David R

Correct, P. suttoni, pic taken from here. Ashdavid is a collector and photographer in Japan who has some absolutely amazing fish and tanks (like Snowy, and this 7000L tank) and used to post pics on MFK occasionally, but after constantly being hounded for other pics, full tank shots etc, as well as being tall-poppy-chopped he seemed to stop a few years back, unfortunately. But back to the plecos....

I know what springs to mind when I think rare catfish.... Looking forward to seeing it progress.

No reason it wouldn't work, but the investment into larger diameter hose will certainly speed up the process of changing water! I've found cheap pumps often over-exaggerate their flow-rates anyway. I was just thinking about that table I posted earlier and realised a flaw in my logic; there is no way that pump will be pumping anywhere near 5000LPH with that much head. In fact I'd budget on only around half that figure, maybe less, but either way I think you'd want the 25mm pipe if possible to help reduce the friction loss. You could always get the pump and bung your garden hose on the end to see how it goes, if it's too painfully slow then upgrade to a larger diameter hose.

Distance adds to the head height from the friction of the water moving thru the pipe, short lengths might not make much difference but 20M of pipe is going to seriously reduce the flow if the pipe isn't adequate for the volume of water the pump is trying to pump. As above, distance will add to it and while it may not be noticable with the average 1-2M of pipe used for a typical return for a sump, 20M will make a bit of a difference, especially if the pipe isn't big enough. If you're going to use garden hose you may as well have bought a smaller pump because the diameter of the pipe will reduce the flow so much that you'd probably get the same volume of water with a 1000Lph* pump instead. You're right by "undersized" I mean the diameter of the pipe used, and that a larger diameter hose means less work for the pump and more water flow. Just because the outlet of the pump is a certain size doesn't mean that is the right size pipe to use. I'd go for at least 25mm diameter with a 5000gph pump, if not bigger. If you like experimenting, try putting a couple of meters of narrow garden hose on the pump and measure how much it flows with the pipe vertical, then repeat with something like 40mm pipe. There has been a lot of good discussion on this topic on MFK, especially around plumbing size vs. GPH, I'll try dredge up some relevant threads for ya. *guessing the actual number, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was that big a difference! Edit, haven't found the thread on MFK but did find this; http://www.lancasterpump.com/documents/ ... adloss.pdf 5000LPH = ~22g per minute, with 1" pipe you're looking at nearly 20' head equivalent of friction loss if moving that much water thru 100' (~30M) of pipe! 1.5" pipe reduces that to about 2.5', and 2" reduces it to under a foot.

Just don't under-size the hose for it, 20M of pipe will add a fair bit of friction head to it, especially if it's too narrow for the volume of water the pump is trying to push.

Not to jack your thread completely, but for those interested in automation and hi-tech builds this thread is worth a read; http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... ll-journal He reckons the total cost will be close to US$100/gallon, though that includes the cabinetry around the tank. Here's a list of things [so far] that the Apex will be taking care of; 1.)auto-water changes from 75-100 gallon R/O storage tank that will be auto-dosed with ferts and minerals and regulated with Co2 and heaters to match tank parameters. System will overflow in the sump to a waste drain. 2.) float switches in the dosing storage reservoirs to let me know when they need to be refilled 3.)pressure switch on Co2 tank pre-regulator that will tell the Apex when the Co2 tanks are getting low 4.)float switch on main tank at top of rim that will turn off return pump if tank is about to overflow 5.)float switch in filter bag section of sump to warn Apex when filter bags are clogged 6.)flow switches on both pumps to tell the Apex water is moving through the pipes 7.)door switch to turn on canopy lights 8.)push button switch in canopy to turn on small clean-out gravel vac. pump for tank cleaning that will empty into a drain. This will also turn on the R/O storage tank pump and start replacing water you are draining. No siphons to get going, just stick hose I will keep coiled up in the canopy in the water, push a button, vac, push button again to turn off pump and hang up hose. Should take about 2mins to clean the tank. 9.)Canopy thermostate/humidistat that will trip relays telling the Apex to turn on ventilation fans and at what speed to set the fans.

Google Sketch Up, it's awesome for a free program, just watch a couple of the tutorials to learn how to do things. Didn't ring stand maker, the price from my guy up here is good but probably going to be at least a couple of weeks. How long did yours take?

Good fun.... Looking forward to seeing it done, I have a sneaky feeling you're going to beat me, but I did do this the other day...

My first fire eel got to 15" in about 2 years on nothing but bloodworms... I've seen some that grow really fast and get huge, and others that seem to grow a bit slower and don't seem to have the same potential. I wonder how many of them get stunted after being kept in small tanks at importers/shops for far too long, eating poor food and/or not enough, poor water etc. Some seem to not get so large, I guess with the tank above you'd be right to keep one for some time, over-sized fire eels aren't usually too much of a problem to re-home!

Thats what my engineer friend seems to think too, any shake strong enough to break that much weld to 'pancake' the stand will probably do so much other damage to the house and foundations etc. Might still add some corner gussets to mine... Hot-dipping the whole stand would be a disaster, but using galvanised steel then painting the welds would work. IIRc Hovmoller got them to galvanise my the stand for my old 800L tank he bought after he had it shortened, so it must be possible...

That is what I would be doing (in fact a whole poured concrete tank!) but wifey isn't too keen on anything that permanent, even though we own the house. Fair enough too, having to remove the fish tank with a jack hammer if we decide to sell wouldn't be fun! H, Fair point, I guess my old 1400L only had six feet so would have been well over 200kg per foot. Can you send me their contact details? I might get in touch with them about my stand. Did you talk to them about diagonal bracing?

IMO if your fire eel doesn't get to over 30cm you're doing it wrong! Just have a look on youtube, fire eels in the 3'+ range aren't unheard of, and 2' isn't uncommon.

Stand looks good, did they use 50x50 for the legs? I know the feet are rated for 900kg, but what is the concrete floor rated for? IMO nearly 200kg on a ~50mm circle is a lot of pressure, over 100PSI from my rough calculations.

4'x??? could be 100L or 1000L.... presuming its your standard 48x18x18" or larger, I'd say bichirs [except ornate], ctenopoma, smaller eels, pantadon butterfly could all work.

Mine too, well at least my second one that was fed pellets and raised in a 600L then an 800L tank. In fact in under two years it nearly caught up to my older one I'd had for years and raised to ~28cm in a 4' tank that only ate shrimp and beefheart. IMO waiting for fish to physically "outgrow" a tank is one of the worst things you can do when raising large growing species.

:thup:

I remember getting kicked out of SSR for laughing too much while reading the Hitch-hikers Guide, great auther...

My plecs still rasped the background in my old tank with all the food and wood. They certainly look good, might look a bit strange with no substrate tho. To get the 60cm water level how high will the overflow be?

I'm not sure how weathered it will look, or what the plastic would do to their digestive systems!! Maybe some sort of clear hard epoxy coating would help? How high are you making the weir for your overflow?

:facepalm: of course you can get them cheap then, not really relevant tho!! What part of Germany? It's a great country, looking forward to going back there some day, was very impressed with the Berlin Aquarium and the handful of shops I visited.

Australian lungfish. Very cool but on the CITES list so pretty hard to get. Reptiles I've seen bigger glass tanks overseas, and there will be another slightly bigger on here soon. Henward I'd think twice about the background if you're going to keep plecs. I've seen them destroyed by rays and I think panaques would be worse.

Chocolate zebras?

I'm away for the next ten days, will try get some when I get home.

I'd say they should be ok, though they will sometimes eat smaller fish if there is a big difference in size and they're hungry enough. Just keep them well fed...

If kept in a reasonable sized tank and few properly the growth should be noticeable, although I am convinced some of them end up stunted after being kept too long in tiny tanks in quarantine and at the LFS. One of mine has been growing considerably over the past few months, I need to sort out my big tank to keep him on a roll!