David R

Not quite as elegant as the pic Henward posted with his wife, but progress is being made, check link in sig for more!!

Of course not! I was merely stating his broad shoulders would make the width of the tank seem not so impressive by comparison to his svelte wife. Tank's going to be epic, really looking forward to seeing how it looks when its built. That aro is going to go crazy with so much space! ps. don't expect a pic of me lying on my stand... :oops:

Karin is rather narrow though, where's the pic of you lying on it! :lol:

Nice one!!! Got pics?

Even with Asians the fish cost vs the cost of set up, food, power, water etc over the lifetime of a fish that can and should exceed 70cm in length is minimal, you're talking around a dollar a day over the lifetime of the fish if you keep it for ten years. That is why I can't understand the popularity of silver aros, anyone who chokes at the price of an Asian or even a black obviously hasn't added up what it costs to maintain and run a large aquarium. On the subject of comms tho, my personal opinion is that they're best left for those with swimming pool sized tanks. It may be possible with less, but I'd rather have one perfect fish than half a dozen with missing scales and torn fins. If you're going to try it the most important thing is to have the ability to separate them if it goes badly.

How old is the car and how many kms has it done? Rotors do wear out, if you rub your finger across the face of it you may be able to feel a lip at the outer edge if they're getting worn. Quite often people wait until they start shuddering under braking, perhaps your mechanic can see they're getting worn and is trying to avoid one of those "why didn't you tell me they needed replacing when I had the brake pads done last week, you just want to be able to charge me double the labour you money hungry bastard" type conversations they often end up in.

TBH I think tanks that size on TM are often poor value for money given how cheaply Greg can make them. IMO if you're going to splash our on a steel stand at least get the tank made new so you can have it exactly the way you want it. You're probably only looking at $2-500 depending on the other dimensions and factors for a 120-150cm tank. Try Rex Industrial in Glenfield, that's who Henward used and I'm waiting on a quote from them now. http://www.rexproducts.co.nz/

Stand is a beast!! How many power points have you got there? With all the heaters/lights/pumps drawing a heap of power you may want to talk to an electrician about how much load they can handle. Would be pretty quick and easy to get another point or two installed before you line it.

TBH 215L already sounds a bit small for 10cm clowns, if you want to keep them growing and healthy then need room to stretch their fins. What are the dimensions of the tank? I'd suggest rather than waiting until they get big in a small tank, upgrade ASAP, you'll see more steady growth and will be less likely to stunt them. At that size IMO they should have something 4' long at the very least, ideally 6' if you want to keep them on a roll. 27C is on the cooler end of the spectrum for CLs, but unless you've got plenty of aeration and good flow I'm not sure I'd increase it much more. That said, lying on their sides in a cave seems perfectly normal CL behaviour to me. Is there anything else that is making you concerned, cloudy eyes, losing slime coat, etc? Keep up the water changes and feed lightly until ammonia is back steady at zero.

I've found the eels only bury themselves if other suitable cover isn't available. A long piece of pipe, a hollow log, or even a big flat piece of rock leaned up against the back wall will all work well.

Have you changed your mind about keeping these reef, or is this a different group of four?

Man I gotta sort my stand out, need to call Rex!! Can't wait to see it built, gonna be epic.

You'll want the big tank for the eel IMO. As others have said, anything the eel can't eat should work, I've kept them with all sorts from big dats, CA cichlids, arowana etc to angels etc. Try get it hand-feeding on something like shrimp and you'll have no trouble with more boisterous tankmates stealing the food.

Whats wrong with liquid nails?? I wouldn't do it unless the stand has a noticable unevenness.

Someone needs to develop a temp controller/monitor with a smartphone app that alerts you outside of preset parameters. I'd certainly buy one!

http://youtu.be/Awf45u6zrP0 I lost my :sml1:

So when can we expect these to be hitting the shops???

Sad to hear Nav. I often wonder with the value of livestock some of us keep why we don't invest more into monitoring equipment and back ups. Something I'm certainly going to look into for my next tank. Don't give up, life goes on.

Not mine [sadly, they're one african cichlid I love!] but has to be worthy of posting in this thread, 5-6" yellow calvus stolen from MFK...

Nice!!

I think there are two "blue eyes", P. suttonorum and P. cochliodon (not the one we see here under that name), maybe it was a combo of both factors?

Holy! didn't think they were that much, I knew they were a couple of grand a while back thou.

Yeah I forgot to mention they are actually are on the allowed list, and were (IIRC) available once upon a time many many moons ago, but not all that popular as the other "fancies" were far prettier with their stripes and spots and colours. Amazing what an export ban, greatly reduced supply and the internet will do for the popularity of a species, I think you'd be lucky to pick one up for much under US$5-600 now...

That stock would look amazing in a more "authentic" looking set up with more rocks, more wood and less plants IMO, but I'm sure a densely plated tank will look great too.

people claiming the fish weren't as big as claimed, photos faked because they had been "photoshopped" (ie shot in RAW by a professional photographer and edited), demanding to see full tank shots etc etc, the last few pages of these two threads sum it up really; link, link.