henward

love the diagrams

cool, cant wait to see it! Might get some inspiration from your wood configuration

nice, cant wait to see more of the wood in there. low and dense right?

whats going in the tank?

I have a cooking thermometer to regularly check my temps. cooking thermometers are quite reliable and made to ensure they are accurate. but yeah, those cheap ones are not very reliable and good, I would stick to good thermometers. reptile thermometers HAVE to be good, otherwise the lizard will freeze:D post pic when fish added!

yeah, beef heart isnt really natural, but it certianly fattens them up. id stick to pellets, more completely digestion and doesnt make your water yuk.

Awesome!

I have had a bit of experience with these guys and i find the best most 'enlarging' growth food is Hikari Massivore. It has shown the absolutely best growth for any fish i have had to date but i would suggest, feeding 80% massivore, 20% beef heart to your bichirs. if you dont want the mess of heart, then massivore is fine.

awesome! something different ... hasnt been anything different for a while! which animates?

there is a big difference between surviving and thriving it MAY survive, for at ime, but would not feed - then cant breed, eventually die.

Holy heck! That's a big difference!

This feet is industrial stuff. Rated 900kg each. I was not convinced til Isaw what they iused it for... Then thought.... The weight of the tank is quite light n each feet. About 200 kg max each feet out of 900kg capacity

No, garage floor is not even at all, even a skilled concrete layer cant level the concrete properly. with my 5 foot, I use bits of metal to shim, but with the 12 legs, you cant do that, so the feet is designed so you level out the 4 corners and then bring down the rest so they are all level, very effective. on my sump frame, I have just found that one corner raises almost 1cm from the other! that's how uneven the floors can be. that's why my old sump cracked on the floor

Drop eye has so many 'contributing' factors from peoples accounts that it is really a very disputed thing. But i agree, i think its more genetic disposition. IN the wild, silvers get drop eye too. I had bare bottom for months with my aro and never had issues. In fact, apart from silvers, i have never had drop eye. I hads a pearl with no drop eye in barebottom too at one stage. Clinical, thats your own personal taste i suppose, i prefer substrate, but the reflection from the bare bottom seem to change their colour a bit, doesnt look right to me. But great to hear you are moving ont o the aro world:D

Very nice indeed!

fair enough. curiuos to see how it looks.

yeah, little thngs you cannot forsee, or try to foresee but get it wrong lol part of the fun. the lines, cant be too bad can they?

discvoered a quirk already. the manifold that distributes water to the socks. i am fiding that the 2 back socks are filling up way faster than the 2 front, i mean, its almost full now and the 2 front are only 3cm above water line. So gotta 'Tune' that, no biggie. will put reducing fittings to reduce the flow on the 2 back ones, turn it from a 25mm opening to a 15, then drill holes on the fitting thread to increase flow as tuning is required. better to go too small and enlarge than too big and cant reduce.

Thats a thought. the end is a 30 x 50 x 50 might try it, give it a runa nd see i suppose. always room to modify it i suppose. after the completion, feels like weight off my shoulders and can finally 'enjoy' the tank as intended. doing that right now :spop:

Temp controller and wc system all have a memory in it to retain settings. as for the drain, i tested it, the water levels will struggle a little bit but enough is retained to keep the circulation going. Also the drain from the main tank is minimal, holes drilled onto the outlets mean siphon is minimal, enough to keep circulation going. I go to the fishroom numerous times a day and when away someone checks it frequently, so should be ok cos i just press the water change button to top up. its somethign i struggled with to make it so it doesnt drain much in powercuts - i needed the water levels high in the K1 media chamber and the only way to do that was to make that chamber about 10cm higher than the last. the level switches are only in the drum for the wc. I run an aerator there now. 2000lph pump is replacing my current wc pump so its doing it much quicker than before. the current pump will be always on to have a good current in the drum at all times. i put some oyster shell in the drum too, so the current will help it 'pre buff' before going ito the sump. I am refinding my water parameters to make it as stable as possible at around 6.5 min to 7max. 6.8 to 6.9 steady is the goal.

you know what that piece of wood is... its spectacular! :sml1: no really, its awesome, nice how the 'trunk' is far ont he corner and looks like the tree roots are growing into the centre of the tank. also leaves plenty of room for the black aro. nice, cant wait to see it fully upa nd running!

I have retyped all of it in to the first page so its easier to see the progression. So its not in drips and drabs.

Possibly. Will keep observing. Maybe later on. It's a fraction of the total media in there so not too fussed.

im confused... there is a pic and a vid.. :-?

rules: no bulk buys here. so sorry, its a tough one. but, I fully encourage supporting the local LFS because they help us in the hobby. reputable shops will ship nation wide for a good price. However, I use more food than most and so cannot afford to buy from retailers. Ebay is also your friend.