David R

Greg is pretty good with his pricing and TBH I wouldn't bother making a tank of that size given what he would charge you. If you want the challenge of DIY then get in touch with him as he may be willing to supply just the glass cut to the right size.

TBH I wouldn't want my fish being fed daily if they weren't going to get a water change for three weeks. I'd forget about the automatic feeder and get a flatmate to tip a pre-prepared food parcel into the tank once a week just to keep them going while you're away. I've left larger fish for three weeks with no food no worries, but with smaller fish I'd suggest giving them a little once a week.

certainly worth using the bigger stuff IMO.

The diameter of the piping will have a big effect on the amount of water the pump is able to flow. How big is the current piping vs the piping for the new filter? Bigger = better really...

Yep they're #2 on the 'should have bought hundreds before they were rare' list! I recall having a conversation with the LFS owner up here years ago along the lines of "why would you pay fancy-pleco-price (probably ~$100 at the time) for something that looks like a boring old common pleco with a blue eyes"..... :facepalm:

I "regret" selling my first black aro, but having moved house 12 times in three different cities in the 11 or so years since then I know there is no way I could ever have maintained the size tank I needed to keep it. TBH I don't have many such regrets, perhaps the only other fish I could have actually avoided was selling my big clown loaches, everything else I've sold has been to make way for something cooler or because of downsizing tanks. As for fish I regretted buying, not much springs to mind. Even my first firemouth that rapidly decimated my original community tank I don't regret as it sparked an interest in cichlids. Actually, I really regret not buying a big group of L46 10-15 years ago when they were fairly frequently available and well priced..... :lol:

acara I was in Crete a couple of years ago and I too was amazed by the attitude of the locals, even many of those far too young to remember, when they discovered we were kiwis. Sadly we didn't make it up to Maleme, but did spend a bit of time driving around out of Heraklion to see some of the countryside. Beautiful place, will certainly go back some day and get up to Maleme.

Talking about Anzac Day, I had an interesting talk to an uncle about my Grandfathers time in WW2. I always knew he was a medic and involved in the battle for Maleme airfield on Crete, where he was taken prisoner and held in a German POW camp for a few years, but that was about the extent of the detail. He died ~20 years ago so I never spoke to him about it as an adult, but it turns out he actually did open up once to this uncle and told him a fair bit about what actually happened. After the main battle for the airfield (Germans invaded with paratroopers and took the airfield) there were a lot of guys hiding in the hills in caves with many wounded, some seriously. He was in a cave with a fairly big group of guys including several seriously wounded who didn't have much of a chance without proper medical attention, so they decided a group of them would surrender and carry the critically wounded down so they could get them to a hospital. And that is how he ended up being captured, basically giving up his own freedom to save the lives of his mates. Then while in transit on the mainland of Greece, heading for Poland/Germany they were in a convoy of trucks with the wounded in the back, one German guard in the cab and a couple of them alternating the driving. The guard would regularly fall asleep during the night, and one particularly foggy night while they were at the back of the convoy they lost sight of the others at a T intersection. The guy driving decided they should make a break for it so they took off in the other direction away from the convoy. A few minutes up the road they stopped and check on the guys in the back and how bad they were. There were several in pretty bad shape who would have no hope of escaping and little hope of anything without the proper medical care they were receiving, so they turned around and rejoined the convoy, once again forsaking their own freedom to help others. Kinda blew me away really, there must be thousands of other such stories of bravery and self sacrifice that have gone untold over the years because those involved would rather forget and try get on with normal life.

I'd still like to know how they are even able to import them given that they don't have a valid scientific name...

Just make sure the end of the hose is up so it doesn't get blocked as the substrate piles up. Trying to free a hose that is blocked with wet impacted sand is a real PITA!

Not sure how much of it is the actual substrate, or how much it is just the water surrounding it. But the stuff I took out of the tank felt a hell of a lot warmer than the cold stuff I'd just finished washing! Not sure why, but it always seems like washing substrate is something I end up doing during the colder months... :facepalm:

TBH I've got no idea if it makes much difference, but last time I did it the tap water was ice cold and so was the substrate after washing it, so in the interest of trying to keep the temperature drop to a minimum I though it would make sense to try remove as much cold water from the new substrate as possible.

or try PMing him, or try trademe, or call your LFS.....

That is what I've done in the past, except I'm not so careful tipping it in! Turn the filters off (obviously), pile it all up down one end so it is easier to siphon, suck it out, tip the new stuff in, water change, done. You just need to watch it when you're siphoning as it can become compacted in the hose if you try to take too much at once or the siphon hose has a low point or a long flat run, I've found its best to have the hose continually running downwards to keep it flowing. It doesn't hurt to pre-heat the new substrate with a couple of jugs of boiling water too.

Cheers, good to know. Right now with what I'm in the middle of a suggestion of spending even more money on another fish tank would make me rather unpopular...

$1800 according to HFF's website, plus you get $300 vouchers to spend in-store. Nice looking bit of kit, but I think I'd prefer to go custom for a living room tank for that kinda coin.

Looking at that I'm a bit surprised Greg opted to drill the brace for the returns rather than the back of the tank! The returns look quite low too, are you going to raise them or drill them so they don't siphon back too much water when the power goes off? Plumbing looks pretty flash though!

HA! I deserved that... Here is the pic from the Juwel website showing the "dimensions", but it looks like the height of 66cm includes the frame around the top and bottom. Is the actual tank 66cm high? My question should really have been 'how high is the water level'...

What are the dimensions of the actual tank? It's a nice looking unit, I'm presuming the "300" means 300L? Wonder if I could convince the wife one would look good in the lounge?!

Both my Grandfathers served in WW2, one in Crete, who was a medic and was captured at Malame (Crete) and the other with the Signals in North Africa and Italy, neither talked about it much but both seemed to do their best to return to a "normal" life with that same sense of duty they had during active service.

:nfs:

Pics not working. I'd say the Scarlet Pleco (L25) is probably the rarest as I doubt it has ever actually been imported before.

There's no limit to what glass can do, if you have thick enough glass. I've seen an 8x6x3' all glass in the UK! Just noticed, did you go for black silicone??

:thup: Looks really good, need to get Karin in there again to show the scale of it!

Looks good, great practice for Greg! Did you go with the sponge filter in the corner? Where is the pic of the finished tank!