Damo

Hi Guys, That is really helpful and I appreciate it very much. I have planned the construction in minute detail and will set everything up before hand and I'll have a few friends over to help too. Hopefully it'll all go smoothly. I am just working on my final measurements for the glass now. By the way, how should I ask the glaziers to finish the edges? Cheers, Damo.

Thanks Alan. I'm using 10mm low iron glass and black silicone which I have on it's way from overseas. When you did yours, did you find that much pressure was needed to squeeze the silicone into place, eg. flat, even and to the right thickness of the 1mm you allowed for it? Thanks, Damo.

Hi, I have finally got my stand finished and it's looking awesome! I am now about to order my glass soon and need to know this. How much space do I leave for the thickness of the silicone? As the front and back will extend over the sides, the sides will need to be cut slightly smaller to allow room for the silicone. I'd presume about 1.5mm for each join? Is that right? Is there any way to know for sure? Tank is goins to be 1500 long by 500 wide by 700 tall. Thanks, Damo.

Well regardless of your age I say go for it! My advice thought would be for you to speak to an imported and see if they will quarantine the fish for you for a fee, even see if they will organise the import and paperwork, MAF details etc... Work out all costings based on vairous numbers of fish, varying fatality rates (you have to expect anything) and that way you'll figure out how many to import or what you can afford. When you have those exact details THEN you might want to try and get some buyers. If I was you I'd only try and take orders for half the fish you want to sell incase of deaths or Maf destruction. You'll probably find that you'll need a lot of money but you could offset the expense by getting whowever quarantines them to take some fish as part of the deal or sell them for you. You should also bear in mind that it is only recently that people have been trying to breed them and not always successfully. So in short, you might want to get all fine details ironed out before making offers to the forum. I hope you can do it! Damo.

Maybe try making a fly trap? We were in Dunedin last week and went to see the albatross where the rangers protect the eggs and chicks with these. They are jars filled with attractant with tops that let the flies in. The attractant they used was Speights but I'm sure any beer would work, even a nasty North Island beer. I guess the flies go down to the beer , get all wet and can't fly out? They use these outside and apparently they are effective so it may be worth a try. Should be even more effective inside. Damo.

Thanks for the info. I'm getting very keen now and will do the sides and front. Back is going to be painted so I'll think about that. The scratching hopefully wont be an issue, I don't expect it'll get scratched at all. Cheers!

Thanks for your replies. I have done everything the best I can so far with this tank and have gone to some extra-ordinary measures so far so I'd like to use the clearest possible glass. The cost doesn't really concern me either. Another $100 or so wouldn't add a huge percentage to the total bill. I might see if people like Glasstech have the specs on such glass concerning the strength and durability. Cheers, Damo.

Hi, Shortly I will be getting the glass cut for my tank. I am aware that glass is available with different iron contents. I think the low iron glass is very much clearer than ordinary glass and doesn't have the slight green appearance. I was wanting to know if I could use this for the front of my tank? Does anyone know if it is as strong? More or less brittle? Tank is to be 1500(L) x 50(W) x 70(H), glass 10mm. Any help would be much appreciated! Cheers, Damo.

Maybe adding a gusset along that edge on the inside. Maybe just get a strip of thick glass (10mm maybe) and seal it down to the base so it's edge adds support to the side. I Think I'd get a razor blade and remove old excess silicone there first so that you have more glass surface to bond too. Damo.

I just had a quick look on google and searched 'suction cap glass lifting'. There are a few UK websites that had things listed there but when I limited the search to NZ websites there wasn't much. One site I found mentioned somewhere was 'rubbermark.co.nz'. Their website didn't mention anything although it may pay to give them an email and ask. Regards, Damo.

Hi, I have found some gravel in Punakaiki which I have brought home for the tank I am building. It looks great! It's mainly dark with some various coloured light stones and all quite small and very round. Obviously it'll have some shell fragments in it which will alter the water chemistry. Will it be too much calcium? Will it make too much difference? Does anyone know how to either get it out or how to nuetralise the effect it'll have. Damo.

Once in Hong Kong my colleagues and I were at dinner at a restaurant that had a large horseshoe crab in the tank. Myself and another friend tried to buy it but the manager wouldn't sell it. The offered price kept creeping up and we eventually offered about $300 NZ! He still said no. Later when I talked to my friend about it he wanted to release it into the harbour!?! I wanted to eat it! I thought this great old pre-historic crab would be interesting to taste. Cheers, Damo.

Thanks for all your input. Having not had fish for a few years and even then only a little experience with them really, it's quite daunting trying to figure out the best things to buy. There are 3 Eheim models that interest me. The 2028, 2229 and 2329. The 2329 being a wet/dry filter with a heater. I was going to use 2 heaters in my tank, one as a back up but with this filter it would mean I'd only need one other heater (less clutter in the tank). What I'd really like to know is , am I better of with the wet/dry trickle filter? Can anyone tell me? It's for a 420 litre community tank. Bolivian rams, kribs, Rainbows, gouramies etc... Maybe some tetras, corydoras cats, pleco's. Cheers, Damo.

Hi, I have been looking into buying an Eheim filter from overseas. Can anyone tell me if they've had experience with that and if there are any pitfalls to watch out for. I have found a good price from a German website. I'd rather support a local shop but it seems to me I can save a lot of money importing it. Also, I wonder how the fresh and saltwater models vary. Just in case I wanted to use it for salt later on, can they be altered to do either? Damo.