Rainmaker69

That is a great photo. Thanks for sharing.

"What's the best way to return the water? Can it be done inside the overflows, and then into the tank? This could be a cleaner look, but I don't know if it can be done." I would at least double, if not more, the size of the downflow to accomodate the size of the return line, all things being equal. My other concern would be to outflow being next to the inflow. Could drammatically affect tank currents. You could use a spraybar to equalize the flow throughout the tank. jmho

Intersting, I never knew handsaws had a different width.

My one stand has 7.5" and I would love an extra 2" more, and my other double was designed for a 10G in the bottom and I stuffed a 28 into it instead. It barely gives me enough room to put my hand in to turn on the light and working on it is a royal PITA.

How are you planting them?

Welcome and hello. The coffee is in the tank to the left, tea in the tank to the right. As for addictions, my first tank was a 10g, my second a 55. Within a year, 8 tanks running and yes, 1 marine. I am now at the stage where I must upgrade all of my tanks to make room for growing fish and loving it! I hope that you have as much fun. Welcome aboard and please do post DIY photos. I can think of no better use for a Mac.

I put a small chunk of java fern into my 55, 36x18x20, and in the 16 or so months that it has been in there it has grown to be almost a cubic foot in size. I have a 40w shop light on the tank using old no flouescent that I just replaced a couple of weeks ago. I add liquid fertilizer every so often when I remember. Nitrate levels are usually around 5-10 in all my tanks, planted or not if that helps. The only other plants in the tank are hygrophilla polysperma and an unknown type of sword which also grow well.

I have the chicken grit in a couple of my FW tanks and like the salt/pepper look. I don't find it that hard to clean, maybe because it is only about an inch deep. My biggest concern with it is that it is rather rough so consider the bottom dwellers that you have before using it. My other tanks have regular aquarium gravel and my marine tank is a larger crushed coral that IS a royal pain to clean.

I have ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, PH low, PH high, KH, GH, phospate, and iron tests. I tested regularly when setting up the tanks, but usually only use the nitrate and PH high test now for my salt tank. If things look off in the FW tanks, then I test to make sure everything is ok. Maybe we learned more through the agony of cycling our fist tanks than we realize..

Yes

Flourish Excel is supposed to be a liquid carbon source if you don't want to mess with CO2 injection.

I would either keep it in a species tank by itself or maybe with another in a large enough tank. Puffers have a bad reputation for aggression with other fish. My GSP came to me from a co-worker who put one in his community tank. Everything was great for about 5 days, then all his other fish started losing fins, scales, and getting bruised from his bites. He is now in full marine conditions with two 3 strpe damsels, who are mean enough to hold their own against him.

Thanks, Doc. I appreciate your explaining what a starter is, as I only know one thing about electricity. Nothing! :thumbs: I will check that out first then move on to the other components. Thanks for all replies.

The light strip on my 33 gallon tank has been flickering off and on intermittently lately. It started out with a slight cut out and has progressed to a 10-15 second cut out over the past month. It has got to the point where I was worried about shorting out and causing a fire so I pulled it off this morning and replaced it with my only other option, a 10 gallon incadescent light strip with 2 10W screw type flourescents. Has anyone else experienced this? What could cause this? It is the package light from a Petcetera starter kit if that helps with a 20W T8 natural daylight Eclipse bulb, 24", and about 9 months old.

I picked up a piece of glass that size, untempered, for $135. Mind though, this was 8-9 months ago and in Lethbridge.

Why are they so camera shy? Not just clowns, but any fish that you really want to get a pic of.

LOL. Rob. My first thought was, How could I make the 500 into a mini canister. Flexible tubing on the intake, suction cup the unit to the back of the tank, and that is as far as I got in the 10 minutes before reading your reply. Easy part done, but now how to seal the top to run it into a spraybar and keep the ease of cleaning. Hmmmmmm.

Sorry for your loss. Could it have been old age?

Why is the CO2 so important?

I, too, was under the immpession that the bacteria would begin to die shortly after there was no ammonia source added. (edit) OK, simultanious typing.

Check out the DIY section on http://garf.org

Thanks, guys. I guess I will build one and save the difference for filters.

I have read where some of you have wooden tanks. What is your general opinion of them as compared to an all glass tank? Lifespan, durability, appearance?

I will be building the stand and canopy for it. The stand will, of course, have a flat plywood top. It is just that I have never been around a tank that large and I didn't know if anything more than the styrofoam would be needed. Thanks.

I have a chance to get a new 1/2" glass, 6x2x2' tank. Problem is that it has no trim, just a glass box. How do I protect the bottom?