David R

:oops: thanks! Know the feeling of procrastination all too well, hope to see it up and running soon!

Depends how often you use it I guess. Dads had a couple of poulans and they've been good. He bought a cheap chinese one from mitre10, no instruction manual, didn't have a prime on it, pullstart was made for tiny chinese hands and had rough edges that made my hands bleed while spending nearly an hour trying to get it going. Took it back and swapped it for another poulan. If you're going to be using it frequently and/or for prolonged periods then go for a stihl, but for occasional work around the house on the weekends something middle of the road should be fine.

+1, its going to get expensive when it gets bigger and only eats bloodworms!!

Yep. Could easily have been taken out of context of misinterpreted because of a number of factors.

I'm not sure if I'd go as far as laying a complaint, look at it from the other persons side; I'd imagine being an ambo is a pretty stressful job at the best of times. Being over-stretched and under-funded, and probably called out to a large number of call-outs where a car to A&E would have been a better option would be enough to make anyone a bit snappy. I can appreciate that for you having never experienced something like that and seeing your husband in such a state would be enough to make you freak out and I'm certainly not saying you were wrong in calling 111, but from the perspective of someone who sees stuff like that all day every day its probably easy to stay calm and realise that an ambulance may not have been necessary. It blows my mind every time I think about it that something as essential as a comprehensive ambulance service isn't part of our state-funded health care service, and even more-so that our so-called socialist parties don't seem to notice/care....

Or you could just say "organic and inorganic materials" for a suitable vague answer...

So were the balls submerged or were they above the water with it flowing thru them?

Interesting, did they have them in big mesh bags to stop them floating everywhere? Josh he/you could always pull an old tank to bits and re-make it as a sump?

Polystyrene won't make it waterproof, maybe teacher means polythene? Could have a ctack at making it from glass, with a decent cutter and set square it shouldn't be too hard to cut, then silicone it up. How big are we talking here? Design?

Whats they polystyrene for?? IMO you'd be better off using plastic bins unless you're going for something big. I considered all sorts of DIY options for my big tank and TBH with the price Greg charged for my glass one its hardly worth messing about to make something less than ideal.

awesomeness

Yep, but if it doesn't chances are you're not going to get anywhere near as much support as you would if you bought a quality product from a LFS....

Wood was just on the beach at Napier at the end of last winter, had to walk for miles sorting thru piles of unsuitable stuff to find a few good pieces though. Good luck with the plecs, tank looks great!!

Do we?

Where's DJPaulyPlec when ya need him....

Many people here have been there done that, there's an entire forum dedicated to them on MFK (follow Snookies link), try doing some searches for general information and then if you have any specific questions ask away.

By purchasing some heating cable and burying it in a bed of sand as-per the instructions. Try Pacific Growers in Mt Wellington.

I agree, looking at the SPCA would be a good move if you just want a nice family pet and not a particular pure breed. Beagles seem to make great crosses, our beagle X foxy is a lovely mix, and a friend has a beagle X pointer who is also a great dog.

I'd say you'll be in for trouble in a 200L tank if the cons pair up....

Yep, although you don't want to smear it, instead you want a nice thick even bead that is well thicker than the biggest gap you have to fill. The put the ply, poly and tank on, this will squash the liquid nails out and you can wipe the excess off. You may need to shim the wood in places to stop it sagging under its own weight (depends how thick and rigid it is) leaving a gap between the wood and the tank. I used short wood screws, you want the ply pushed up hard against the bottom of the tank with the gap in between the ply and the stand completely full of liquid nails. And give it plenty of time to harden before you [slowly] fill the tank.

A piece of paper and pencil! Just did a couple of very rough drawings to see how it would look with the cracks in different places, then started cutting and gluing poly.... Pics of the process are on page 3 and 4 of the link in my sig.

If you've levelling the top of the stand for the ply to sit on I'd use the liquid nails. If you need to level the feet of the stand because of an uneven floor I'd use a method like Smidey described, packing it up with shims. Not 100% sure about using DPC though, its designed to be more of a water-proof barrier between the concrete pad and timber framing of a house. Its just a kind of paper with bitumen on it, so I'm not sure I'd count on it supporting a couple of hundred kg's over a few square centimetres as you'll have with the feet of a steel stand. I'd recommend using 1mm steel shims, there are various builders brackets you can cut into appropriately sized pieces.

In reality you need some really really thick and rigid ply or supports close together for it to make much of a difference. Even thick plywood will flex a lot more than glass under load, and glass will only flex a very tiny amount before cracking (unlike even the thickest ply). TBH I think the ply is more of a mental thing for us than an actual necessity for the tank, I've seen plenty of tanks on timber and metal stands with out it. In fact its probably actually better as it focuses the load on the poly where it really needs it and allows it to crush more and better absorb the unevenness in the stand.

True I'd forgotten about that, I should have said the glass SHOULD be level! The liquid nails thing works well, I did it on my 5', its hard as rock and won't compress under the weight of the full tank. Been up and running for nearly 3 years no problem. Just need to use plenty of it and shim the ply where necessary to make sure it doesn't sag.

What background are you using? tank looks good, what are the dimensions? I'd do the liquid nails thing if your stand is out by 1-2mm. The best way to check is to put the glass tank on the stand with no poly or ply as the glass will be dead level. You'll need a few tubes though with a tank that size!!