David R

I've had a fair bit of experience with various greenhouses and I really don't think its a good way to go for fish. They will easily get well over the 28C you'd want to keep your tanks at, and on a cold winters night they offer zero warmth and almost zero insulation. Even a double-skinned warm-room built inside a large greenhouse in Auckland needed a fan heater to keep it above zero in winter. To make it workable for fish you'd need excellent venting that is thermostatically closed as the temperatures can fluctuate considerably (especially with smaller sizes) and an additional heat source for most of winter as no sun = no warmth. I've thought long and hard about building and running a mega-tank/indoor pond here in NZ, IMO the best bet would be to have it inside an insulated garage/building and run a heat pump to keep the ambient air temperature a couple of degrees warmer than what you want the tank at. If you wanted to use natural light you could either use solar tubes (more expensive to buy and install but better for insulation) or use some opaque roofing, maybe double-layered with an air gap to improve the insulation (cheaper to set up but less insulation means more $ on the heating bill).

Biggest difference is that the owner of that pond is in Malaysia, so the heating bill is zero...

Time and place really, if you're just interested in housing big fish comfortably and don't care how it looks then a big tank would do the job. If you want to build a nice feature thats going to be enjoyable to look at then go for something like this: http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... p?t=325084

A picture is worth a thousand words really..

Would need to be a mighty big spa pool to house pacus!!

^ quite common to do it overseas, seen it many times on MFK. Outdoors somewhere with winters like palmy north though, trying to keep that large a volume of water at 25C+ when the ambient air temperature is below freezing is going to consume a fair bit of power...

I agree completely, in an ideal world most buildings/homes would be self-sufficient with the main grid being only used as a back-up to reduce the reliance on energy stored in batteries (which need to be replaced regularly, creating more waste and pollution). Can you ever see it happening in the real world though? Similar story to alternatives to petrol, we could have had them long ago but we have reached a point where our advancement is being hindered by financial interests, and I simply cannot see a way around that.....

Better switch off your computer then, and most of your lights and other appliances given that most of Frances power generation has been through nuclear power since the mid 80's... As I said, its not perfect, and when things go wrong there are serious consequences. But both hydro or coal are guaranteed to do serious damage to the environment (habitats destroyed by damming rivers or mining coal) as part of their normal operation. How much environmental damage would that do in Europe if the E.U had to replace the 30% of its power generated by nuclear (80% for France!) with dams and coal fired stations?

Before and after pics, whole villages gone.... http://www.abc.net.au/news/events/japan ... eafter.htm

Why? Compared to burning coal or hydro nuclear is still far cleaner and greener. There are only two downsides; the disposal of the waste, and when something goes wrong it goes really really wrong. How many nuclear power plants are there operating around the world right now? How many rivers would you have to dam or how many tons of coal would you have to burn to generate an equivalent amount of power? The fact is that its taken a 9.0 earthquake (one of the strongest the world has ever seen) to cause this disaster. If it had happened somewhere on land and broken some big dams creating huge floods would you be applying the same logic and saying we should stop using hydro power?

Do you have your own nuclear reactor to power it?

I might know of someone who has some 4' double T5 hoods for sale, second hand gear may be nearly as cost-effective (and better suited) than a DIY kinda set up. I'll let you know if he's still got them.

yeah, my green still ate like a pig most of the time at 40cm+ though...

Looking forward to getting some fry, the pair have an 800L 6' to themselves now so no excuses!!

Yes.

Doesn't get much more Cantabrian than a female ex-Cichlasoma festae in breeding colours.... Another enormous pic too big to post My female a few months ago; huge pic

TBH having kept clowns on everything from brightwater and charcoal grey grit to white sand and bare bottom [white poly] I don't think it makes much of a difference with clowns. Hovmoller I take it you're back, want to come get that book some time? Its starting to look at home on my book shelf so feel free to leave it here if you want!

When he sells me the black!! Interesting observations, but don't forget they're all different ages, I'd say the jars appetite will taper off as it gets as big and old as the RTG.

Silica sand will be fine, they prefer fine substrates. Tank will need to be upgraded in a few years though...

The footage of the tsunamis coming inland is unbelievable! Thoughts and prayers for anyone with friends or family in Japan. My sister is in Hawaii, got woken up by the tsunami warning siren (just a warning though, not an actual evacuation) and decided to go stay with some people she just met further inland...

I'd suggest investing in a decent thermometer to measure the temperature before adjusting the thermostat on what is theoretically a high quality heater....

So is the heaters thermostat out, or your thermometer?

I know of one 3200 long, 1200 wide and 900 high, built into the guys house. Makes my 1400L 2400x977x620 look like a little bowl... I'd like to do something really big one day, probably not too deep but long and super-wide, I'd rather go for 3m long and 2m wide than longer and narrower. Loads of geos, uaru, angels, plecos etc. Pretty much just like my big tank but with double the floor area!

Awesome stuff Reef, great to see the society getting behind you to try to better the hobby in NZ................