David R

Glad I'm not into the planted thing, I think I spent about 1/100th of that on substrate for my big tank! (3 bags of builders sand from bunnings, about $7 each). RE the ratings on the Jager heater, don't believe it. It really depends on the difference between the temp of the room and the tank. I only used two 300W Jagers on my 1400L, but it was in a small well insulated room with other tanks. I now have the same two 300W heaters on my 400L tank which is in my bedroom which isn't as well insulated, has the windows open all day and slightly ajar at night and I found one 300W was struggling to hold it at 27C over night (they both come on at night now). That said, the tank has a sump in an open steel stand with no insulation at all. I'm guessing your office will have some sort of aircon that will stop it getting too cold (or hot), so you'll probably get away with the two heaters, but they may constantly be battling the aircon (assuming the aircon is set around 22-24C and you'll want the tank around 26C).

What did you vaccinate the substrate with? :sml1: gotta love that iphone auto-correct...

Wish I could have a tank like that in my "office"!! How are you going to have the hoses? Having a hole drilled in the base and a tower up the centre so you could have no hoses hanging over the edge would have been nice, but would have added a whole lot of complexity. I guess if you hve them all at one end wouldn't look too bad. +1 for Hovmollers suggestion of the Eheims, the FX5 is a good unit but the 2080 is even better!!

Its surprising how something that looks so level can actually be a few mm out when something dead level gets placed on it! Thats a great spot for the tank too, are you going to leave it viewable from both sides? It would look really good like that with a hood of LED or MH suspended from the ceiling.

You should be able to get your hands on half of them here!!

Good work!! ps. you need nan light, would make colour look spectacurar!! :digH:

Complete african noob here, kinda confused, is this a hybrid? Regardless, it looks cool. And if it is, why is no one making a big song and dance about it like the other hybrid thread?

dragging this back up... have a look at his website; www.unungy.com

I never had a problem with protein film or similar building up in the overflow, even with the overflow on the 1400L which didn't have much fall. I think as long as there is enough movement in there to disturb the surface it won't settle in there. With the DIY skimmer could you drill a small hole in the bottom to prevent it running completely dry if the water level drops? I think thats how the skimmer backet on the old para pool we had as kids worked.

Good idea! Shame I always have sumps on my tank so have no need to make one, might have a go anyway just for the fun of it!

they'd better be built like Arnie if you've only got 4! My 1400L took 6 people to lift and that was made from 12mm glass (and probably had less glass than yours as it wasn't as tall), and only needed to be carried about 6 metres from the back of the van, through a double doorway and onto the 450mm high stand.

Hope you've got a small army of strong people, mine was heavy enough and it was only 12mm glass!!

Make the decision based on the stock available once the tank is running. They're all nice but you never know what will come in between now and then. It would seem silly to hang out for a nice pair of rams if the LFS has the Apistos in stock if you don't prefer one over the other.

Yes they take quite a lot of work to get tame in captivity. Have you tried hand-feeding?

You still haven't found a mermaid yet? Might have to sell you mine when she outgrows her tank....

Think long and hard before putting any fish in there as getting them out of a tank that size is a mission! (especially if its planted and/or full of large bits of wood that are hard to remove). I think you're on the right track with a large school of a single species, 50+ of any tetra in a tank that size will be a sight, but I'd opt for a species that is known to be a good schooler (like rummy noses) as you'll see that behaviour far more with a large number of fish and large body of water. IMO if you're going for the lightly stocked small fish theme then it would be best to leave out the BGK as they get pretty big and have rather large mouths. Also think about if you really want to add the odds and sods from your old tank, it may be a good time to move on the few randoms and focus on larger numbers of fewer species. If you want the minimal stocking look then a few angelfish, big school of tetras, some corys, and a few smalelr plecs/twig cats/ottos would work really well. Could even add in a few dwarf cichlids like Apistogramma or rams (would avoid anything that is likely to prolificly breed tho!). RE the sump thing; thats really a decision you need to make before you have the tank made (or at least before it leaves Gregs workshop!). It would be nice to be able to hide the heaters, but if you're going planted and low stocked it probably isn't needed. You may be able to look into an inline heater to work with the FX5 (or another external pump) if you want to de-clutter the tank, but it may be easy enough to hide the heaters with plants or wood. Looking forward to seeing it set up, I've always wanted to do a really big tank with small fish!!

I'm not misunderstanding anything. Yes there is no diagonal bracing in the centre of the stand, but IMO the structure itself is rigid enough to transfer the rigidity offered by the bracing on the ends right throughout. The the big glass box sitting on top of it is also very rigid and will/should only be putting even presure downwards over the entire area of the stand. And if a sideways motion should cause the the stand to flex the force will be right across the stand, unless the tank breaks it simply cannot put more sideways pressure on the centre of the stand than on the ends. Yes if you really wanted to you could ad a diagonal brace running from the front-top to the back-bottom but IMO it simply isn't necessary given the sturdy nature of the timber framing and the end braces. I'll be interested to hear Warrens thoughts on the subject. I've seen the stand he built for his old ~1200L tank (that Henward bought then sold) to survive a big Hawkes Bay earthquake. Now that thing was seriously over-engineered!!!

Looks to me like there is ply attached to the ends and to the front and back as well? I know it will be a heavy tank, but in anything other than extraordinary circumstances all that weight should be transferred through the legs to the floor and the bracing doesn't actually do anything. It is only when the tank is subject to side-to-side motion that the bracing is required, and although I'm no engineer or physicist I would suspect that the force required to cause the screws to sheer off and/or the ply to break would only occur during something extreme like a massive earthquake, which may or may not be an issue depending on the posters location. My old 5x2x2' was on a 4x2 timber stand with only six legs and no diagonal bracing (but a more rigid interlocking design rather than just ends screwed together), and that was on a timber floor that would wobble as you walked past the stand! I understand why people opt for the "always over-engineer" approach, but you have to draw the line somewhere. This discussion is getting sidetracked from the point of the thread, diagonal bracing could be cheap piece of mind, or unnecessary cost, weight and clutter in the stand depending on how you look at it. Up to you really...

Regardless, I'd still say that stand is more than solid enough with the sheer amount of timber that is in there, and the ply will provide more than enough diagonal bracing. If the diagonal forces are strong enough to sheer off the screws and/or buckle the plywood I would suspect you would have bigger things to worry about than your fish tank, like your office building collapsing... ps. If you're looking at more lighting look at LEDs over MH; way cheaper to run, last far longer, far more flexible, many options available from total DIY to off-the-shelf. MH is old technology and I'd put money on it that in 5 years the only reasons people will still use it is becuse they're stuck in their old ways and there will be an abundance of cheap second hand units for sale as people upgrade to LED...

7mm ply (never seen 8mm before) is what they use for bracing timber framing when building houses, even thin ply like that is very rigid with side to side movements. Perhaps if you're in Christchurch (putting your location in your profile is a good idea) more diagonal bracing would be needed, but IMO having that much ply screwed to the stand is plenty for places where the ground doesn't shake on a regular basis. IMO you've seriously under-estimated the filtration for that tank. The FX5 is a great filter, but even if the manufacturers claimed flow of 1500LPH is true I don't think its enough for even a lightly stocked tank of this size. The flow alone would hardly be enough to keep that large a volume of water moving, let alone keep the debris suspended and filter it out. I used to have one running on my old 1400L tank just for a bit of extra mechanical filtration (had the intake right by the dead spot where muck seemed to accumulate) along with a 5000LPH sump and a Tunze powerhead for extra circulation. I'm guessing my tank was a bit heavier stocked than what you are planning tho! IMO a sump would have been a better option (there are ways to make them very quiet; link), and if you're after gin-clear water it would have given you far more options like using filter socks so you can remove relly fine particles. That said, if you've decided to go with canisters (btw my FX5 wasn't exactly quiet, seemed to have a habit of getting air trapped in it and made a noticable bubbling sound) then two FX5s plus extra circulation would probably be ok depending on the stocking levels. I'd skip the carbon, it simply isn't necessary on a day-to-day basis and with the low turn over and small volume of carbon relative to the tank volume IMO it would be a complete waste of time/money/filter space. I would suggest setting the FX5(s!) up with the coarse sponge around the outsides, ceramic noodles or similar bio-media in the bottom two trays, and the top tray with filter wool and/or polishing pads or some other fine mechanical media to help remove the fine pariculate waste. Having this in the top basket makes cleaning/replacing it easy, and you'll only need to pull the baskets out to clean the coarse sponges every so often. I have found the flow from the FX5s to be not all that strong (I ran mine on my 400L tank before I had the sump set up and even in a tank that size it wasn't much) and I certainly wouldn't rely on one (or even two) to keep the water moving in a tank of that size. A small powerhead or two to keep the water circulating, the debris suspended, and the heat distributed evenly would certainly help. As for the heating, is this the kind of controller thing you're after? http://www.fish-street.com/aquarium_atc ... gory_id=60 I bought one recently but haven't set it up as I haven't had a chance to get the necessary adapters for it.. I ran two 300W Jager heaters in the sump for my 1400L tank and they would hold it at a constant 27C over winter no problems. That said, it was in a small-ish well insulated room with an 800L tank and a couple of smaller tanks, along with all the ambient heat generated from the lights, pumps etc. Depending on the temp you need and the temp of the office that may or may not be enough. Have you thought through how you'll do water changes? A siphon that reaches to outside or a drain somewhere is essential, and having the ability to pre-heat and treat a large volume of water is helpful if you're going to be doing larger water changes (probably not if its only lightly stocked?). I wouldn't set up another tank of this size with out at least a basic degree of automation (another thing a sump would have made easier) but if you're only changing 10-20% every 1-2 weeks it wouldn't be too laborious doing it manually. Well done taking on such a project, I know nano tanks seem to be the current trend but there is always something special about a big tank! Size matters and even if you're not into keeping big fish seeing small fish having the space to move and behave naturally is awesome. I really miss my old 1400L tank and can't wait until we've built/bought another house so I can set up another similar-sized [bigger!!] tank. There's a few people here with experience dealing with 1000L+ set ups and planning other peoples is nearly as much fun as owning one, so keep the questions coming.

Add a L190 royal to my list.... :facepalm:

I'd be interested to know what temps he is keeping them at, and if he is giving them a cooler period over winter.

They have been imported a few times before, not sure if I'd call them commonly available to. They are on the list (as Geophagus, not Gymnogeophagus IIRC) so could be imported any time.

I think the warmer temps in the fishroom and no cool winter period brought about their early demise. Great fish tho!

100% ego, mine is better than yours, etc etc. Surprised no one has suggested keepung then in water stained red to improve their colour...