smidey

nice, keep us posted.

very true!

here's a pic of one of my tanks with a black background

i prefer white crushed marble for mine

it doesn't in an african tank usually because they turn it over a lot

nice cab si, very well done!

i have 5 verts, mine is 2.0m long and i used 70x45 timber so its longer, less verts and smaller timber. With 100x50 on its flat I would go 4 as the tank is not going to point load on any of the horizontal framing, especially once you have a sheet of MDF/PLY/PB and poly on it.

if those are 140mm pieces in Si's stand, they are rated (loaded dimension of 6m) as being able to span 1.4m as a window lintel for a house with a concrete tile roof, 1.7m for a longrun steel roof so you could likely be safe to park your car on Si's stand.

having two pieces of timber like that creates a beam which allows you to spread the legs out further. my legs are 500mm apart and the timber is 70x45 for the platform and 70x35 for the legs. no lip, do you mean around the base of the tank?

just turned it over, i did add the bracing at the ends after that pic. it is 800mm to the top of the particle board.

here's how i did my 2.0m one http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=48784&hilit=+tank+stand

what are the tank dimensions? So you think they are dying due to illness rather than aggression? I feed NLS and Novorift and have had no issues so I don't have any ideas of why it is happening apart from the tank being too small. yes, that's me. Did you get pemba from me?

i haven't kept ikola but have had a few of the others. from what i have understood ikola are the most agro of all of the trophs. what size is your tank and what ornaments, rocks or plants have you got in it? the fish that have been dying, have they been beaten or damaged? what are you feeding? how many litres is your tank and what is the filter? what the males fight for is territory which gives them a place to court and breed with females. I have set up two separate areas at either end of my tank with an open area in the middle, what this did was give more areas for males to claim as their own, i used to have rocks scattered across teh tank and a male would try to claim an area next to another and that would create a lot of fighting.

critters, ah well trophs it is!

that was cool, then i watched the shaun quincey doco, brilliant.

sweet, nice work

where's the plants?

you can think what you like, just as i do. from my experience, i believe the substrate to be very beneficial for keeping the water conditions good. maybe my fry won't survive, i only have over 300 of one species that have survived with very few losses so what would i know? :lol: what i do has worked perfectly so far so i won't be changing anything.

and when you time the surface area of the bottom of my tank by the thickness of the substrate and multiply that by the surface area of each chip..... that will be a big number. if we take bio rings in a canister, there is a cup full i guess in my CF canister. there must be a hundred of cup of bio rings to cover the base of the tank.

i'm not convinced a 7L bucket with what ever in it can be better that 0.9m2 of tank bottom covered in substrate for harbouring good bacteria. each to their own. it certainly would be interesting to get a hard-fast fact to it.

thanks. i'm not that happy with the vid, the colours are all over the place and it looks a lot better in person.

my border collie is brilliant with all dogs, he is so gentle with my mates 9 week old pup its amazing.

i haven't actually observed any, just being cautious i regularly start small tanks for fry and put the fry in immediately. I use a new filter, water and substrate from an established tank and have never had any issues, the only times i have had issues was when i didn't put any substrate in. I don't know the sciences of it, just know what my experiences have been. we can get info from books etc that state "X" but if you have had "Y" experience regularly then you have to learn from that.

the substrate used to be the filter before canister etc, i doubt that just because the flow of water no longer consistently passes through the substrate the bacteria would no longer live in it. the africans are great at turning over the substrate so there are very few gas pockets in the tanks i have kept and the white marble chip i have for substrate is always very clean. it is all good discussion on our theories. not for a 4 footer, the spray bars will make plenty set up right. a powerhead will be to much.

wool will help, i haven't used it for years because the aqua one pads seem to do a good job. my tank is 2.0m