Warren

If you want inspiration for planted tanks look at the Nature Aquarium World series by Takashi Amano. There's only a small amount of good info on setting up a tank but the photographs of the tanks are very inspiring and there is some good advise on layout technique. I've used them for reference when designing layouts many time and to get motivation to remodel my tank.

Bugger - and I looked through the whole thread to see if he mentioned that too. Can't believe I missed it in the first post!!!

Try Classique Plastics in Napier.

I used to have a problem with my tap water. Nitrate, nitrites and ammonia were 0ppm but 1 week after a water change my nitrate were 140+. The filters were ok and managed to cope with converting the ammonia and nitrite to less toxic nitrate but I could never get the nitrates to drop. After 2 big water changes the nitrate would drop to around 50ppm but over the next week it would rises steadily back to over 140ppm. In the end I had the water tested and contacted the local council. I was advised the well in my area came up through an old forest. While the water looked good on test kits it was loaded with dissolved organic mater that broke down in the tank. This was confirmed by the local lab (very expensive test as well!!). So, there was the reason for the high nitrates... Maybe there's something non-toxic and organic in the water tanks creating the issue. If you can't get the ammonia level down doing water changes, you'll need to find the source. Maybe it's the water you're using for water changes. Maybe it's something else in the tank breaking down - a rotting log, detritus in the substrate etc. Logs can rot from the inside out if they have a soft center. Do you use UGF? If so, when was it last cleaned well?

A tank this size with no bracing will have the following safety factor: Safety, Thickness 2, 10mm 2.5, 11.1mm 2.9, 12mm 3.8, 13.71mm (recommended minimum) Make up your own mind what you thick is acceptable. I'd go for 15mm front and back and 12mm sides and bottom if you build a really good level stand. With glass this thick it would pay to get the edges ground so they are dead straight and square.

Dreamer :roll:

Welcome Talk to Loopy. Look her up in the FNZAS Clubs topic under Christchurch Totally Tanked.

Welcome

I put my airpumps under the house when I used to use them. I also got a couple of very big bottles and fed the airline into it. A large hose came out of the second bottle and went all over the house to feed tanks. The concept behind the bottles is to act as a reservoir and remove the pulses of air out of the airlines. Once the air pressure is completely smooth in the airlines, all the vibration noise they produce disappears and the noise in the tank goes too. I ended up using 2 x 20L water bottles, air pump into one then the other then feeding the tanks. Silence other than fizzing of air at the water surface.

Welcome to the forum

Welcome

An offcut is a good idea if you can wait a couple of weeks for one to turn up. I only had to wait for 1 week to get a 3m x 1m x 19mm offcut for a tank I built a while ago. It should work out at half price or less.

Great going Loopy. Keep up the good work and you'll have the club up and running and strong soon.

Discus are prone to this type of injury due to their unusual shape and because they can spook easily. I've had worse injuries on mine from the same thing happening. Heals up no problems and you often can't even tell.

Great setup!!

I prefer to rest at the bar when on holiday. Maybe you should do the same, unless of course you're at an internet bar.

You're on holiday, so go away and have one!! I don't want to see you on here (much) until you're back in NZ. That's what a holiday is all about... 8)

I think it's about $160/m² and you need 0.9m² so it should cost about $144 plus cutting cost. Not usre if this includes GST or not but it's about what I paid last time.

Mmm, looks good.

Yes, a good rinse should be all it needs. If you are worried about pathogens in the gravel then you could add a capfull of Budget Bleach to the bucket of gravel and give a good stir. It will need to be rinsed very well afterwards. Once added to the tank and the tank is filled it may take a day for any residual chlorine to disappear. If you wash the gravel with bleach you won't be able to add it to an existing tank until all the chlorine is gone if you use this method. You'll need to add a chlorine killer or wait a few days for all traces of the chlorine smell to go when stirring the gravel up. Note: Use budget bleach as it's only sodium hypochlorite. Things like Janola have other chemicals in them that may not gas-off like the chlorine does from hypochlorite.

Ok, if it is 6mm, your current safety factor is 2.37 with 0.41mm deflection of the glass. If the bracing is removed, your safety factor will drop to 1.71 and 4.95mm of deflection (thats approx 72% of the current strength of the tank and 1207% increase in deflection) . It's up to you if you think 1.71 is enough... I still think your best option is the change the filter.

And glass thickness?

Duh, why didn't I think of that...

Post the exact tank dimensions and glass thickness and I'll calculate if it's safe for you to remove the bracing...

Welcome