henward

I had the same issues. but BBA went away almost overnight (over a week) when i got my first royal pleco. Maybe get one of those:D

drawing looks cool! my stand is taking 2 to 3 weeks too, so its pretty much same. it was sent to powder coating last week when i put pics up should be done this week. but it will probably stay in the workshop cos i dont wanna pay for shipping it, i will pickit up on moving date which is end of month, truck hire place is right by the place. saves me $75

Wow.. I wanna make a diagram lol What programed? Looks cooling! Still gotta get wiring done, Insulation, close up walls/ceiling. Then tank... Stand finished this / next week. Did you get a hold of stand maker?

Insulation.. Check 77 sqm of it. Ceiling grade for all sides and ceiling.

Last time i used K leaves, the water ph became extremely low and not that brown. i want the brown look but still remain relatively neutral ph. so just wondering if i can have the brown water look but have ph of 6.5 to 7.2 ish. i use oyster shell/coral tiny bit anyways, to keep ph stable at 7.

here is a question. if i put say K leaves/ial to brown the water - but also use oyster shell/coral rock to keep the PH up around 7 - will the rock/shell keep it at 7 bue retain the brown water? or will it make the water clear as a reaction?

That is ideal. I am going hard insulating the garage. Ceiling thick wool everywhere. Figure... Perhaps another tank in few years for xb.

1100L bigger!

I think galvanized is hotter. Well.. Doing matte black Not that it isn't a big tank... Was planning bigger tbh but cost would have been nasty... Outlay and ongoing lol

a concrete platform would be extremely costly and i think overkill to the point of no point with a tank this small... albeit you may think its big, but its actually a baby monster tank comparing to actual monster tanks. David: rex industrial - ask for Keith, they are in glenfield diana dr. will powder coat definitely. better option, galvanizing would mean heating it and will change shape. not acceptable. as for diags. i asked them, and the guy in charge we discussed in length, he said will definitely give it strength. but he said, in all realness, if there was an earthquake with significant strength, the ground would probably twist and turn. he said, this stand is pretty strong and tough and earthquakes, even with diags, would probably not hold. small tremors it should stand up to it. so i am going on that basis, i dont think diags are needed as its pretty rigid as it is. its heavy duty. most of our tanks / stands sold in shops are much much weaker. but up to you how you wanna build it though.

I find that most of the small ones i got died when i got them around 30cm plus thats when i could grow them bigger. but small ones i have had bad luck with, albeit i havent tried again since my failed second attempt. may do again, i did love them! here is the late Earnie the Eel. tank height is 72cms ate beef heart, prawns and prawns stuffed with massivore.

the cost was $1500plus gst if i recall . something like that. yeah, the legs are 50x50, where the tank sits 50x50. the supports are 50x25. quite a heavy thing! understand what you mean also thought about that, originally was thinking 8 legs. but though, 12 would be better. the floor is concrete in teh garage. i guess, comparing it to my old garage, 6 legs, tank volume of 1200L, say 1500 total weight, is 250kgs on each leg. this is less. the 5footer i have now is 120 roughly on each leg. i think spread over the 12 legs is totally acceptable. suppose an suv would have more weight on 4 wheels. albeit spread more than the feet i guess putting it on and filling it up will tell us:D i think it will be fine.

yeah lol true that. using shims would be difficult as the ground in my garage will not be perfectly even, what ground is? smaller tanks in the past with 6 legs or 4 legs were easy to level out. but with so many legs, would be impossible. so these were a good choice. the rating of the product is industrial stuff. pretty strong. i guess, with glass, water, substrate - say, 2300kgs (light substrate layer) thats 192kgs per leg. really thats not much, thats really just 2x men standing on the leg. the leg is very strong! its funny cos when you break down the weight over 12 legs, it doesnt seem so much at all! suffice to say, im gonna need A LOT of selleys liquid nail. is there a liquid nail product that takes longer to dry and cure? i want one taht takes longer to dry so gives me time to put tank on and let theglue even out more

yeah talking o their guys, he mentioned, shims work well with smaller stuff, cos i have 12 feet, as soon as a side lifts up, couple of legs will too. and thats when you may get flex he just said, the feet, you get 4 corners right, then you wind down all the other feet, slide paper under it to ensure its on the ground then lock it. and make it so its as low as possible into the feet. each rated at 800kgs, so more than enough for my relatively light tank, water, substrate. hard to envision the size even doing a mock up on teh ground after seeing the width of it lol, decided i can use this wood so this will be my centre piece. wether i cut the tip off or let it go out through glass with a cutout, ill decide later.

:cophot: updated original post

Arowana. :sml1:

in saying that, most tyre tracks will probbly die before they exceed 40cms. that was an anomaly, i got my tt when it was roughly 55cms. its unusual for most of them to grow that big i reckon.

Fully agree space and excercise helsp them grow just the ability to swim fast to food , snatch it and swim back helps them grow. all only with a large tank. unles you are committed to getting a larger tank, you are just going to set up for a 'for sale, large dat i cant house anymore' type of sale.

the thing is, when you get them from pet shops they are usually fed bloodworms. blood worms have little to no goodness. definitely low in protein. you should train them to eat pellets, at minimum prawns or fishf illets. then they grow nicely, otherwise you stunt them. in terms of size, i have personally seen her ein nz, one that is 45cm tip to tip...maybe even more, maybe 50cm. 35cm is easy, they are easy to grow, quite strong fish... once they start to settle in and eat, they just keep eating, make sure you keep feeding to get the size potential.

when dats are fed right, with in 18 months they reach 30cms. mind did.

for a fair bit, they will but they grow pretty big

I will be its my focus in new tank. extreme predatory tank:D there is a nice one in albany hff, really want it! eats pellets too. but cant get right now.

yeah, considred that, but gonna make the back panel way way too heavy. not comfortable with that, extra weight that may alter the natural gravity of the tank. I am posting on planet catifsh for feedback too. maybe someone has experienced it but i may have to forego the royals, stick to meat non wood eaters instead. maybe blue phantoms again and the like. the funy thing is, when i had heaps of royals, they wre ALWSAYS on the wood. they would also rasp algae on the walls but they generally stick on the wood and rasp that continually.

now i am having second thoughts on background! just read that plastic plants etc can be rasped by the royal! so they can get blocked up and die from the pieces!!! gggrrrr maybe then i may have to sacrifice the royal plecos IF i want the background. have other plecs instead that doesnt have the ability to shred wood!

yeah i love the look. I th ink i will go with substrate. loks more natural. i like bare tank cos its clean but really... i wnt it to look natural and nice! as for over flow. water level will be 60cm max. so overflow will prob start around 58cm, giving 2cm gap for whent he tank fills and delay in drain. i dont think it willb e that much delay, i will have a rectangular overflow so there is more surface area. i was considering a very thin over flow that is diagonal but so the backgrounds fit better. but not sure if there is enough space for water to gather and drain in time. I think i really wanna go for the natural look now i have been considering it more. i would have the same sandy black substrate as before, i still have the substrate.