jasonnz

I use LED setup from Raymond at AquaRays - brilliant, better than tubes and the results are 5 x better than tubes. I would get in touch with him to be honest. You'll never look back.

I have a 1400 litre tank and this is how I do changes . I have a 40 litre rubbish bin with a float valve on it, it auto fills from the tap in the kitchen under the sink. I then have a pump on a timer that puts that water into the tank (around 10% per day) - when the tank hits a certain level - it overflows out the drain and into the waste. I do not add anything to the water and my tank is chemical free. Any questions, feel free to ask.

Hi Guys, I am selling my tank that I built in this thread here : http://aquariumworld.nz/forums/topic/40964-1400-litre-build-part-3/ We are moving office and I am building a new tank to move everything into - as it is easier than trying to take everything out, move the tank and then fill it up again. I have no reasonable expectation of price - and will welcome all offers. Tank is 2400 x 800 x 700, comes with sump and stand which is made with timber.

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/wit ... 86942.html Hi Everyone, A very nice short doco about arowana.

Hi Amelia, I am glad you like the tank. It's at my office. I have a technology company - and the guys and girls looooooove the fish tank - Its a good thinking spot.... I have HR - Glow light tetra - head light / tail light Tetra. There are some otocinclus - black line flying foxes and a large group of Cherry Barbs ( who you never ever see). I am planning to add another 20 or 30 fish in the next little while - probably just for maintenance (and snail patrol).

Everything was trimmed. So - everything in my plant picture should be in the bucket. Whether you can plant it .. is a different story.

Had my first cut tonight. Pre Post Happy : More work to do .. but I'll watch the tank for the next couple of days. Fish are now evenly distributed - as they usually sit bunched on the left.

Hi Guys, Really quick post. I have just cut back and trimmed my large tank. I have a large bucket of plant cuttings. Happy to drop off to someone in the next hour or so... if you live in the Penrose/MtWellington/Greenlane/Onehunga/Otahuhu area Or you could come and pick up from Penrose. These are in water. I will throw them all out tomorrow. pm me. Just thought I would try and be thoughtful ..

I used black grit from Hollywood fish farm in Auckland.

everyone seems to be playing nice which is good.

Well - everything has been going well. We have the auto water top up system working now. Fish are in the tank and everything seems good. Here is a picture. I am planning to do my first cut of plants tomorrow or next weekend. If anyone would like some plants for a reasonable price .. pm me. Anyway .. full size picture.

thanks for all the nice comments stay tuned to hear about our auto top up system which we have designed. this very simple system will ensure I don't have to worry about water changes. In the meantime - here is a neat photo of the tank with some editing - to try and reduce the glare from the office lights and show the colour. + the original.

I went into hff mt roskill today and managed to find 10 Otocinclus for my tank - they are the first inhabitants. I also added 4 small Blackline Flying Foxes .. - although we will see how long they are small for. This week I plan to add fish .. but we will see how we go for time. I will upload some new photos this week as well. It's amazing the progress in such a short amount of time. Next step is to get the auto top up system working for the tank. This requires running a line from the kitchen and setting up our storage tank - and drip system. I expect we will have that completed in the next few weeks. In the meantime - here are some pictures from last week.

I have attached a picture with numbers against all the plants and below is the list that maps to those numbers. Number Position Scientific Name 1 Echinodorus amazonicus 2 Limnophila sessiliflora 3 Rotala rotundifolia 4 Mayaca fluviatilis 5 Hygrophila corymbosa stricta 6 Hygrophila dafformis 7 Hygrophila corymbosa v. 'Angustifolia' 8 Microsorium pteropus narrow 9 Microsorium pteropus 10 Echinodorus tenellus 11 Hygrophila polysperma 'Rosanervig' 12 Hygrophila polysperma 13 Heteranthera zosterifolia 14 Rotala sp "Colorata" 15 Cardamine lyrata 16 Hydrocotyle verticillata 17 Sagittaria subulata

I get them from Valray in Halfmoon bay. You can find his listings for plants on Trademe. He has an amazing selection of plants. Although - he may have less now than he did last week.

Some of the plumbing. I will follow up with detailed photos - tech details and other exciting nerdy facts when I have a chance to take some high res images with my camera. I will also try and get some detailed shots of the plants ..

Overflow box More overflow box Installed - you can see it on the left back of the tank. Extremely quiet Final plant layout (click for bigger image) and with my surronds on.

Hardscape in the tank. This was a process and a half - but we were lucky to have 3 of use with very keen eyes. Planting begins And continues .. (who might that be in the photo ) and filled at last. (but not fully planted yet) end of sat night. You will notice the temporary overflow setup. This was due to the new custom overflow box being assembled etc.

Next we prepped the tank. My wife was happy enough to zip around the remove all remnants of the old tank. Took around 20 mins to clean with a good blade from Hollywoods. Once the old hardscape was out .. we were left with .. our substrate (which was not very deep) We laid out the hardscape .. Then decided to swap the schist for moss rock which we obtained from stone and water world. This required about an hour of water blasting to clean. We also got another 6 bags of black grit from stone and water world. To my surprise it was a very cost effective place to buy it from. Took around an hour to wash the stuff we used.

Ok - here is some of the info about the build. First up - I wanted to add a sump. It was made clear to me when I built the tank the first time around that I would want one - and I was happy to do it as a "next time I pull the tank down" type project. First up - This is a custom designed sump - it's a very smart design and works extremely well. Measures 120 long and as you will see from the pics is designed to fit under my cabinet. This sump was designed by lotofish (who is on these forums) and built by Greg from Tanks2u here in Auckland. Sump Sump Sump in the cabinet and plumbed in! Here you can see the sponge arrangement. they sit perfectly in the slots that were made for them and vary in grade.

Hi David - I'm quite enjoying your tank thread over on monster fishkeepers - (i agree with your comments about your lighting btw). The lights I am using were purchased from Valray on Trademe. Here is a link to a similar set http://www.trademe.co.nz/pets-animals/f ... 422182.htm - Extremely happy with the performance to date - exceptional lights.

Thanks - Currently I have around 40 harlequin rasboras, tetras of 3 or 4 variants and some cherry barbs. Around 100 small fish. I'm certainly not in a hurry at this stage. I would like to add some large schools of special fish; I just don't know what they will be yet. At this stage - I would like to see how that goes - and then decide on more fish. There are a couple of corys and bristlenoses - but i doubt we will ever see them .. the tank will get more enjoyment from their presence than the owner I think.

finished. Actually. Just got to wait for the plants to grow in a little now .. Here is a sneak peak. I promise to get the build details and video and stuff organized and a contribution from the main creator .. Quick pic .. Click on the image for a larger view.

Ok .. I was posting in DIY - but I am very excited. Having kept a large tank for over a year now - I am the master at tropical fishkeeping in a large tank. The issue of course is that it is supposed to be a large "Planted Tank". So - last weekend we pulled down the tank and started again. Quick recap can be got here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=59027&hilit=1400+litre and here: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=63290 Here are some things I have done differently. 1. Changed out the t5 lighting system for a lot of LED lighting. 2. Built a sump and installed it. 3. Plumbed everything properly. including an overflow - and we are adding a auto water change (drip system). 4. More substrate. 5. New Hardscape 6. a lot of plants. And a very special person to help me along the way. I'll let him introduce himself in due course. So - A teaser photo for you all ( we are scaping and planting saturday) at the moment the tank is just .. leak testing and running etc. I will take some time tomorrow to document the entire build with pictures so you can see what we have been up to.