the-obstacle

That is truely awesome. Thanks for the extra info.

Just give it all a really good wash in a bucket before it goes into the tank to avoid any clouding in the water.

Crap got a free pass just before christmas.

Yo! @Mark - sorry to hear. If you need a home for birds or fish (or anything that doesn't require a permit) let me know. I'm sure many many many will be keen to help out. Then again, you probably didn't want this conversation to happen here. If so please use your admin skills and delete this post.

I was there 3 years ago and thought the place was awesome except for the monkey enclosure. It looked overgrown and run down and they didn't look well kept. Maybe I was expecting too much but I thought they could do with a bit more space.

So it turns out Harvey is a righty. I'm getting the feeling he's a she too...

Do you do 100% water changes weekly? I'd put some bio media in there to catch what you don't know is there - it might do nothing or it might save a life.

yep, should be fine.

should be fine just make sure you get thicker poly than you normally would as it will sag where it touches the metal. For peace of mind I'd put a sheet of ply/mdf/particle board on there so the glass is supported at every point but i'm overly cautious.

Another 10kg would be a good addition. you want 3-5cm for plants (room to add root balls without them showing) but the geos will do a good job of moving it all around. Maybe some crypts in the front?

You're realistically looking at a budget of $1500 - $2000 and some for a big tank, stand, sump and all plumbing / fitout. I figure it'll be $600 for a tank from greg (if he's got the glass), $500-$800 for the stand (if custom made / steel), $250 for sump tank, $500 for pump + media, plumbing, heaters etc. If money isn't an issue then the aro was a great purchase. If those numbers scare you then you might want to give it a miss.

Depends on the bracing / layout of the frame etc. Got a photo?

I've been reading a lot about algae turf scrubbers (ATS) used in marine and unplanted fw tanks for a while now and seeing as I'm setting up a big new tank that will be mostly planted with new plants I was wondering if there's any point in setting up a smaller than needed ATS to catch the odd bit of startup algae? My theory would be that until I get the nutrient balance right the algae scrubber would be the prefered place for the algae to colonise instead of the tank walls. By using a smaller scrubber than would be needed to actually scrub the entire tank worth I wonder if I could use it as a fine tuning tool for ferts assuming that once the plants were outgrowing the algae the scrubber would stop producing algae as there wouldn't be any nutrients left for it. I'd run the scrubber overnight when the tank lights are turned off so that there is no clash for nutrients. I may have to dose daily to get it right as the scrubber might strip everything out overnight. Any thoughts? Anybody had any experience with this in a planted tank?

I wouldn't have thought so, as long as it can't enter the water column (which is why we put sand on top of daltons etc.), the nutrients should be available only to any roots that grow into the substrate deep enough to use them. The only thing to note is that by adding more 'dirt' you're reducing the amount of water in the tank but you knew that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02u2JCayKeY Best. Cartoon. Ever.

interesting, i'll watch what harvey birdman does over the next few days too.

wanker

ahh, sweet.

are your pandas breeding?

ahh Taradale. The Takapuna of Napier.

altums

It's the thing you guys preach to all the newbies that come on here... :roll: :facepalm: :lol:

That looks awesome and is exactly what I was planning to do at the end of my big tank but with a more jagged set of rocks. Same wood idea though. I'm glad I got to see it done by you first

drag queen

mechanic