David R

Yep, works as a really effective pre-filter if you've got fish producing large waste, certainly easy to clean and infinitely reusable.

Is it coming out of the sump itself or out of the plumbing? I've never figures out how to avoid the "crud" growing inside the plumbing, and subsequently have never really worried about it. Not sure how you could avoid turning the pump off either, you could do a water change via a drain in the sump with the system operating, but you'd need to turn it off to clean out the mechanical filtration at some point. The stocking idea would work, or just hold a fish net in front of the return when you first switch it on? And back on the subject of dirty filters, I've been running a net between the spray bar and filter wool on my sump to catch the sawdust and large waste before it gets to the filter wool so it can easily be rinsed every couple of days. Tank is ~420L and heavily stocked, filtered with the sump plus an Eheim 2223 and ViaAqua 300 canisters. Here is 2.5 days worth of muck; yes that is a small dog turd sized pile of sawdust....

Bass; yes. Trout; no.

Me too! I'd take a school of wild type discus over the pretty colourful ones any day. I like my tanks and fish looking natural, but from an an ethical point of view I'm not opposed to selectively bred hybrids, except for the "extreme" types with the messed up deformed bodies.

I couldn't disagree more. I'm of mixed feeling about hybrids. If you're going to attempt to selectively breed something awesome (actually "better" than just a regular species, kinda like fancy discus or flowerhorns) and are going to put some time and effort into it and will be marketing it as a hybrid then go for your life. But just haphazardly crossing A with B to see what happens (or just having it accidentally "happen" in a comm tank and then raising the fry) then trying to make a buck off the results by selling every last offspring is detrimental to the hobby, IMO. Crossing similar specie, where there is a high chance of creating something that will lead to identification troubles down the line (like the midas X red devil mess we have now, where pretty much everything not from a known and reputable source should be considered a hybrid) pointless and somewhat reckless. There are some very cool hybrids out there though, its sort of a shame the african cichlid community isn't more into it, look at what has been achieved with discus, imagine the potential for colourful peacock hybrids!

The mainstream stuff perhaps, but there is plenty of good underground stuff. But it is all subjective to personal taste I guess.

+1 for a sump on a tank that size. I think you'll probably want more than one big canister depending on what you want to stock it with, if you take that path.

Because you're sensible and don't want to run the risk of a filthy filter full of sludge turning toxic in the event of a power outage and polluting your tank?

Queen Live at Wembly will be one of my first destinations when I finally finish my time machine...

Nile perch, introduced for food fish and just about ate all the indigenous lake fish (which is probably why no one talks about them!)... Actually some of the Victorians are really nice, as the pics above show, and the hobby is largely responsible for their survival.

one fish from lake victoria I'd quite like.... :lol:

Rainbows will like it a bit harder than most of the others, but shoot for around neutral pH and moderate hardness. How are your plants doing with the low mineral content? Do you have a TDS meter? I've been using calcium and baking soda to try bump up my hardness (also on rainwater) but because of the large quantity of wood in the tank its fairly difficult. Might look at adding some crushed shell, or perhaps some beach sand. This link might be some help to you; http://www.theplantedtank.co.uk/RO.htm

HAH! The homebrew is in rapid decline as I haven't brewed anything since January, only got a bit of stout and a couple of not-so-good crates from my early attempts left. I know what you're saying about the fish being worth more than the tank, and just spread over the life of the tank etc etc etc, really just waiting to see what the difference in cost between 12mm and 15mm works out at...

I don't mind the look of algae on the back wall anyway, I never clean it in any of my tanks!!

Cool little gadget, but I think I'd rather just watch it while its filling...

I will find out an exact cost for each, but AFAIK its somewhere in the region of a 50-100% increase. The reason I want to be able to squeeze down the side is for access to the overflow more than the plumbing, I've had to rescue fish and other objects from there before and I think I may end up regretting it if I have to lie across the top of the tank to get into the overflow with a net to rescue a lost plec. Thomas you're right about not quite tipping the 2000L mark, but its just a number eh....

So I was moving my homebrew out of the garage and into the beer cellar (err, spare bedroom wardrobe), and walking straight past the tank room and though 'what better way to spend a sunday afternoon than making an actual-size mock up of my tank out of beer crates'.... Its one thing playing with numbers and sketches on paper, but putting it in front of you actual size is a different thing!! I've decided that the length will be 260cm, which will allow me just enough room to squeeze down between the wall and the end of the tank in case something gets stuck in the overflow. It looked kinda funny having it sticking out past the window too, so I think 105cm wide will have to do, that gives me 60mm at the back between the tank and the wall, which is plenty considering that the filter pipes will be running straight thru a hole in the wall. As for the height, 65 or 70cm, still not quite decided, 70cm is probably safe enough with 12mm, but still not 100%. The mock up was for 65cm high (4 crates is bang on 110cm total height, which is exactly what it will be with a 45cm stand) and that fills the room nicely. Cant get far enough back to take a pic of the whole thing... :facepalm:

Laminated is no good, only as strong as the thinnest sheet AFAIK. I'm interested to see with this simulation that the bottom corners show up as weak points (I am looking at it right eh?!). Why would there be more strain there than anywhere else along the sheet of glass?

How thick was the glass? I wouldn't bother with it for anything less than 15mm either, but at that thickness you do start getting a bit of a green tinge as well as more distortion when looking at it on an angle. I asked about black silicon and apparently it isn't as strong, so I think I'll give it a miss.

Maybe I'll set up some sort of hammock above the tank so I can gently lower myself in, should I ever find myself in a situation where a long stick won't suffice for reaching the back...

Looks like mine after a week, damn panaques...

The pH isn't what you should be measuring, its the GH/KH that matters as that is what will determine how easily your water buffers up or down when put with driftwood/coral etc. Your tank water may have a pH of 6.5 but it will have almost no hardness (unless you've got a new/unsealed concrete tank, and then I'd expect it to be far higher) so you'll only have to show it a piece of wood and it will crash.

I doubt it will drop low enough to kill any of your existing fish (as the change would happen gradually), but it would make introducing new fish troublesome. I'm currently battling a similar problem with my tank as A; it is full of driftwood and B; we're on rain water which has zero mineral content. My water is off-the-chart yellow on my API test kit but the fish are happy and healthy. Knowing the hardness of your water would help find a solution, but chucking some crushed shell/grit in the filter/substrate until it stops crashing is certainly the easiest solution.

What fish are you keeping? Any particular reason you want it higher?