smidey

i tend to beleive a company/product with jager written on it.

surely the ratings of heaters must be uniformly tested (how they perform in normal conditions of use), if not throughout the industry it would be throughout a brand. If we put a tank in a room that is constantly colder than the tested conditions then obviously a larger heater will be required.

don't knock it till ya try it

lemon or passion fruit is good

i just received a 300W jager heater i ordered last week. I applied the 1 watt per litre theory so asked my LFS to get me a 300W jager. I have it & the box says its for tanks 600L to 1000L so that works out, at average 0.4W/litre (300W/800L). It may be best to see what size tank each heater is recommended for by its manufacturer as i'm sure they know more about it than we do.

did it say feeders on the bag?

i have a MTD ride-on, brilliant!

I have always mixed the clean up crew, i have loaches & algae eaters. The loaches i had in a community were skunk & clowns which tend to eat the left over food & let the GAE eat the algae. Now that i only have clowns the get all left over food, i haven't noticed a GAE eat food but that doesn't mean he doesn't.

they are nocturnal. i have found GAE to be a far better algae eater as i had wood in the tank & the BN pretty much stuck to eating that. Whether your tank is big enough for a GAE i am unsure, they get around my 4 footers pretty well.

how much stonework you have is up to you, some fish need/like it more than others. Lump heads are a particular one that ike to hide most of the time & when i remove rocks they hide where ever they can like the piping etc. I would recommend getting a GAE as alot of surface area will grow alot of algae. & as you are mad about clowns, they also mix well with africans

yeah & the people who spend that sort of coin tend to look after their stuff more to in general. I was with Pat Gavins for 8 years. At the end of the day if you take care of what you have it will last longer than if you don't.

its called MDF HMR (High moisture resistant) but its not that good, i made so many kitchens out of it for HNZC & they still swell etc, it just takes a little longer.

thats right, until you scratch it or constant wear takes off the sealer. The same theory applies to modern kitchen cabinetry, the PVC edges shouldn't let water in but we all know they do. theres no cost effective, perfect product (there is 1 but sooo expensive) for getting wet or preventing water damage, just some are better than others. I have a stand that has the plastic foil wrapped doors & panels which is very good at keeping the water out as there is only the back edge can get water in but it's not a perfect situation.

The cheapest material to use will be mdf, i would make the frame out of 100x50 wall framing timber & clad it with MDF & paint it. anything painted will scratch & possibly deteriorate quickly if not looked after though like anything else. If you can, use plywood instead of MDF, it is alot stronger & won't soak up anywhere near as much moisture as MDF but is also 3 times the price. MDF will absorb moisture, it is not pourous so will hold it & go "fluffy" & will continue to deteriorate over time so depending on how careful you are (we all get water on the stand from time to time whether it be drips or larger spills) you may need to replace panels in a couple of years which may also require emptying the tank & taking it off so maybe best to spend a bit more now & save hassle in the future. When i started i bought jebo heaters as they were cheap, after two years all the thermostats stopped working so i have replaced them all. I did get 1 second hand jager heater when i started & i have never had a problem with it & it still goes well, they cost alot more but really it is worth it getting good equipment first time if you can. here is DIY stand instructions that will help http://cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_stand.php

:lol: i deal with building & house plans everyday, been in the building industry for 13 years & you clearly don't understand building materials or construction at all from those comments. what holds up the walls that hold up the roof? the floor structure supports the whole building so a fish tank will be fine. a tank that weighs 800kg & is 2.1m long will have a weight of 380kg per metre of tank. that is less than standing four 100kg people very close together in a line.

don't worry about your floor unless your house is really old & it isn't stable when you stand on it. Your setup will most likely weigh around 800kg, get 8 or 10 large adults to stand where you want to put it & get them to jump up & down. This will look quite funny & i'm have no doubt that it will be fine. Your roof is alot heavier than this & it only has walls to hold it up, they don't spread the weight accross the entire floor, feet on the cabinet will be fine.

I built a spud gun (spouting, reducer, end cap & bbq lighter) for my cousin to use as a tennis ball launcher for his hyper active hunting dog. It works really well, sends the ball between 75 & 100 metres at a guess & after 5 launches or so the dog is tired & doesn't want to play.

some heaters are not to be fully submersed so they couldm't be horizontal. it must depend on brands, mine had no mention in the instructions of being verticle.

its not necessarily right but i have had success with it for 3 years now & it also makes sense to me. the thing with fishkeeping is that there are many common views but also many differing views of how to do various things.

it makes sense to me to have them on an angle close to or completely horizontal as the element then heats up in a wider band, if the heater is verticle the heat will head up the heater & be less effective IMO but that will also depend on how much flow or current there is in your tank. Also the thermostats are generally between the heater coil & the top of the heater so if it were upright the thermostat may sense it to be warmer than the rest of the tank as the water around the heater will be warmer.

if you can use plywood instead of MDF but that will cost more. Plywood is much stronger & won't be anywhere near as bad as MDF for water damage. here's a link to some great DIY stand instructions http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_stand.php

they're peacocks, here's the full article http://www.backtonature.se/interzoo2006.html

huh?

if it wasn't for venetian blinds it would be curtains for all of us!

so wheree's the pics? I would like to see some