Warren

I spray the inside of the house with Ripcord. I spray the walls, ceiling and carpet around the perimeter against the walls. We have no problem with bugs except flies (that die pretty quick after landing on a treated surface). It lasts about 6 months and then I spray again. If you're not happy spraying everywhere, you could just spray problem areas.

I used to use it mostly when catching nocturnal fish. I've had either rocky or planted tanks with too many hiding places to catch fish during the day or to catch fish that normally hide during the day. I read somewhere that fish don't see red light (but don't know the accuracy of the information) so tried using red light at night so I could see my nocturnal catfish in action. This was how I discovered who was eating the Neon's at night. It's also the method I used to catch the pesky catfish responsible and re-home it. The method worked well but it's a little tricky at time to see properly. It helps to have two people - one on the torch and the other on the net(s). The bait catcher method works really well to but you almost inevitably catch every other fish first... I use a lump of frozen food in the bait catcher.

I use two methods: 1. Bait Catcher - can take some time but you'll likely get it eventually. 2. Red Light - wait until it's been completely dark for 30 minutes or more. Use a torch with red cellophane over it's end to spot the fish. Net it while it's sleeping. Neon's normally sleep on the bottom of the tank. Fish don't see red light or not too well at any rate. As long as you're a good aim with the net this method works really well without destroying the tank.

Just out of interest, I calculated the deflection you should be seeing on the glass. It should be 4.76mm. As both the front and back panels will deflect by the same amount, you should see double this gap between the end of the brace and position it has sheared off the brace (approx 10mm). Is the 10mm you've measure the gap between the brace and front panel or the actual bend in the front panel using a straight end placed alone it's front?

Place a 200-300mm strip of wood between each end of the clamp and the glass to distribute the pressure and avoid breaking the glass from point-loading...

Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salts), Potassium Sulphate and Calcium Chloride all work well to raise the hardness without raising pH by much. With such a high pH and low DH it means there's very little acid content in the water. If after adding these salts the pH goes up, I'd add both Sodium Bicarbonate and Sulphuric Acid to the water to both balance the pH and add some pH buffering. All this will need to be done in a separate drum with aeration to help mix up the additives and re-oxygenate the water. Leave it for a few days before use. I use this system and have done for 10+ years. Use a 2:1 ratio of Magnesium Sulphate over the other 2.

Yes!!!!! Your target is 0cm or at the very worst, 0.05cm Then the who;e bottom of the tank will be properly supported.

This thread has been spell checked, punctuated and capital's used where they should be. See how much easier it is to read now... Some posts were ok - but not many. Disclaimer: I may have missed some of the errors...

It's probably cyno - it's pretty common in new tanks. Give it a few weeks and if it's still there you'll have to take some action. It often goes away all by itself as the tank matures. A 550L tank will tank months to fully mature and it will likely go through different algae cycles as it progresses...

The tank has cracked on the curved part only with just a small section of the crack extending outside the curved area at the bottom. It might be a manufacturing defect due to the heat treatment on the glass to get it curved. If it hasn't been properly anealed after heating then there will be stress in the glass. An uneven stand could also definately be the cause. From the feedback, it looks a bit like there could be a design issue. How many other tanks mentioned in this thread broke in a similar way or place? If it's a common design fault then it should be the manufacturer replacing the tank for free.

But as it is it's no good - which was the question...

Wouldn't touch it. If you can kick the base as hard as you can and it collapses then it's no good. I could easily break this stand with my foot. The force on the stand in a small earthquake will apply more force to the stand than I can with my foot - go figure if you think it's ok...

I have mine growing like crazy directly under a 250W metal halide (only 250mm away). It's fine either in or out of the water. The emergent tips of the plant do not die. It is much lighter green in colour than normal however. The tank temperature ranges from 26-30 winter to summer. Java fern is pretty tough and adaptable. As Caryl said, it will cope with anything the Killi's can.

Our power bill dropped about $50 a month in winter after installing the heat pump as well. It did go up about $20 a month in summer though... I used to have 42 tanks totaling nearly 6000L, 3 inside (1200L, 700L and 550L) as display tanks and the rest in a well insulated room in the garage. I had a central filter running a 350W pump, 200W of lighting and 800W of heating in the fishroom. There was also a continuous 150L/day waterchange going on. Inside, 30% water changes once a week. All these tanks with just me on my own meant a $225 - $250 power bill (and I had 2 computers running 24/7 as well). Some of the power bills mentioned indicate a lot of waste going on. I felt guilty using the power I did back then...

Sounds like the problem is solved then - get hubby to do all water changes while you sit back and relax watching the fish

Look up Barrie here to see if he's close and can help.

Remember the site guidelines - no links to Online Auctions unless you need to know about something you are interested in.

Sure was: http://www.nzedge.com/heroes/rutherford.html

Who discovered nuclear energy then...

Yep, all the fish will be gone in a few days. The Dat will definitely scoff itself stupid, not sure about the ornate... I used to have a couple of Dat's and they would eat everything you added to the tank until they looked like Thunderbird 2.

We don't have huge hydro capacity (we're similar per person compared to other countries but our GWh is low compared to almost any other country). Our total Hydro generation is smaller than 1 nuclear power station. We pay a lot due to the infrastructure to spread a small amount of power over a large area for a small number of people.

I'd go with glosso as well

I have a tank of similar size. In summer my heater never comes on and I have to cool the tank from time to time. The tank has 2 x 300W heater. In winter these spend approx 50% of the time on. By insulating the back and sides that aren't seen you can reduce the power requirement even further.

Also depends on plants or not. A tank this deep will need between 500 and 800W of lighting to grow plants well. That produces a lot of heat to get rid of as well. In summer I have to run the aircon 24/7 to keep the room and tank cool enough. No plants - not so much problem.

Smaller tanks seem to get away with all manner of errors. What it means is the tank is likely to be stressed making it more likely to fail. It just lessens it's chances of survival in an earthquake or from a knock. After all, there's thousands of tanks out there with similar setups and most of them survive. What a super-flat base ensures is absolute minimum risk from the base being the cause of a problem. If this approach is taken with all aspects of setting the tank up then it is very unlikely to ever have a problem... 12mm poly should be fine.