the-obstacle

You've got a big empty space in the middle that could house an awesome plant! Looks awesome as always

Planting complete. I don't have room for p44's rose x ocelot mother plant unfortunately. I somehow killed all my twisted val and star grass in the plant storage tank over the last couple of months so I'm on the hunt for more if anybody has some? Also any suggestions of interesting plants that will love high light conditions? As far as fish go I added 2 small and 1 medium L140 plecos, 3 panda cories, 1 male and 3 female apisto agassizi. Tomorrow I hope to transfer a few more pandas and some stem plants from the community tank and get the MH fixtures mounted above the tank. Then the rest of the work can be done at a more leisurely pace. Still need smooth sand for pandas and ultimately geos (constantly trying to not use the silica).

Yeah, it's really hard to tell with that sand. I do know what you mean about running your fingers through it. The daltons no. 1 is actually ok as long as they don't try to gill filter it. I can't be sure that'll work. I've got about 8kkgs of silica left and I've created a sand area that can be siphoned and cleaned if the silica ends up being crap so I'll give that a go first then maybe go shopping after the school holidays.

If it any consolation the 6 foot plant you sent me took it's last breath today. It never did recover from shipping.

I have pure white silica in one of my tanks and I just got used to it looking like crap for a few days between vacuuming it up. Either that or giving it a quick once over every day but I quickly got tired of that.

Seems a lot but if the filtration is good shouldn't be a killer. I would have thought you'd want more than 4 times the tank size an hour for a fully stocked tank though. Should be ok though. Give it a go and be prepared to add another cannister to the tank if required.

Thanks heaps. i need another massive one though - big plans I'll check out the sand there too. would be great tp see the outcome of your tests.

Anything that's suitable for a 60 litre tank would suffice. You want something that'll turn over about 300L an hour but then we don't know what you're putting in it so you might need more.

I use an eftpos card too - it's awesome.

Well, I got it half scaped. Put in 50 litres of daltons aquatic mix and 30 litres of daltons no.1 sand. Tomorrow is planting day but I need another bag of riverstones as I used the 20kg bag I got from Sophia today. Might also increase the sand covering the daltons before I plant. Either way - it's all go from here on in. The heater is on and the apistos are going in tomorrow before I plant as they're freaking out in their 20L holding tank. I also need their filter on this tank so it's win win all round. I still have a sand issue for the front unplanted part of the tank. I'm considering just going with good old fashioned silica if I can't find any other alternative. At least I know it's not sharp and the rams and cories are cool with it. I'd like something a lot darker in this tank though. something that matches riverstones perhaps? I thought I could get away with the daltons no.1 but, while it turns out it doesn't have pumice in it, it does have sharp edges and that's not cool. Oh, I've also organised the sweetest viewing chair that's going to be built on top of 2 shipping pellets so I'll be at the perfect viewing height. I think DavidR has done hte right thing with the low stand for perfect couch viewing. That's today's update. Oh, forgot to use emotes. :facepalm: there you go.

Put the apistos in the planted areas and the pandas will have no choice

Will do - antwan uses the same ones so he might like to chime in too. -The bulbs and glass front get mega hot - searing skin hot. Interestingly the back of the ones I have are fairly cool as they're designed to go in ceilings. I imagine after an hour or 2 it'd be like the heat generated by a oil column heater on full. -I suspect they'll use 150W each -Overall light output puts every single light setup I've ever seen to shame. I had my 4xt5 light hood on at the time on the tank on the other side of the room and I was able to flood the tank with 1 MH light 6 metres away. The spread is fairly good but because they're relatively small units (not 4 foot long) they will need to be 1-2 feet above the water level. Even at that height I don't expect there to be much loss on the bottom of the tank under 60cm of water - these things are hella bright!

Yeah, I was going to say my CF1200s are pretty quiet. My eheim 2224 is also silent unless it's got air or too much muck in it.

3 foot powerglo and 2x 150W Metal Halides are go! Still need sand :roll: :facepalm: :facepalm:

I have a fluval internal in my guppie tank and it's pretty much silent. The only noise I can hear is the water rippling at the surface as I run it at full output speed.

It's relatively fine, a bit gritty but not sharp (if that makes sense). It's all sea sand from very very old dunes that are now inland enough for there to be a few kilometres between the sea and the inner edge of the dunes which are now covered in pine forest. It's the same sand you'd find on muriwai beach.

Nah, it was from a place by the woodhill mountainbike park that I suspect is the quarry for all the "woodhill" black sand products sold around the country. It has a high iron content which put me off a little but I'm not sure exactly how bad the iron would actually be in a tank. It was the colour that put me off - it just wasn't quite right. Perhaps if it was mixed with a builders mix to give it a bit more texture it might look better.

There are t8 to t5 adapters on trademe that do all the hard work for you.

The answer is: Not for my tank - it's the wrong type of dark (if that makes sense) and it just looks like mud when wet. Has anybody tried the Cemix builders mix or the Cemix Sterilised sand from bunnings? It comes in paper bags so I can't see the colour without buying any. I noticed the Daltons No.1 sand has pummice mixed in with it and it seems to be a sharp sand so I'll stay away from that for the geos and pandas.

Yep, I'd go for 2 pairs or 5 of one species. Once paired off and breeding they get pretty aggressive and territorial. It looks like you've got heaps of room for fish to get away and lots of good hiding places for some dwarfs so go for it. In good water all you should need to do is add little pots and apistos will breed as soon as they're ready (in my experience (which doesn't say much)). Oh, I've got cockatoos and blue rams in the same tank at the moment and they don't really care about each other at all.

I've got a large pile of old clay bricks from when our place was renovated. They used to form the path around the house. Do you think I could use them in a tank to create an industrial wall type effect? I'll do the obligatory soak tests before hand to make sure I'm not going to poison anything, and I expect them to add a bit to the ph. Just wondering if anybody has used them before or if there is any reason why I shouldn't? Cheers Dan

My point exactly

I just used acrylic house paint and rolled it on. awesome finish but crap paint choice. The best finishes come from using enamel paint with a fine (foam) roller. If you can't be bothered with a roller the spray can would be the next best thing.

Nice! Needs more cories

Not sure, I'm heading out there tomorrow so I'll let you know.