Moya

Yep! Thanks for warning. I was going to try finish filling tonight but had to stop, so had the heaters placed in prep for that.

Hatchets! Great idea, I really love these guys. I'll probably go for the plain silver ones, and get maybe 8 or so. Well, I shimmed the stand in the weekend and used a proper level to see how it was all sitting. It's only out now by less than a mm. Over the past few days I have been working on it after uni. Daltons Aquatic potting mix went down first, and then the Coarse sand I got from Mitre Ten. I'm half way through filling it. I put some plants I had waiting in a bag into it this evening too. The sand is gorgeous. Its a lovely colour and grain size, and wasn't that awful to rinse. Heres an updated photo! Water is a little murky, but much better than I was expecting. I'll continue filling tomorrow and then do the big filter/fish switcheroo next weekend.

Well, I'm going to shim it in the weekend (and possibly shimmy as well?). But I shall do the two separately I think, for safety's sake. I had a hunt around last night and actually found a decent amount of 7mm ply left over from an aviary construction, so I'm all sorted there. Ive got a friend coming around in the weekend to provide the muscle for actually lifting the SOB up enough to put the ply under. Then after that...fun stuff! I have my sand already (Course sand from mitre ten) and I will be taking plenty of pictures in the weekend as I fill etc. Ive always been a bit durrrrrr on what I'm going to put in it exactly, other then my Discus and my clowns. I'm planning to keep it VERY simple in terms of species diversity. I don't really want to end up with 4 different types of Tetra for example. The plan is still probably going to be Discus + clowns + cardinals + smallish fancy pleco of some variety (nugget?) + nice rams/apistos. Its all very much up in the air though! Who knows, I may still wake up one morning, sell all my discus, and have a couple hundred cardinals instead! Ive never stocked a tank this big, Im so not use to having this much freedom in the amount/range of fish I can put in. Its exciting. Will also be hilarious putting my first discus in there and watching him buzz out on how much room hes got.

Okey dokey. So I popped a bucket of water in today to see how level the beast is (dont have a proper level = fail) and its 7mm out on one end. Obviously this isn't a true measure, as it will change a bit more once its completely full, but what do you guys think? To shim or not to shim? I'm thinking shim to be on the safe side...

Hahaha. Creepy And oooooh I completely disregarded the Congos. Hmmmmm. I may think about this one. I might just prefer to just have the Discus as the feature fish. The congos might detract from them a little bit. Although, this is the first time ive had something this big, so im not sure, the dynamics of it might look quite different. I do love the espeis. And theyre cheaper than cardinals! Fantastic schoolers too, which is actually their biggest drawcard for me. And yeah Im not sure about the Incisus. When I use to be at Mt Eden Animates the Bosemanis in the display discus tank were no trouble whatsoever. But boy did these Incisus make a fuss. Anyone had any experience with temperaments of Bosemanis/Incisus rainbows? Also, David R, Im totally loving the short stand already. So much better than the heights Ive had previously

lol. Hold a second how do you both know who i am? I know it's from Animates but... A-town are you at Henderson?

Ive tried this before, and it didn't go terribly well. The rainbows are so fast and highly strung that they stressed the discus out. In saying that though, it was in a smaller tank. I'm going to give it a shot though, and see if it works this time.

Haha, definitely.

Well I've got to say, I do have a bit of a crisis every now and then about whether I should perhaps fill it with Incisus rainbows, and maybe sell my Discus. But I'm really attached to one of my discus, so have to keep school numbers. You know what this means guys. Another tank, exact same dimensions, other side of the room. 8)

Thanks for your appreciation Fruju! :lol:

I know right. Ridiculous. But yeah, about that.

Thanks for the comments guys! I'm super excited to be stocking it. For the planting mostly to tell you the truth! As to the liters, 460L was worked out taking into consideration the 12mm glass thickness.

Hey guys! So I thought I'd do a thread for pictures as I setup my new 460L and begin the planting. First some specs. 143.5cm long 55cm wide 65cm high The length dimension is a bit of a strange one because It was made to fit an unusually sized stand I and a friend made. The stand itself is steel, with extra 2 by 4 wood bracing, and marine ply on the top, back and sides. This has all been painted black. Its a pretty short stand (53cm high) but should make if a perfect height for viewing from the couch. Over the next few weeks I'm going to sort out the front panel for the stand, which will be a single piece of ply that will be velcroed on to the front for easy access to external filters etc. Hood also needs to be constructed too, once i feel a bit richer. This is going to be a planted tank, so lighting is two 4' GLO t5's I already have, as well as possibly a 3' GLO t5 from another tank and then a t8 for night lighting. The tank is quite deep, so I know im going to struggle to have any real success on growing carpeting plants on the bottom, but im going to give it a whirl and see what happens. For filtration Im throwing a couple of external eheims on it for the moment, a 2224 and a 2213. My discus are going in this one, 7 in total, along with my clown loaches and then some tetras and other filler fish. Possibly male espei rasboras? Or maybe just cardinals. I picked up the tank today from Greg Kingston (thanks Greg!) and with the help of 3 others got it out the back into my room, ready and waiting on its stand for next weekend, when I will start all the real work on setting it up. But anyway! Here it is.

Where did you get this sand Artem? Its a gorgeous shade.

Got to see him a few weeks ago when he came to Auckland. Coolest guy. The interviewer asked questions every now and then but basically he just spent two hours ranting and telling awesome stories. Like how he made his own sword when he found out he was going to be knighted.