David R

Great pics, and nice looking tank too. Those rocks look very natural.

There is certainly no maximum size, but it does need to be big enough (and designed accordingly) so that when the pump switches off the sump can hold all the water that will drain down from the tank. I usually figure out the volume based on the footprint of the tank and 2cm deep, then add a 'fudge factor' of 50-100%, it is certainly better to have a bigger sump than a wet floor!

You can get regular household LEDs in 6500K, could experiment with them in desk-lamp type holders.

Damn Caryl, now I've got the theme song stuck in my head!!! :sml1:

Neither will make up for a lack of rigidity in the top of the stand. I'd use something thick like 17-19mm H3 plywood to help distribute the load onto the steel, but don't expect it to make up for an underbuilt stand. I'd use the 35x35x1.2mm stuff for the diagonals, but probably not much more. It may be ok for the legs if you use enough of them.

I wish I knew! The water is really good, not more than 10-15ppm of nitrate before a water change, and TDS <80ppm. The angels, geos and whiptail all have massive extensions on their fins, so I don't think it is some sort of "fin rot". I have posted on MFK about it and some people have said theirs have always been the same, others said they've never seen it before. Regardless, he is eating well and otherwise healthy, so I'm not too concerned. The driftwood is certainly getting smaller! If you look at this pic of the stump when the tank was first set up you can see how much small stuff has been removed from around the base of it; I might have to put some more regular pieces in there to feed them so they don't wear the stump down to nothing!

I've been pretty slack with posting updates on my tank, and TBH there hasn't been much going on at all with it. Water quality still really good despite changing only 10-25% weekly and feeding fairly heavily. Pothos + pond matrix is certainly doing the business. The fish have been growing really well, with the biggest surprise being the Panaques. I constantly hear they're incredibly slow growing but with plenty of space and lots of good food (NLS) these guys are bulking up fast. Anyway, here's some pics! Blacky is probably around 2' now, fins still ragged but eating like a pig and otherwise healthy. Largest L190 Starting to get some serious whiskers now. The Panaques are still making a huge mess, but readily come out with the lights on to feed, usually stirring up large amounts of sawdust with their squabbling. The settling chamber + Poret are still doing a great job of handling the large amount of physical waste. L190 'Thin Stripe' Another L190 Pterophyllum scalare 'Peru Altum'. I'd love to get another dozen or so of these. XL Royal Whiptail Baryancistrus L81 Two of the L14 Closer, zoomed in through ~70cm of water! With one of the L190s for size comparison, the L14 haven't grown as fast as I expected. They're still a little reclusive but do come out and feed during the day. Feeding time. And of course, the full tank shot. Despite throwing in copious amounts of food I couldn't tempt the L128's out, which is a shame as they look great at their adult size. I didn't get any good shots of the Geophagus either, but they're just same old really. I'm sure I must have six males as there has been no sign of breeding whatsoever. So where to now? Of course I can't just sit back and leave it alone, I haven't bought a new fish in nearly two years and it is driving me crazy! I'm contemplating selling the arowana to give me more flexibility with the stocking. As much as I love him I think another dozen angels plus a school of a few hundred cardinal tetras, a big group of corydoras, and a whole bunch of other little fish will make the tank more interesting. We'll see....

It's not really 'mood lighting', although there are a lot of gimmicky features like the rolling clouds and lightening settings, but being able to set the colour temperature of the lighting over your tank is a big advantage over a fixed colour unit. Often the white and blue combos will be too blue for many FW set ups. The regular Satellite has 6500k whites and the blues are dimmable separately, and I think with the set up you're planning you would probably end up running the blues pretty dim to avoid making the tank look too blue. I have mine set to more of a violet colour (blending the red and blue in the RGB LEDs) and it looks about right for a semi-blackwater environment. With just straight white and blue it looks too harsh for my liking. They are about double the price of the straight blue/white ones so I see where you're coming from, but IMO the full colour and intensity adjustability of the Satellite+ is well worth it if you really want to get the look of the lighting 'right' for your tank. In the past I've usually skimped on lighting and gone with cheap T8's from bunnings, I certainly won't be going back tot hat after owning these!! If you're just after 6500K white there are certainly cheaper options than the regular satellites.

IMO 35x35 is probably a bit thin and bendy for the 700 front-to-back span, and the wall thickness is a bit on the thin side. IIRC my stand for my 180x75x60 tank was made from 40x40x3mm, maybe Hovmoller can confirm as he owns it now.

The RGB and full-spectrum adjustability is the difference, and it is a fairly big one IMO. Not sure if there is any difference int eh quality of the LEDs, I'd think not though.

Interesting looking fish. Now if only someone would cross jag and festae...

So is this for individuals or just "Organisation/ Business/ Trader" as specified in the first question?

Yeah I spend a fair bit of time on MonsterFishKeepers so know roughly what the American market is like. I cringed when I was talking to a friend there about the true Heros severus and he said he euthanised the last batch of fry his pair produced as he already had loads he couldn't give away! My sister just moved to Dallas Tx where her husband is from, and I just spent a month in the states and loved it. NZ is a great place in many regards, but I'm sure there's a lot you'll miss about the US.

Including some of those Geophagus Sp. 'Pindare' for me!!

Gutted, I'd have some if we were still in Auckland! Other than that how is the tank? I was thinking of wide tanks the other day and wondered what happened to yours.

I don't think a one-off feeding of live food will instantly un-train it from eating pellets, but then again it may just be better to give it some time. Small fish alone in a big space is quite likely to be a bit nervous for a while.

Duckweed, maybe, towel nah. If you cover the tank it will get used to the tank being covered and freak out when you uncover it. Patience is the key, try to spend some time in front of the tank but without too much movement, it will settle in soon enough. Are you planning on adding any other fish soon? Perhaps some dithers/snacks would help...

Yep. What sort of arowana? Keep the lights off and give it time.

Are you testing the hardness or TDS, or just the pH?

What is the hardness of your tap water like? What is the pH starting off at before it goes down to 6.5? I much prefer using coral and/or shell in the filter to relying on dosing with buffers on a weekly basis, easier to keep things stable and balanced.

Yep. You can get 120L+ plastic bins from the warehouse or payless plastics pretty cheap, would be a worth-while investment with that many fish IMO.

I'd certainly trust NLS own website over random retailers. I have buckets for five different NLS foods from recently purchased to 3+ years old and they all state whole krill and whole herring as the main ingredients. If you're using NLS and the fish are healthy then keep feeding it, just order it from Kens. IIRC last time Smidey and I ordered it seemed like three buckets was the optimum number for shipping efficiency.

Maybe it got lost in translation with Kens, it says whole krill and whole herring on their website. http://nlsfishfood.com/index.php?option ... &Itemid=60 Alex; it's discussed in-depth in the links I posted if you're willing to trawl through them to find it. As I understand the "meal" is generally produced with the left over bits, and has far less nutritional value than the whole item. Adrienne, from what I understand with the raw diet (Jen sold us on it for our two about a year ago, and it's really great!) the aim is to replicate what a dog would eat if it took down a small prey animal like a bird or rabbit. So if you apply the same logic to the ingredients in fish food there is far more complete nutrition from using the whole fish rather than using fish meal made mostly from bones/fin/offal etc. Similarly products like yeast, potato, and terrestrial animal proteins aren't really ideal either, IMO of course.

I agree that it isn't the flow, but how it is distributed. With a spraybar made from PVC you'll be able to experiment with different amounts, sizes and patterns of holes to direct and control the flow from your return pump without actually reducing the turn-over. When you've got it sorted spray it with some satin black krylon fusion spraypaint and you'll never notice it.

Geographically, no, but the products on their website are able to be purchased and delivered here.