David R

I had one, bought it from the first Animates fun day, suspect it was stunted as it grew a lot slower than the L190 I bought from Hollywood a few weeks later as a fresh import (had only been in store a few days), in fact it hardly grew at all over about 18 months and eventually found it dead. Yes there was wood in the tank, and it was offered veges from time to time, didn't do anything differently with the L190 and its growing like a champ. Here's a pic from when I first got him http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k186/ ... yal1sm.jpg *edit* I knew I'd posted that pic before, must have been in the good old days before the size restrictions. Funny how it still works now though! viewtopic.php?f=32&t=35295&p=386245

After doing a quick google mine does look a lot more like that, with the white on the tail. Are the "dull eyes" a variety of L190?

I change the filter wool in my sumps without having to carry anything to the sink and dismantle the whole assembly and disturb the bio media. Plus you can buy it in bulk sheets rather that expensive cut-to-shape pads for the filter. My sumps get new filter wool on a weekly basis (along with a rinse of the micro pads and coarse foam) where as the canisters only get it every few months as its such an ordeal in comparison...

Wow!!!! Can't wait to see it stocked!

I've seen all those except for the L134 here, although there are a few different "varieties" of the royal/L027 so who knows if the ones we get are exactly the same as L027c, mine looks pretty similar though, dark and light stripes and orangeish eye, not sure about the finer points in differentiating between them all though. The L090's I've seen here looked pretty bland in comparison to the ones in that post too.

Once you have the water level set then the only thing that can cause it to overflow is a blocked overflow hole on the tank, or a crack in the plumbing somewhere. If set up correctly they are pretty much foolproof, much more so than canisters IMO. If you're ever out east and want to have a look at how mine are set up just let me know.

Eh? My sumps are far less mess and inconvenience when it comes to cleaning than a canister... :-? OP; Have a look through the setup and filtration, and DIY projects forums on monsterfishkeepers.com, there have been hundreds of threads on different sump designs and ideas. The more you learn the easier it will be to come up with a solution for your problem. I am convinced that a large sump/trickle filter is the only way to go for a large tank (seems how we don't get Ultima filters here), and would be a far better solution for multiple tanks that having them individually filtered with canisters. It would have been a lot easier to set it up if you were starting from scratch, rather than trying to retrofit it to an existing set up, but its certainly not impossible. You could run all four of your largest tanks on one communal sump, or run them in pairs on two smaller ones. I'm not really a fan of the design you posted, I prefer a wet/dry trickle filter style set up with media submerged and above the water level, as in this pic; http://s88.photobucket.com/albums/k186/ ... =Sump2.jpg

Yeah it certainly doesn't have the protein of prepared foods, but protein isn't everything. I found with my green aro if he ate enough pellets to be not hungry he would have been consuming far more protein than he could possibly absorb or need, so I'd feed a mix of pellets and shrimp so the shrimp would fill him up, as well as providing other nutrition that may not be in pellets. Despite pellets being far higher in protein and more "nutritionally complete" than fresh foods, most experienced fish keepers swear by a varied diet.

Asian supermarkets are the cheapest I've found, can usually get a kilo of raw and peeled for $12-15

Surely I'm not the only one who read that and in their head pronounced "these" as thee-see... :oops:

10+ years for me, mechanical and biological filtration work far better than chemical IMO.

^ the truth. How they can justify banning ferrets as pets outright while leaving cats free to roam is beyond me. Its easier to pick on the minorities I guess. Perhaps we need to be more vocal like other minorities to get preferential treatment? :lol:

10 in each branch IIRC. Good to see some have been sold!

Good luck keeping plants in the gravel with the birchirs!! My ornate used to sit at one end of the tank and power-swim into the glass, pushing all the substrate away from that end. Maybe java fern and anubius on wood would work best?

If its a clear night and if its open go to the observatory at one tree hill. Climbing rangitoto is a nice way to spend a day too, if its fine...

Actually I got lucky with the tank, Greg just happened to have a piece of tinted 12mm glass 2400x977, so the price was a lot less than it could have been. Originally I had asked for a price for 900 wide, but then asked how big the sheet of glass was and said just make it that wide. It only just fitted in his van!! But yeah, the tank is about the cheapest part, then there's the stand, sump, pump, heaters, and all the other little bits. I've spent about $300 on bio media (noodles and bio balls), over $80 on plumbing, $90 for a sheet of 17mm treated ply, it soon adds up!! Still haven't decided about lighting, will probably go for four 4' T5 tubes in a custom hood, more $$$$. I had thought about going for a larger DIY tank out of ply but none of those bits can be done any cheaper, I'd only save money on the tank itself.

They mean H3 treated plywood, common mistake. Marine ply is made with special resins designed to soften when heated so it can be curved to shape, so unless you're building a spherical enclosure you won't need it.

You wouldn't be using marine ply...

You can get it made to what ever you like, but a bigger footprint is better, and IMO a tank that is wider than it is tall looks better. The last three tanks I've bought have been 150x70x60, 180x75x60 and 240x98x62, each time I have gone wider in relation to the height and each time I've liked it more!

I'd go for 60cm wide, unless you have a specific reason for only going 50cm, I guess it depends what you want to keep. IMO wide tanks look much better than tall ones, and gives you a better perception of depth. And its better for almost every kind of fish!

The Auckland War Memorial Museum is good for a rainy day, although if its school holidays or a wet weekend it may be busy. it really depends what you're into, although a trip to HFF is a good idea for any fishgeek visiting the city!

I've been thinking about building an enclosure for some geckos, can't be too difficult. Can anyone post some plans?

Pretty much, when people will pay hundreds for a man-made handbag and then scoff at me spending a similar amount on a rare fish it says a lot about our values as a species.

10mm will be good for up to 60cm high, anything more than that and you'll need 12mm+ and long arms.....

The human race is no better than a heroin junkie when it comes to oil, we'll never give up our addiction until we hit absolutely rock bottom, O.D, or the supply is totally exhausted. The sad truth is that no matter how hard an individual tries, it is impossible to live in the modern world without being dependant on oil.