/ standard efficiency etc. I have read that although eheims are rated lower they are more efficient due to flow rates etc. Great site, hope it's fully operational soon
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on September 22, 2012, 08:55:43 PM
Just a quick pointer on stocking levels etc..
I plan to use the same stocking calculations as I've used on the new calculator section on this page:
http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/calculators/stockinglevel.html

There is some explanation there about the various methods, although Im not sure how clear I've made it. The problem I have is trying to explain it all in as brief a way as possible - I find if I waffle on for ages, users will tend to switch off, so any explanation has to be as 'short and sweet' as possible!

The method used in this calculator is basically the same as was used in the previous CC, although some of the problems with apparent overstocking occurred because I adjusted a fishes stocking size based on its overall size to account for food consumption and waste production. For instance I would have a Neon which may grow to 3cm and just give it a stock size of 2cm in the CC (because it is very small and produces very little waste) where'as something bigger like a large Cichlid which grows to 30cm I would give a stock size of 40cm.
This adjustment made it easier to apparently 'overstock' with small fish. In reality there was no overstocking because the aquariums rate of waste production would remain much lower with small fish than if you had the same total length of larger fish. (10 x 3cm Neons consume and produce less than one 30cm fish)

Although the adjustment for size gives a more accurate result I think I will not use it this time around to avoid confusion and general comments about being over generous!

I'll try and get the mock-up finished with some FAQ type explanations and then post the link here to see what you guys think - Many thanks for the continued suggestions and advice!  :D
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Sue on September 23, 2012, 12:58:55 PM
In the old forum I used to tell newcomers to fish keeping to stock at about three quarters of what the CC said they could have. This was mainly because a newly set up tank, even if it was fishless cycled, is not the same as a mature tank. In my opinion, tanks should not be stocked to their maximum till they've been running trouble free for at least six months. By this time, the new fishkeeper has also gained experience in both tank maintenance and knowledge. Telling them to stock less keeps them out of trouble.
Would you agree with this, stocking lightly for the first few months of a tank's life? Maybe include it in the faq's if you do?

Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on September 23, 2012, 04:53:12 PM
Great minds think alike Sue!
I have added different stocking recommendations based on tank age to the list. The CC will suggest a Max stocking level and a level for tank age (0-1 months, 1-3 months, 3-6 months) - these will equate to
0-1 months - 20% of max stocking
1-3 months - 40% of max stocking
3-6 months - 60% of max stocking
 :)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Sue on September 23, 2012, 05:07:05 PM
Do these percentages take into account the method of cycling? Obviously with fish-in cycling you can only get a few fish to start the cycle or the ammonia would build up so fast you wouldn't be able to keep on top of it. But what about fishless cycling? Again, this depends on what you used to grow the bacteria. Using fish food, it is sensible to stock slowly as you can't know just how many bacteria have grown.
But using ammonia, you grow enough bacteria to deal with the waste from more than a tank full of fish; the value of 5ppm was chosen so that the tank can be stocked 100% as soon as the tank is cycled. But I'm not happy with that because of the lack of other micro-organisms found in a mature tank - which is why I used to say to stop at 75% even with fishless cycling. Stocking at 20% immediately after fishless cycling with ammonia is a bit on the conservative side!
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on September 24, 2012, 10:07:07 PM
You can now see a draft of the layout on the page below:

http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/fish/ccdemopage.html

Please note that nothing actually works yet, and the info is all 'filler' but you can see the icons which give an explanation of whats what. Also take a look at the search options for the fish database.
Tip: on the black bar header for the fish profile is the tab for 'Fish Search' (I might make this clearer)

Sue - take a look at the Tip info on stocking levels, I have put a note in about fishless cycle. (The black tip boxes don't let me put links in unfortunately, so i cant link to anything.)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Chucklett on September 25, 2012, 11:57:14 PM
Im loving it!

I love the idea of having a picture of the fish alongside its name. When I was researching fish for my new tank, I added the ones I liked to the CC then went through the process of elimination - but I had to keep going back to the fish profile to remind myself of what each one looked like.

To have a stocking guide as the tank matures (0-1 month etc) is a great addition to help people slowly/safely stock their new tanks and I love the "current stocking level" showing the percentage as well as cm this time. I dont remember there being a "recommended list of fish for your tank" on the old CC, nor a column showing "stock cm" for each species added - both are excellent additions.

With regards to the tank volume:  In the "volume calculator" tool, you say to take off 10% to allow for decor. Is 10% enough? My 200 litre tank has average decor (couple inches gravel, light-medium planted, large chunk wood, small cave) so following the 10% "rule" I always guesstimated it to be 180 litres, yet it actually holds about 150 - 160 (I counted the buckets when I moved the tank!)
When putting a raised terrace in my 240 litre tank, I knew I would be losing valuable water volume, but figured the bigger tank allowed for it - even so, I was surprised to find that it too actually holds about 160 litres of water.

Also, the infamous "oversized" filter definition! Your guide is that the filter should be one rated for at least twice that of the tank. Is that twice the overall tank volume, or twice the actual water volume?
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: DARRELL on September 26, 2012, 08:02:10 PM
Quote
When putting a raised terrace in my 240 litre tank, I knew I would be losing valuable water volume, but figured the bigger tank allowed for it - even so, I was surprised to find that it too actually holds about 160 litres of water.

wow!! loosing 80 litres to decor sounds a lot!!  Makes me wonder what my tank actually holds
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on September 26, 2012, 08:19:58 PM
Of course the other thing to consider is that quite a few tank manufacturers will quote the volume of the tank based on the measurements, which in some cases means right to the top of the hood. In reality of course we don't fill right to the top and there is normally a few inches space for lights etc..

In such a case a 200 litre tanks becomes a 180 litre once you take the hood space into account, then its 170 litre once you allow for gravel displacement, then its 150 once you account for bogwood, rocks etc.. 

I suppose really the only way to measure properly is to measure it as you fill. I might make a note to that effect on the calculator.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: SteveS on September 29, 2012, 03:12:54 AM
You can now see a draft of the layout on the page below:

http://www.thinkfish.co.uk/fish/ccdemopage.html

Can we have some way of searching for fish that have matching requirements.  For example fish that require hard or soft water, or fish that require certain temperatures or pH or certain tank sizes or ... maybe, for chucklett, yellow ones ;D
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: TigzFish on October 01, 2012, 11:08:33 PM
I'd just like to to chip-in about the CC.  As a first-timer to fish keeping the CC was like a pot of gold for me.  With the very excellent theories about stocking levels, the CC and especially the Tankmates feature gave me a huge leap forward in discovering what fish to buy and what not to touch.

Without those features I would have been lost for a place to start, never mind actually being able to put a list of candidates together.

It is awesome, and can't wait to see it back up and running again.  I have not seen any other site with such a feature.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on October 02, 2012, 07:15:13 AM
Quick update - Had a meeting with an app developer/brother of a old friend last night and the programming for the new CC is now officially underway.

- No search on colours im afraid.

- pH and hardness matching has been removed for simplicity/newbie reasons (but i'll keep it in mind when doing errors if anyone tries to mix dwarf cichlids with malawis etc.)

- CC will have a funky new search feature to search only for fish compatible with those already selected in your list

- Each fish will have 'recommended' tankmates and these will be used to create a 'recommended fish list' for each combination of fish. I.E. if you had three fish in your list, and they all shared the same 'recommended fish', that fish would appear as a recommendation for your tank. So not quite matching requirements, but should serve a similar purpose.

- Errors will be colour coded for importance. Mixing Neons and Oscars would be a red (Nooooo!). Suggesting more Neons if you only had 4 would be a light yellow (Maybe you could...) I also have green, but im not sure what i'll use that for, probably suggestions like making sure floating cover available for hatchetfish.

I've said I want it done in two weeks, I think it will probably be done in three!
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Cheryl on October 21, 2012, 07:02:09 PM
Can't wait, I've had to re register as I'd forgotten my details as I've not been on for a while. Loved the new look and then panicked because I couldn't see the CC. So glad it's making a return.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Sue on October 21, 2012, 07:08:28 PM
We've all had to re-register  :). When the old forum went, so did all the membership details.


I'm also waiting to see what the new CC has to offer. Interesting that on another forum I use, someone has asked can't they do a searchable fish database, one which allows you to search for what is compatible with what etc. Sound familiar? If Peter (the owner here) can manage it, the other forum should too  :)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on November 03, 2012, 06:16:30 PM
Quick update!
First test of the new CC just carried out - still bits not working properly but it looks like it wont be long now. Hopefully just a week or so.

I've also discovered that the company which I used to use for sending out newsletters still had my email list on file, which probably has quite a few of the old forum members on it. I think its at least a year and a half old but once the new CC is running I'll use it to send a mass-email out so hopefully we can regain some of the lost crowd!  :)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on November 20, 2012, 10:52:07 PM
Finally we are getting close!

Just another update - Got the database and everything now working live on the site and going through testing. At the moment there are no conflicts in the database, but stuff like stocking levels etc.. is basically working.

The new funky search system is also working, but again missing data for each fish so the results are not correct. I know this has been a long time coming >:( so I will be up all night tonight getting the data loaded on.

If any of you lot want to have a 'sneak preview' and root around, just pick a fish from the main menu and in the URL where it is "/fish2/fishname" just delete the "2" so its /fish/fishname and you should see it all

Like I said, this is not yet ready for public viewing and missing data, but at least we are now hours away and not months or weeks... ;D
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Mart86 on November 21, 2012, 08:59:04 PM
Had a look at the new CC it's really good especially the search function  ;D Av noticed the fish actual size and stock size is now the same, will this stay like this or is it going back to the old CC version way e.g 4cm cardinal tetra is 2cm stock size which when you read the explanation why you did this makes a lot more sense. Same with the cm per litre rule it's a lot lower than before, will this stay like this or will this go back to old CC version way. I know people thought the old version way was too much but when you read the information on the q&a sections it made a lot more sense than the old out of date rule of 1in per gallon.

Cart wait till its fully finished! The old CC helped me out a lot when I got my first tank. I've just bought a new tank last month so Hopefully the new CC will help me out again. Thanks Think fish.  :)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Don on November 21, 2012, 10:28:46 PM
Hi peter had a bit of a beta test i guess on the new cc. Liking the look and set up. A couple of things, firstly how many more fish profiles do you have to load?

Secondly i added my tank length as 64cm as its a 25 inch custom cube so i put in the volume as 255ltrs. This gave me a max fish lenth of 11cm which seems a bit short. Is the tank required to be 6 times the length of the fish? This could also imply that height and depth are not important as as long as volume and length are correct eg wall tanks.
Also i added clown plecs to my tank as it was closest to my l260 plecs (not expecting to have a database full of rarer plecs) and it said in there profile minimum tank length 60 cm but it was telling me they would get to big for my tank as my maximum fish size was 11cm, however stocking was in the yellow for the fish i added. I am guessing that length of fish is proportinal to tank length and stocking to fish length and filtration but it could be confusing of maximum fish length does not match min tank length in fish profile.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on November 21, 2012, 10:46:31 PM
Hi Guys

Mart - Yes there will be two sizes, a "max size" which is the size the fish could get to (e.g. cherry barb 5cm) and a "typical size", which the fish will most likely get to (e.g. cherry barb 3cm)
The Typical size will be used for stocking which will give us a more realistic stocking figure, without upsetting to many people!

Don - Yes, there is going to be an issue with odd shape tanks like picture frames, Unfortunately to keep everything working properly I had to keep things as simple as possible. As time goes on I will make refinements, and put notes about thin tanks in the Info rollover icons. The rule is tank length / 6 = max fish size, however the fish length will be "typical" as mentioned above, so there is a bit of give.

Regarding the stock level v's fish size issue - this will be set up to address a long running gripe by many that the old CC would let you put something like an Oscar or Common Plec in a 60cm tank as there were no length restrictions. (even though there was a note stating that tank size was not accounted for)

Good point with max fish length not matching max tank size in the profile - I will have to go through the fish and see what matches up.

At the moment there are no completed profiles on the system - just fish profile data from the old database.
However, I've got an unlimited supply of teabags, hot water, and milk, and I'm about to start...
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Don on November 22, 2012, 06:35:50 AM
Brilliant sounds like its really coming together know cant wait for the finished thing. Good luck with the profiles sounds like a herculian task.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Ironside on November 25, 2012, 11:53:34 PM
just want to say that the Community Creator helped me a lot with my first tank over 2 years ago, just like it helped a lot of others. i now have a 240 litre tank and i am like a kid at christmas waiting for the new improved Community Creator.
thanks to peter for creating this informative helpful feature
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: TigzFish on January 03, 2013, 05:48:10 PM
Question mainly for Peter I think.  I added my aquarium and stock into the CC after you released the latest version and it looked pretty much as previously discussed on the old forum with Sue.

The old CC gave me a max fish length of 76.8cm which was manually adjusted according to Sue's suggestion (80% of that) making it 62cm.

On opening the new CC in early December 2012, the recommendation was 60cm. I look now and it reads a whopping 102cm! I'm wondering whether something has gone wrong in the algorithms because I could not imagine adding that level in my 60cm 64Ltr tank, even with the Fluval 105 external filter (100Ltr capacity).
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: mrp636 on January 08, 2013, 09:05:30 PM
Had the same issue where it recommended vastly understocking my tank.
Read here:
http://thinkfish.co.uk/article/stocking-levels-for-tropical-aquarium-fish.html

Think they've been hard at work trying to finalise the CC
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on January 09, 2013, 07:10:29 AM
Hi Tigz,

Sorry for the delay - I started answering your post straight away but got carried away and ended up re-doing the whole stocking article! Well done mrp636 for spotting it!

Still ironing out the last few issues with the CC - stocking was one. The "recommended fish" is not working at the moment, and for some reason there are a few fish which don't obey the search rules (E.g. ram which is 4cm doesn't come up when you search for fish under 5cm!)

Stocking is always an odd issue because whether it seems 'too high' or 'too low' often depends on what fish you have in mind. 4x 25cm fish (say, big cichlids) would need a big 120/150cm tank, 20x 5cm fish (say, a group of tetras), would be fine in a 60cm tank. Both use a stocking level of 100cm!

I'll put a direct link to the stocking article from the CC, as I can imagine it must have confused a few people with the change in results.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: TigzFish on January 10, 2013, 12:27:23 PM
Thanks Peter, I've managed to spend a little time to revisit and read the refreshed article.  Makes a lot more sense now I've read it again.
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: ColinB on January 20, 2013, 10:46:10 AM
mmmm - the CC seems to have hit a problem in loading properly. Is it just my 'pooter or are others having similar difficulties?
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Sue on January 20, 2013, 12:33:33 PM
I've just checked and I don't have a problem loading my two tanks in there.

Just a thought - are you trying to access though the link on the menu bar or via a fish profile?
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on January 20, 2013, 01:21:33 PM
Hi ColinB,

Your post alerted me to have a look and it wouldn't load properly on my machine either. I've had someone fixing some bugs on it last night and it looks like they mis-named a file!
All it takes in one letter in capitals instead of lower case and the whole thing goes down!! Anyway, I think i've fixed it now!

Thanks!
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on January 20, 2013, 01:25:46 PM
Looks like I spoke too soon! Search system is now broken! I'm on the case...
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: mrp636 on January 23, 2013, 11:02:33 AM
Is a water temperature range guide something that could be added to the CC or is that something that's not very practical?
Ie if u have 3 different fish species in the tank, eg at temps of 18-26, 22-28 and 24-30 it recommends a tank range of 24-26 to accommodate all fish.
Ps, I'm not anal... ;D
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on January 23, 2013, 01:47:32 PM
In the previous version of the CC there was a temperature recommendation (and hardness) but it wasn't that useful in practical terms - 95% of tropical fish are okay within the range of 24-26 so it would always just end up recommending 24-26 as your temperature range!
The few exceptions are things like discus (warmer water), and maybe cooler water preference fish like White Cloud Minnows. For the cooler species we have added a 'search for fish suitable for unheated tanks' option.

The problem I always have is trying to keep it simple whilst being as useful as possible. Maybe for version 3.0 (coming 2025  ;) ) I'll finally get the layout right and we can fit all these things in!
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: a_llusive on June 11, 2013, 05:32:56 PM
How do I find a saved (named) tank? ??? I'm trying to consider some alternative setups but can't find my saved tanks (plus noticed a few fish from the previous site, such as Bronze Corys, have vanished).
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Think Fish (Peter) on June 11, 2013, 05:38:12 PM
Hi a_llusive,

Once you log-in to the Community Creator, you can select your tank from the 'load another tank' menu. However, if you are referring to tanks saved in the previous Community Creator (Before June 2012) Unfortunately those details were lost during the sites rebuild
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: a_llusive on June 18, 2013, 10:54:29 AM
Thanks. This may sound completely daft but where is the CC login?
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Wild Rover on December 12, 2013, 11:50:09 PM
Hi, I sent an email  but got no reply re lack of Corys in the planner, only two small ones (Panda and Salt & Pepper) when the majority sold in shops are bigger ones such as Bronze and Sterba's, (which are also the two most owned) makes it hard to plan having Cory's.

Also, every time I refresh the page or move to another topic and back again, my stock list has gone and I have to log in again.
 
Great tool though :)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Sue on December 13, 2013, 08:30:22 AM
I have also wondered about the lack of cories. On the old site there were larger cories, grouped together as one, but they don't seem to have made the move to the new site last year.

Re losing all your data, have you signed in to the Community Creator? You do have to register separately from the main forum. Once you've logged in to the CC you can then save your stock list till you chose to change/delete it. You can save up to 10 tanks, very useful for trying out totally diffferent stocking for a new tank.


Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Wild Rover on December 14, 2013, 11:27:42 PM
Hi Sue, sorry but maybe I wasn't clear, I don't actually lose the data but every time I move to another page, ie the forum and then go back to the CC I have to log in again to retrieve my saved stock list.

Did you see my vid? Restored my faith after so many earlier setbacks  :)
Title: Re: Community Creator - Let me know your thoughts
Post by: Sue on December 15, 2013, 12:45:24 PM
Sorry, I did misunderstand.

Just been checking - if I go to any other website, so long as I don't close my web browser, I'm still logged in to the CC when I go back to it. If I close my web browser, then open it again, I'm logged out.

Though when I use the CC, I usually leave that open in one tab and open new tabs for everything else.



Edit.
2:15pm, 1 h 30 mins later - left my laptop on another website while I got lunch, washed up, etc though I did close the lid. Just come back to check and I'm logged out. I wonder if it's a time thing?
I have logged in again, and this time clicked the 'remember me' button. I'll wait a couple of hours and see what happens.

Edit 2.
3 o'clock and depsite clicking remember me, I'm logged out. Had my laptop open and Firefox loaded all the time since my last edit. There must be a time limit on being logged in.