KerryO

Thanks for the answers, I am busy working on it. At the moment I'm busy building the artificial rock wall for the back of the tank, to hide pipes etc. I'm not sure what gravel to use in the bottom, my original plan was to use a darker small, smooth pebble, in order to hide algae staining, (as opposed to lighter colours) and to keep it visually low key so as to not detract attention away from the fish and plants. Now that I have started building my wall, I have found that it is very easy and attractive, to just have a natural looking rock, similar to moss rock that you would use for garden walls. The trouble now, is that the smooth dark pebbles would not look like they had naturally eroded, and fallen from the wall to the bottom of the tank. In fact it would look totaly phoney. I notice on the net that a lot of people use sand in the bottom of their tanks. This would look more natural with my wall, but to compound my problem further, I have purchased an Eheim through flow under gravel filter. While these don't actually filter anything, as they push the filtered water up through the gravel and supposedly dislodge food particles etc. The idea being that I could introduce air into the incoming water, and have random bubbles coming up from the bottom of the tank, for a visual effect. If I use sand, will this create small volcanoes in the sand, and dislodge it. Can I use a coarse sand to prevent this? Actually when I think more about it, the sand would fall through the filter grid and block it up anyway. Has anyone done anything like this, or got any ideas? Thanks, Mad Kerry.

I'm still here, I bought a new 3' tank at Jensons today. (Jumbo on sale) I've picked up a Fluval 303 for 16.00 on Trademe, and I've got the heater. I'm going to build the top cover for the light. What lighting will I need, I have a sparkie mate who can get me any bits that I need. I won't be able to fit a 3' tube in the lid so I will have to go with 2'. One of the second hand tanks that I looked at had a single 2' tube 18W, and the guy reconed that it was too much light as he had a lot of algae growth, if he left it on for more than 2hrs a day. (though his room was very light where he had the tank) When I look through the forums here and overseas I get the impression that I would need 2 x 36W tubes minimum. I plan to have a lot of plants, and I also don't understand the difference between growlux and uv lights. I like the look of Dwarf Gourami's, are these fish ok to have in a well planted tank, and are they much trouble to look after? Thankyou, Kerry.

Well, after losing the first race, My wife and I went of to Hollywood Fish Farm to lift our spirits. What a shop!! If you haven't been there yet, put it on your list. The first thing I really noticed, was how much more vibrant and attractive the marine fish are compared to the tropicals. I belive it takes more time, equipment, and skill to maintain a marine setup, so I'm not going there yet. Oneday though. My secondhand tank is on again. 3' bay window with external power filter, air pump, light, heater/themostat, food, test kits etc. Will look at and probably pickup tomorrow, Sunday. I'm still not sure what fish I want, and will probably start of with some schools of the cheaper fish. I know the general advice is to start with the fish you want and setup the tank to suit. I'm going to be an awkward so&so and setup the tank I want, then buy the fish to suit. I saw the Malawi tank with the polystyrene painted background, and that's the way I'm going to go, but in a different style. I went to Eden Stone and Water World to check out the different rocks and schist. It quickly became obvious that there would be to much weight, and rubbish will accumulate in behind. My plan is to get a large block of polysterene, the width and height of the tank and 200-300mm thick. I will sculpture this down, tapering in towards the top of the tank, to look like layers of schist, with terraces and caves. Then I will coat it with epoxy resin, using a hard old brush to scratch horizontal lines across the layers of schist and to form a tough skin. Then I will paint it with acrylic paints, (cut the whole panel vertically into three sections to be able to fit it into the tank) and finally coat the whole lot with translucent Pond Paint (51.00 per 1 Ltr at Hollywoods) to seal it. As I will be getting a power filter with the tank, the idea of hiding the heater in an under bench trickle filter will be scraped for now. That can come latter. As for planting, well that's another whole story. Cheers, Kerry. PS. will be photographing as I go. If all is successful, will setup web page to show others.

Thanks Rob, I'll definately be checking that out. Yes acrylic polyurethene will go cloudy in water, especially warm water. It will actually go clear again if you take it out and dry it, but I think it will go cloudy again when submersed. There must be something that will do the job though. Andrew, you make it look easy. At least thats one heater I don't have to buy Do you think I can do the whole setup with a 600.00 budget. Time and effort don't count, I actually enjoy it. Thanks, Kerry.

I thought of that Caryl, but I don't know who the glazier is up here in Auckland that supplies the pet shops. I can't imagine it would get much less than 97.50, what would you pay from your guy for a 3' tank? I've got a brandnew Jager 100W heater/thermostat in my cupboard, is that big enough for a 3' tank? It says on the packet for 100-150 Ltr. How many litres in a 3' tank? Thanks, Kerry.

Thanks everyone for the replys. I have not gone to sleep on this, quite the opposite. My second hand tank seems to have fallen through. After looking through Pegasus web site I was ready to build my own, with an extra thick base to take the weight of all the rocks I am planning. Then shilo got me thinking with the polystyrene and resin, something I had thought about, but dismissed because I thought it would poison the fish, obviously it doesn't. I just rang Hollywood Fishfarm to get a price on a 3' tank. You could have knocked me over with a feather, I don't know why, but I thought they would be about 200-300.00, Only 97.00, why bother building my own, the glass would cost me more. I'm going over there in the weekend with my wife, to check things out and see what fish and plants we like. Some of my ideas might change after that, and hopefully I'll come home with something in the back of the wagon. I'm not in any hurry, just keen to get started, then I'll be unstopable (copyrite Caryl) Thanks Leeves, you probably will be able to knock me over with a feather when I find out how much the fish cost. I bet my wife only likes the dearest ones. Cheers, Kerry.

Wow! thanks everyone for the replys. Shilo, that's exactly what I'm after, and all the thinking has already been done. I will study it all carefully. Caryl, you are dead right, it could be days before I noticed a failure. I like the digital read-out idea. Pegasus, I hope your'e not lying awake at night thinking about my aquarium, if you are, could you try and come up with some answers please. I was wondering about the weight, on reflection it might be better to come about halfway up the tank with the wall and terraces, backfill that part with small stones, and then have some towers maybe 3 or 4 continuing to the top. I could plant larger plants between the towers into the backfill, and the towers could disguise air lines etc. I'll go with the silicon, nice and easy to use, and will also give a cusion between rocks and glass. This is great having all of you to bounce ideas off, especially when you all seem to be so praticle and understand what I'm talking about. Thanks, Kerry.

Thanks Kriber, I definately don't want any hardware showing, as I think this is what ruins a lot of setups that I have seen. I'm not rich either, but I can build anything. My stone wall is going to run to the very top of the tank in order to hide all hardware. I know very little about filters, but I belive it is possibly to build your own filter setup outside the tank, driven by a pump. This could possibly be in my cupboard underneath. Small pumps are not expensive. A friend has a filter for a goldfish pond that he built in a plastic chillybin. If I did something similar, the heater could just go in the chillybin, this would also eliminate the unsightly temperature guage, always stuck smack on the front of the tank, as it could go in the chillybin as well The heater could also be behind the stone wall. Do you need an under gravel filter? Thanks, Kerry.

Thankyou for the replies, and encourgement. I'm limited by space to a 3' tank, but I figure thats better than 2' or 2'-6". I'm used to using silicon, as I was a chippie for 25yrs, though I did wonder if hot glue would work as well. I Know way down the line I'll probably get a few other breeds of fish to add, but at the moment there is too much else to think about. I'm not sure when I build my wall, if I should backfill it with gravel, or leave a cavity in behind for the heater and air lines. Will rubbish and muck from the tank get trapped in there? I really would like to make it, so no heater, filter, or air lines are visable. When I get my load of rocks, whether it be schist, slate, or blue stone, how do I clean them? Thanks, Kerry.

Hi, I'm new to this forum, or any forum for that matter. I'm contemplating setting up my first tropical fish aquarium for over 20yrs. I don't mean I've been contemplating the idea for 20yrs, but it was when I was a kid that I last had tropical fish. So I'm a bit rusty and need some advice. I had a good read around here yesterday, and was pretty impressed with the advice offered to people. I figue it's a lot cheaper to do it this way, than to buy all the books and start reading, and probably still get it all wrong anyway. Get it all straight from the horses mouth so to speak. In my minds eye I know what I want to achieve with my tank, it's just getting there I'm not sure about. I want a 900mm wide tank with the angled front corners. I have a corner in my office come workshop, that doesn't get to much light, and with a good strong bench to sit the tank on, and power, and a cupboard underneath to store/hide things in. At this stage I'm not so concerned about what fish will be going in the tank, as setting up and fitting out my tank. I'll probably only have 1 or 2 types of smaller fish in schools. Plus a catfish or two. I was thinking of building a wall of dark schist stone (not sure about the spelling)at the rear of the tank, so that it is dozens of layers on top of each other, sloping back as it climbs towards the top of the tank. Because the tank will be in a corner, the left hand end won't be seen, and on the right hand end I would curve the stone around, so that it looked good when looking through the end of the tank. As the wall slopes back, I could build small pockets for plants and small stones on different levels, and the odd little cave. Perhaps some bubbles coming out at different levels. Am I dreaming or is it possible? What glue do you glue the stone together with? is it just silicon. I could be talking 200-300 pieces. I'd better stop there for now, before this turns into a book. Looking forward to comments.