David R

You won't achieve anything by letting the chlorine "gas out", alanmin has covered the topic more times than I can remember here, try searching for "chloramines". There is simply no substitute for chemical dechlorinators, you need to add something to neutralise the chloramines or it will do damage to your fish (even if they "look ok" when you don't use it). Seachem Prime is the best bang-for-buck off the shelf, though if you want to buy the raw ingredients yourself and figure out how much to dose it will be cheaper again.

:thup:

Town supply will be fine for african cichlids, in fact probably better as it will have a higher mineral content than rain water. Just make sure you use dechlorinator. You'll need RO if you go marine though.

I've never used them, simply made my own spraybar out of PVC.

Depends on the size of your return pump and how much water you want to move. 25mm would probably do, but you won't lose anything by going 32mm, and it will be cheaper as you could use PVC waste pipe instead of pressure pipe.

In the good old days.....

The stuff I bought from Bunnings was Cemix Builders sand, and was about $8 for 25kg. I've had no problems using it with clown loaches, so would think it should be fine for kuhliis. Just don't believe them when it says "washed" on the bag!

I looked into a pH pen, but decided given how often I check pH once a tank is running it wasn't worth the issue. I think people place far too much importance on pH, if I had a dollar for every time I'd seen a thread about someone stressing about their pH and trying all sorts of things to fix it without even testing hardness... well I could possibly afford a pH pen.... :lol:

For me, Nitrate/Nitrite/Ammonia/pH are essential for any fish keeper, API liquid tests are good enough and reasonably affordable, and they do a four-pack of those essentials. I'd also invest in GH/KH and a TDS meter seems how you're most likely to be playing around with the hardness of your water. Seems like a bit of money at the time, but they will last for yonks once your tank is settled and running.

I could be way off as it isn't really my area of interest, but from what I remember reading when we first moved here and I was looking into it, dolomite lime is a better buffer than coral or shell because it has both mag and calcium.

It usually takes a lot more than crossing fish A with fish B to create something that is enough of an improvement on the already existing natural varieties to be worth spreading around.

They did well keeping the eggs away from that loach!!

They're brown bullheads, Ameiurus nebulosus, and illegal to keep or return to the water alive. quite a popular redneck past-time I believe! :lol:

In that case, could a dirty canister filter full of muck also reduce KH? Nudge have you talked to the landlord about putting some lime chip in your water tank? Friends of ours who moved just down the road from us had to do that as the soft water was causing problems, like turning her light coloured hair green! (something to do with the acidity and copper from he pipes?) You could fill up an onion sack with some and put it in, then remove it when you go. I'm lucky Hannah's hair is dark because I sure as hell won't be ruining my lovely soft rainwater with limestone! :sml1:

Laguna have always been my choice for return pumps, I wasn't at all impressed with the Eheim Compact I bought. They're very efficient on power, reliable and quiet too. Certainly more expensive than the sunsun-type Chinese brands, but I do believe you get what you pay for with critical items like return pumps.

It will all be less noticeable when concealed behind a nice timber fascia instead of jacked up on offcuts of 3x2! That kind of "non-essential" spending will have to wait til we get back from my sisters wedding in the US in March though.

Sixteen days since cleaning the Poret and it has nearly clogged enough to get water flowing over the first sheet. It's probably got a few days left but I'll clean the first two sheets tomorrow.

Depends on the design of your sump and what you're using as mechanical filtration. If you really want to keep it quiet you need the outlets below the water level.

If you're going with two drains then definitely try a Herbie-type set up. Make one lower than the other and have that one adjustable with a ball valve so you can set it to run as a full siphon, then the other will just take the remainder, It really is that easy! I've sent you an email with the info I have on the Ramp Timers too, from what I've heard they are looking to ship them in October, and I'm guessing there will be a few of us ordering them.

Not really, but if you look at the pics I posted you'll see how I've done exactly that with 4' and 3' units over my tank. viewtopic.php?f=4&t=63535&start=225

Yes it's a good idea to make sure you can get your hand in there if needed! I nearly forgot about that with my tank, luckily Greg remembered on the build day and brought a wider piece of glass with him.

I got the Laguna PowerJet 11000, AFAIK they're the same pump as the MaxFlo series, but they come with all the waterfall crap for ponds. The MaxFlo wasn't available here but the PJ was, only downside was that I had to buy the adapter for the 40mm/1.5" return plumbing separately. I have two rows of the units on my 1200mm wide tank and I'm happy with the spread and intensity. With 1550mm length though you might find the ends are a little dim with the 4' unit but if you lift it up a bit it might be ok. Certainly the spread over 600mm width/depth would be ok with a single unit (IMO).

The herbie system is very simple, I'm running it on the 2000L tank and have one drain drilled lower than the other (coming out the back of the tank) and it is very quiet indeed. The key is to have both drains able to handle 100% of the flow from your pump (roughly), that way you will only need to close the ball valve ever-so-slightly to get the siphon running and the small amount left over will trickle quietly down the other drain. The Laguna pump I got from HFF, they didn't have it in stock so they managed to wrangle a good discount off the supplier so it was nearly as cheap as mail-order (and I'd prefer to support them where possible, plus it's always easier dealing with a local supplier for things like that if there are problems). The lights I got from www.kensfish.com

For the drains, look up "herbie" and "bean animal" overflows, basically you have one drain running with a ball valve so it is a full siphon taking the bulk of the flow, and a second drain that handles the rest of the flow. This system is silent (or near silent), far better than a single durso. If you're going for a full width full height overflow you'll have plenty of space. TBH I'm not sure if 32mm is enough, always better to have more capacity than needed when it comes to overflow drains! This thread has the maximum flow rates for pvc piping at full siphon; http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... Viewing%29 For the pump, I don't have experience with the Tunze, but I wasn't at all impressed with the Eheim Compact 5000. Have a look at Laguna, they're very quiet and very efficient on power (which can add up to a big difference in running costs long-term). Lighting, have a look at www.current-usa.com I can't recommend the Satellite + FW units enough. Looking forward to seeing the sump design.

I'll certainly be interested to see how it goes if you do, sounds like a good idea especially with the internal box like yours. I'm sure you could make it work with a full height overflow some how though.