editkid

South coast beach in Wellington, around Red Rocks. Took a chisel and a hammer and collected a few pieces. They're fine in the tank, too. No change in water conditions, although the tops of the rocks are now covered in green algae.

Congrats!

Do they do nice substrate products? Or where do you buy them in New Zealand? As I said, in the Wellington region it seems to be limited to boring pebble. Just one range with a few variations. It's these ones: http://masterpet.com/new-zealand/produc ... n-harvest/ Autumn Harvest Bright Water Desert Sand Glacier Pebbles Lightning Ridge Misty Pebbles You can see the other colours in the menu on the left. I want some cool sands and different gravel

They mention a lot of special nutrients in their products though. And their sands look really nice. Where I live we only really have two pet stores and they both sell the same boring pebbles (from Masterpet wholesalers).

I'm intrigued by the finesse and seemingly awesome quality of these guys' products, and also by their approach to building natural looking tanks. But I'm wondering, is the price tag worth it? Maybe someone on here has experience or knowledge to shed? I'm mainly interested in the substrate products: http://www.adaaust.com.au/products/prod ... strate.htm Aquarium Products Wholesale in Australia told me they'd happily ship bags of sand and gravel to NZ (ha ha!), but of course the shipping is expensive. For about 15 Kg of substrate they were saying it'd be $100 NZD in postage costs. From the aquarium gallery on the ADA site, I can only conclude that their finished tanks look awesome.

In fact, I wonder if anyone has any experience with those ADA products. They're all really expensive. I'll start a new topic under "Technical" 8)

Oh yeah, don't worry. I look forward to the day. I'll take it a lot slower and make sure it's absolutely right that time (if there is such a thing!). I've also been looking at buying those Aqua Design Amano substrate products, but they're quite expensive. Aquariumproductswholesale.com were prepared to ship some to NZ from Ozzie, but for about $200 worth of substrate (!!) it'd be another $100 to ship it here. In the end, their products are seemingly awesome. So when the day comes to set up that tank I might reconsider and get their specials sands etc.

One was a small white pebble, the other was a larger dark pebble. So yeah, two different types from the same brand. The dark one was "Bright Water" and the light was "Glacier" or some such. From Animates pet shop. I liked it too he he. One day I'll try again, when we move house most likely!

You don't want to know.

Here are the photos of my attempted 180 L tank design. It never got finished due to two reasons: a) Half way through the first attempt glass cleaner got accidentally sprayed onto the inside of the tank. This meant starting over, with new gravel. b) After the second attempt, in which I used sand, everything looked really bad. And it became clear that I took the hobby a bit too far for the missus, and I agreed to take the tank down and stick to my old 100 L one. Still think a few useful things were tried and I took photos, so here goes: 1. I started by making some preliminary rock formations outside, without my tank. As you can see I used masking tape to define the major areas of the design. This worked okay, but it lacked the height of the gravel underneath. I don't think I'll use this method again. 2. The tank with black backing, before anything was added. 3. Using cardboard and tape I made sections in the tank in order to use two types of gravel. 4. First I made a layer of aquarium peat, about 1cm high, in the areas where I wanted to grow plants. 5. Then gravel was thoroughly washed and I found this jute bag extremely handy, so here's a pic: 6. In goes the gravel. 7. I finished the rock layout inside the tank and added the driftwood. This was way easier than doing it outside of the tank, as the height of the gravel and tank walls really need to be there. 8. Time for the bamboo and the hoses, bamboo which I later decided not to use because it became really moldy where it was sticking out of the water. This apparently is normal. But for those interested, some pics: 9. Now I started tying Java Moss to small rocks to put on the dividing line between the two types of gravel and in between the larger rocks. At this point in time glass cleaner was sprayed into the tank accidentally. So this whole design was taken apart, new gravel and sand was bought and I tried again. But this last design failed, because the sand sank when water was added and made the water really cloudy. So it resulted in this: 10. At this point, in accordance with the missus, I dismantled the tank. It was too big for our space, and now it looked completely bad. It's all good practise though 8) 11. I redesigned my old 100L tank. Took the driftwood out, used stones, added plants. Balance had returned to our living room once more. The end.

Nice one! Yes, I got foam on the water and brewery smells, too, as is mentioned in that article.

BAMBOO WARNING: The bamboo started getting moldy at the top, where it sticks out of the water. So I've removed it altogether! It was a good test, but I don't want to get mold in the tank, right?

Yes, I have a bunch of photos and will sort them out once the water clears. I used washed river sand and maybe I'll have to re-do the whole thing again. It's _super_cloudy_.

I'm wondering what happens if my tank breaks in the place I'm renting at the moment. Will my home/contents cover it? Maybe I should talk to my insurer instead? Thanks!

Hi there!

Wow. What a day. Spent all yesterday rinsing pebbles, boiling rocks, buying plants, setting up tank. This morning, started putting the rocks from the beach in, the bamboo, wicked. Time to tie moss to the rocks. Carefully spraying it every now and then so it doesn't dry out. Wifey wifepants joins in on the fun. Accidentally picks up Shotz glass cleaner instead of water sprayer and sprays inside of tank. Silence ensues. Then a really big cuss :lol: Empty tank, rinse carefully, buy new gravel and sand, repeat. It has water in it now. Think I'll spend next week not worrying about aquariums ha ha.

Hardware/gardening store Note that you'll need to hollow it out with either a long wood drill bit (30cm bit) or a long spike and a hammer. It's mostly hollow, but at the joins between each segment of bamboo, it's closed. That's the little bits you need to knock/drill through.

Almost two weeks later: I've decided to wait. And thing seem to have settled a little. The little Gourami come out to feed, but get stared into the bush every now and then. There's not so much chasing going on anymore. The hierarchy in the tank seems to have been established.

My gut feeling - but that's all it is - would say let the fish grow hungry, and it'll eat. Is it trying to come up to the surface? Are other fish not letting it or chasing it? I've also found it takes a while for fish to settle in and the other aquarium inhabitants to accept them. Give it a few weeks maybe.

Yes, it looks like a Red Eye Tetra, doesn't it. It has a slightly different shape, and the Head-Tail Light have a bright spot on their tail, as their name suggests.

But your rocks are definitely safe and don't need testing in water for ages Peter's (my) lesson of the day: Organising rocks in an aesthetic and natural way isn't done in 1-2-3. Wax on, wax off.

And some of the rocks I got from the beach...

The answer seems to be bamboo. Went to Mitre10 and saw these nice long thin tubes of bamboo. Perfect for feeding the rubber hose through to the bottom of the tank. I've just done one to see how it looks and yeah, it's like bamboo growing at the back of the tank. Perfect! In process of making the tubes: 2 bare tubes vs. 1 tube in bamboo (sorry for photo quality...):

This one seems particularly helpful for natural rock layouts: http://www.adaaust.com.au/support/pdf/c ... iamano.pdf

That photo I posted earlier is from ADA (Aqua Design Amano). They have many localised sites and the Australian one has many PDF manuals and beautiful galleries. Check it out! Galleries http://www.adaaust.com.au/gallery/gallery.htm PDF manuals http://www.adaaust.com.au/support/howto_ada.htm