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.

Got to say, while it is neat, and It make me cheer "Go Science!" I don't see the appeal of keeping a tank like that.

It sucks there were dead fish. They shouldve been more onto it when people alerted them to their presence. The fact is that Animates really is more of a cat/dog store, which is obvious in the way that every new successive store has a smaller fish section than the last. So don't expect much when your going into the newer stores. In saying that there really are some fantastic people in the business who know their stuff. Or more importantly don't know everything and will tell you when you've asked a question they don't know the answer to and don't want to lead you astray on. I think it always pays to ask to see the fish person when you go into these shops. And if the store has no person with the expertise, go elsewhere.

Just thought I'd share a photo I took today of the little beardie we have at work at the mo. He is TINY but is a real little goer. Meet Littlefoot!

Awwwww he looks super cute and friendly!

Man, totally wish I was closer, this looks great. Should be someone on here who this would be perfect for... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-me-jobs/ ... key=193469

Hey mel! Unfortunately its an ongoing prune. Whenever you see a new leaf reaching for the surface you need to pinch it off. This is done right down at the node (the point where the leaf stem separates from the rest of the plant). If you leave a few at the surface this indicates to the rest of the plant that this is a feasible direction of future growth. So you can if you want to but it will mean more stems reaching in this direction, and thus more pruning. As a side note, blue light promotes low bushy growth too. So if your not averse to having a blue light in your tank, then this can help. It will affect all your plants though.

Found a couple of sites with likely identifications. Could be possible its from the same family as tubifex, and that its one of/cousin of these guys... http://protist.i.hosei.ac.jp/pdb/images ... ria_2.html http://aelmh.free.fr/Stylaria_lacustris.htm http://www.micrographia.com/specbiol/he ... ylar00.jpg Family Naididae of the Oligochaeta.

"promotes betta flaring"? What, because the dividers partially transparent so they're always trying to assert themselves? Is'nt that a bad thing...

I think its important when owning a bird to simply be aware of what your pet might otherwise be enjoying if it was living free in the wild. A healthy bit of guilt will make sure your always striving to do better and better by them. Also, personal opinion, but if you can at all help it then a bird that flies is...well, a bird! I think wing clipping is a fantastic tool for training, but allowing them to grow back out when you have mastered 'manners' with them is great. So long as, of course, your situation is such that they will be able to fly safely (in a an aviary, a safe room etc). Watching Spud fly round is wonderful, and you can see the kick he gets out of it. Doing little acrobatics and such. Heres the little man in question with my Granddad. I agree about the Cockatiel recomendation too btw.

Hey Elmo LFS are generally have a 24hour guarantee on their livestock. But you MUST keep the fish in future (This is so that you can prove that your not just having them on and the fish are happy back home). You also take a sample of tank water for testing, and if It comes back all clear than they should gladly replace your fish. Still worth a shot letting them know that they died, and that you flushed them though, just in case they are feeling nice. How big is your tank as well? What fish do you keep?