David R

What are the other dimensions of the tank? It isn't uncommon behaviour for arowana, though I've found they do it less in bigger tanks. Make sure the tank is securely covered!

Yep, you just have to pay for it. http://www.mikolji.com/MIKOLJI_STORE.html

Downloading now to watch on the big screen...

I've also found some useful information here; http://www.lifestyleblock.co.nz/lsb-forum.html If you want low maintenance I'd look at planting something long-term like pines or acacia (either for pulp or firewood).

That sounds good. If you're using media like sintered glass which has lits of fine pores then having really good mechanical filtration to prevent it being clogged with fine particles is a good idea. This is all just my thoughts/opinions btw, don't take it as gospel! :lol:

These things; That is the sump for my old 1400L tank, with half as many socks as it needed and twice as much bio media!! You can get them from www.particlesolutionz.co.nz and they come in a variety of sizes. For your tank I'd say two of the "01" size (about 190mm diameter and 420mm long) would be sufficient if partially raised up out of the water. There are many good things about them, the best being their ability to catch fine particles (I ran 100 micron, you can get them down to 5 micron or less I believe!) and unless you let them clog to the point of overflowing they can't be bypassed, unlike a piece of wool or pad sitting in the top of a sump as per your picture [and several of my old sumps]. They're easy enough to clean, turn inside out and rinse, then machine wash if your wife is ok with it, or not home! For comparison, this is a sheet of 45ppi Poret (the fine stuff) compared to a 100micron sock; The down side is that the height. The more sock you have out of the water the more effective gravity is at pulling the water through them meaning longer intervals between cleans. This makes it difficult to have a trickle tower with bioballs above the water level, but whether this is necessary is up to the individual. I've seen plenty of nice set ups with sumps that are as simple as an old aquarium with a couple of filter socks suspended above it with a few bags of ceramic rings sitting in the water. No baffles or nothing! With the sump I posted above I managed to have half the media above the water level and nearly half the socks above water, but it was about 800mm tall plus the height of the plumbing, not something that you can easily stuff into the average aquarium cabinet! If you've got your heart set on having a trickle tower then you're probably best to stick with something like you've shown. If not, then seriously consider the socks, they are certainly the best mechanical filtration you'll get for a set up like this. I didn't opt for them with my 2000L tank for various reasons, but if I were setting up something smaller and/or not intending to house big super-messy Panaques then I'd use them again in a heartbeat. Smidey, I agree for the most part, except to say I'd always still keep a test kit handy even if I didn't use it regularly, pH would be one of the first things I check if the fish aren't looking right. IF you are going to mess around with water parameters then do it properly and test regularly. It certainly isn't necessary to replicate the exact environment of the habitat your fish originate from though, and your successes are proof that quite often 'close enough' is fine.

I use the stainless steel ones. Came home one day to find my old fish room in Auckland completely silent (never a good sign!) and the hose had popped off the return pump on the 6' tank turning it into a fountain aimed straight at the multi board on the stand behind the sump! Luckily it had tripped the circuit breaker and there was no damage, just a complete black out for a couple of hours. Never again will I rely on the grip of the hose over even a barbed fitting like some of the pumps have! As for the sump plans, they look pretty sound. My only concern would be what are you going to use for mechanical filtration? I've had several sumps like that, and even when using AquaOne 'Micro Pads' (which catch most of the finer stuff but also clog really quickly) under filter wool I would get crud building up in the bottom of the sump. The trickle media is great, but IME not necessary for even fairly heavily stocked tanks, which is why I would prefer to opt for better mechanical media (ie filter socks) and just simple ceramic rings, sintered glass or Pond Matrix submerged for bio filtration. Without knowing your dimensions it's hard to tell, but I'd say the Poret foam isn't going to be necessary with that sump. My old heavily stocked 6' set up (green aro, dats, bichir, cichlids, TT eel) had a similar design with bio balls and ceramic noodles and the bio was more than adequate for that stock even with the large heavy feedings of meaty food (the mechanical on the other hand was somewhat lacking). I'll see if I can find the dimensions to see how much media was in there, but it wasn't a massive amount.

Very nice!! I like the stock too, nice seeing a big group of one species rather than the all too common 'stamp collection'.

http://www.kensfish.com/new-life-spectrum.html

Shame we're not allowed to organise group buys...

Nice!! What is the substrate in the african tank?

Exactly, the smallest species might be a snack for the angels when they've fully grown, and you'd want to avoid anything too big and boisterous, but basically any fish that doesn't prefer hard water or nip fins should go well with your angels.

I didn't realise Mesonauta Spp. were also referred to as "flag cichlids", I've usually heard the name used for Laetacara curviceps but a quick google search shows it commonly used for both species.

Where abouts?? What is the terrain like? We got the "lifestyle" without the "block"; one acre of bush surrounded by bush and a bit of pasture, no neighbours near by, no hassles with sheep etc...

Looks good, nothing quite like seeing a big tank waiting to be filled! Not sure about the stand tho, I think you would be better off with something more rigid than ply on top of the blocks. The ply isn't stiff enough to offer any real support for the base of the tank, and you'll be able to level it more accurately. You might get away with it as-is, but its a lot of water on the floor if you don't!

Sounds like you need to invest in some sort of automated system!! I'd dearly love to do something like that to change 5-10% daily, but being on rain water with a limited supply over summer I'm going to wait at least one summer to see how I get thru the dry spell first...

How many do you have total? I don't think they'll be fussy about the company they keep. Looking back through my old loach pictures and I think I probably had both kinds in my school of 30.

Clown Loaches - Kalimantan vs. Sumatra

That thought has crossed my mind too, the more I keep big tanks the more I realise I like seeing fish with space to move and behave naturally. The thought of seeing a school of 30 cories patrolling the substrate while a couple of hundred lemon tetras cruise around above is nearly enough to make me thing of selling the aro. Nearly.....

I'm not really in need of a clear up crew with all the geos and plecs, just debating whether to add a group of my favorite non south American species...

What about them? I don't see how it is relevant to this discussion about cichlid tanks.

You're not wrong, my racist attitude towards fish has caused much indecision with this tank. I love the more authentic look of having only Amazonian species, even though it isn't a true reflection of any one location, but on the other hand a school of flows would certainly liven up the tank. I love my plecs, but there are a lot of fish in there eating food and making mess but never being seen....

Come on Thomas, it wouldn't be that bad!! Sam, I agree completely. I found the stump long before I built the tank, and thought I'd left plenty on there when I cut the rest of the tree off in the middle of the bush. Luckily it is less obvious in person.

PT640 is for 1.5"/40mm plumbing. I used a short length of clear vinyl tube to join the adapter to the 40mm PVC waste pipe, it just needed a bit of encouragement after being soaked in boiling water to stretch over the 40mm pipe (and always use hose clamps if you're doing this, the vinyl tube eventually becomes hard and can pop off if not clamped on). If you're going with 32mm return plumbing then the 1-1/4" PT-639 would be the adapter you need.

I disagree, in fact I believe doing that is a recipe for disaster. If done correctly there is no reason you shouldn't clean your canister filters every time you change water, you will not be "removing bacteria" and you will not cause a mini cycle.A canister filter full of waste will be doing two things: 1; producing loads of nitrate. We all know the cycle goes waste > ammonia > nitrite > nitrate. The aim of the game with water changes is to keep the nitrates at an acceptable level (the other two should always be zero). So why, in the interests of maintaining good water, would you leave months worth of waste sitting inside your filter decomposing and creating more nitrate, meaning more water changes? 2; potentially polluting your tank and harming your fish. In a matter of hours with no water flow a filthy canister will turn into an anaerobic environment and start producing annoxic gases. If the filter switches back on before you get to it you're going to end up with rather toxic water being spewed back into your tank, which could wipe out your stock. Essentially, you're playing russian roulette with your fish. If set up correctly and maintained regularly canisters aren't that hard to clean. ANY aquarium filter should have the water flowing through mechanical media first (in order of coarsest to finest) to catch the physical waste before it reaches the biological media. If cleaned frequently you may not even need to touch the baskets with bio media, but all they should ever need is a quick dunk in a bucket of tank water. This will not harm/destroy your beneficial bacteria, just don't leave it sitting around dry all day. The mechanical media can be replaced or rinsed under the tap as any bacteria it houses it shouldn't be required if there is sufficient biological media. I know people get away with going ridiculous lengths between cleaning canisters, recently on MFK one guy admitted to not cleaning out a canister for nearly a year! However, it is far from 'best practice', and will certainly mean you need to change more water to keep your nitrate in check. And it could mean death for your fish in a worst case scenario...