David R

So are you keeping the big tanks in the house? Obviously you've got a pretty good landlord, but I'd think long and hard before spending big $$ on stuff that isn't going to be easily relocated and set up elsewhere, possibly in a different configuration. How certain are you that you're not going to be moving in the forseeable future? Is the room going to be more for breeding or just keeping fish? ie do you want a bunch of grow-out type tanks, or are they all going to be "displays"? Si that is a nicely planned set up, but it seems like a bit of a waste having it locked away in a room like that (which is what I've ended up with) if you're going to be designing/building a house with the tank in mind. Ideally IMO you'd have the front of the tank built into the wall of your lounge so you can chill on the couch watching the "wide screen" and have the actual tank and mechanics of it in a room as you've shown above.

You could test it with a slurry of ice and water, it should be pretty close to zero. or as Krazy_Geoff suggested "calibrate" the cheap ones off a good one by writing the difference on them. The expensive one above is within <0.5C of the temp on the controller for my heaters, so unless they're both equally inaccurate ... (along with my TDS pen, the temp on all three is within a few tenths). I've played around with the lights and the shadows from the bracing are unavoidable. So the 30W floods will be used for lighting the deck and bbq, and I'll be looking at either these; http://www.ebay.com/itm/2-PACK-DEAL-48- ... 337ff52d00 or these; http://www.kensfish.com/aquarium-suppli ... -inch.html Thinking four 36" units suspended about 20-30cm above the tank should work well.

you've got the space for it, and if you're building tanks from ply you might as well make the most of it with 2.7M sheets! I guess if you want to keep a bunch of different fish that require different water parameters then several smaller tanks would be better. The other big piece of advice would be to make at least one big display tank that you can chill on a couch/armchair in front of. I found having tanks in a separate room meant you had to really make an effort to go look at them (like just looking, not going there to feed, clean etc) and having somewhere comfy to sit made that a whole lot easier. If you're having other tank(s) in the house then you can ignore that, but if all your fish are in the one spot make sure you're set up to spend some time in there.

How many litres are you going to be changing daily? Could you not plumb the drain into one of the downpipes from the garage spouting? I saw a build on MFK where the guy is building a bog garden to take the water from his auto system. 3.3x5M sounds like a great size for a massive tank across one wall, 2.7x1.2 footprint would be ideal! 8)

2.8x1.2x0.7!!??!!?! any pics, or is this just a conceptual design? Cam, I can't help much with the fish room plans, the main thing I found with my room (about 4-5 med-large tanks in one room) was that it needed better ventilation to avoid the humidity/musty smell. I think a heat pump + good insulation + an extractor fan would be a good investment for a serious set up. I guess you need to think about what you want to keep/breed and plan it around that. Do you want a bunch of 2'ers for small fish, or bigger tanks for breeding bigger cichlids, or a few different displays? Make sure you have some sort of automated (or semi-automated) water change system, what ever you do. Even just having an open drain below the tanks you can siphon into is a big help. And a big container to pre-heat and treat water in (perhaps even hard-plumbed in so you just have to turn on the pump and open the ball valves for what ever tanks required).

The difference between a $5 thermometer and a $40 thermometer? About 6C! So the tank was actually warm, but I've added another couple of 300W heaters (five total now) which will all be run off a controller once Henwards Father-in-law has finished building it. Thinking about adding some fish tomorrow!

+1 for that idea. Fill it to ~60cm high and have some plants and wood sticking up to fill the remaining height. You'll also have less issues with getting light to the lower levels with only 60cm water depth too.

The guys on MFK seem to rate the Beamswork units as fairly good bang-for-buck, expecially the latest third generation ones. Have a look on ebay, or I think fishstreet sell them.

That kind of bracing is standard on anything over a few hundred litres. I agree with the_obsticle, you're taking a fair gamble filling it to full heigh. I know you said you've test-filled it, but it's only going to break once... I can't comment on the hallides but I would suggest seriously look into the LED option, either DIY or off the shelf. The higher cost will very soon be made up for by the lower running costs and longer life. The 30W LED floods I'm running on my tank are supposedly the equivilent of a 400W halogen.

Yes, I doubt you can undo countless years of evolution/creation by slowly lowering the temperature.

It is now that I've made a spray bar, it certainly wasn't before!

I hate to be the bearer of bad news for your first post, but an 840mm high tank with only 10mm glass only has a safety factor of 1.4, which is pretty risky IMO! http://www.theaquatools.com/building-your-aquarium If it were me I'd fill it to about 600 high and have plants/wood sticking out of the water. Not sure how that would work with your sump plans though.

Because I've finally managed to track down some of that plastic egg crate stuff the yanks and aussies are always using for cool stuff but we can't get! (Thanks Hovmoller) I'll have a piece of that supporting the last piece of foam and that should keep the others from bowing too much.

Possibly, but I doubt there would be many ponds in NZ [without some sort of heat source] that stay above 12C year round. And even then 12C is marginal for those cichlids...

Texas is one of the species I have often wondered about as they are from about as far north as any cichlid. I've heard of them surviving outside in the US down to about 60F (~15C), so I don't like their chances here over winter, even right up north. Same goes for Gymnogeophagus balzanii, which comes from well below the equator and really needs a cooler winter period down to about 12-15C (IIRC) to thrive/breed. I think they'd do fine in an unheated tank indoors, but not outside. I just did a water change and the temp of the water from my rainwater tank was only about 8C.

Pallet: Pellet: I agree with Henward that Hikari make really good carnivore pellets, both the sinking carnivore and the massivore. NLS mega fish formula is also good, but HFF aren't stocking it any more so you'd have to look at getting it online (talk to Smidey, I think he knows where to order it). I disagree about the heart though, I'd rather feed prawn or fish fillets than beef heart, seems a bit more natural?

Spraybar done, everything running as it should be! I'm pretty happy with how quiet it is for the amount of water that is being moved, will be even quieter once the pump is sitting up on a sponge. http://youtu.be/Gal9R8epz8w I'm about to head into town to get some C-channel to mount the lights, and I'm going to start heating it tonight. Only problem I've found with the Poret is it isn't rigid enough to support itself against the flow of water, I'm going to try track down some egg crate to put behind the last sheet to keep it from sagging too much. The aim is to have fish in it by the end of the month, fingers crossed! ps. are these pics working for non-MFK people?

I highly doubt it, certainly not in any long-term sense and certainly not thriving. If they did [which they won't] I certainly wouldn't go crowing about it on a public forum where the authorities have been known to browse, the last thing we need to do is give them more reason to restrict/ban fish!

The bottom piece of wood is sitting on the floor, the bit supporting the sump is level! My garage floor (and under the tank too) is out by about 4cm over the 2.2 metre length of the sump.

Nah I still need it for now sorry.

I'm a firm believer that there is a whole lot more to DE than environmental factors, which is why 99% of silver aros get it and very few others. It is very rare with jardini/pearl, so I think you're fine to do what you like with the substrate etc.

On the main road, he's on the straight just south of the round-about, on the left heading south. I've got a 200L drum from the guy in Albany (Barrys Barrels?), it had olives in it and took a fair bit of washing (and people still chuckle that it has "black large" written on it...), but at least it is food safe. Not sure what the Ruakaka ones have been used for.

I think big clowns would be too boisterous for corys, not to mention the high temperatures required for the loaches could shorten the corys lifespan. Small clowns with corys from warmer regions could work though, and the plecs should be fine, they all like softish water with a bit of flow.

Without knowing what was in it it is hard to say if it will be safe, can always try it, test the water, then maybe try it with a small tank with 1-2 fish as a test run? Otherwise there is a guy out Ruakaka way on the main road who always has drums and barrels for sale at the end of his driveway. Let me know if you want to borrow any jerry cans or plastic bins for the move.

They're pretty noticeable, because the light comes from one direct spot and spreads out it casts a much more defined shadow that a typical aquarium light, which kinda looks cool when you see the shadow of the driftwood, but not when you see the shadow of the silicone in a straight line!