My3KidsDad

I was gonna ask what kind of fish would like to snack down on some snails? If you have a spare I think I could find him a good home..

Probably bad news? Like a 1000 snails tomorrow?

I noticed tonight after inspecting the 29g. community tank a gel-like substance around the base of one of our plants. Could it be a egg batch or something? The fish seem to be ignoring it.

From what I can see you do very nice work Boom. Thanks for the info about plywood and moisture.

Update- Just talked to my friendly Windsor Plywood guy and he suggested that a his edge-jointed pine might possibly separate at a joint under heavy stess. He suggested other ways such as plywood, or spruce or pine boards. Designs in progress being considered.

It occured to me that finger-joint pine might be a great material to use for construction of a lighter stand for smaller tanks, say your typical 36"x12" 33g. tank. Finger joint pine is made as nice, flat boards at widths up to 3/4"x16"x 96" for shelving, bookcases etc. I am working up a design for a stand after a fruitless search for 33g. stand (36"x12") at the local stores. It needs to be big enough inside to keep all the food, filters and hoses, etc. out of sight. Anyone else interested in a construction project?

You also mentioned that if we want to go with a CO2 system that the down path of the water would likely evaporate the co2 before it could do any good. Just a question: has anybody tried using the water out from a canister to fill the sump.. and pump it back into the tank at the other end of the sump with a pump? But that would pose a problem with the unbalanced water column input/output of the canister- is that right?

We found a suitable first larger fresh water tank for anticipated angel and cichlids (tank is 80g. US, 48w16d24h). After reading everything i can find about F/W sumps in the diy section of AA, I am still somewhat in the dark as to what they best can be used for. We just finished building our frame for the 48" tank and it is ready for a sump of some sort, hopefully with a good canister filter. What would we find useful in a good sump design? It can be as long as 40" and as wide as 12", and any good height up to 14" and still fit inside the stand. Jvision has stated in a previous post that he thinks a good sump might include: "I would have 3 compartments: 1) water flows from the main tank into a filter compartment - just like you have it 2) water flows from filter compartment thru some baffles into the rearing compartment 3) water flows from rearing compartment thru some baffles into a pump compartment Don't make the pump compartment too small, as this is where you'll experience all of your evaporation from." Do we need a filter compartment if we include/use a canister? How many rearing compartments would we really need? Exactly how large should the return pump compartment be?

Plant hating (loving?) cichlids will destroy plants. ok. A co2 system will probably be called for. It is fun!

Thank you all for the great references. Purchased four new plants including a red one that can survive in medium light from Nature's Corner (very helpful). Tank apparently may have a bit of a bloom on as it has all these tiny particles that look like dust does in the air when seen in sunlight. The plants will help as will the Excel and Conditioner added today. We have this hairy looking algae over much of our plants.. hoping to rid our tank over the next few weeks of the "hair" in order to add a few Angel fish. Better lighting may be in the future for better plants.

We sure would like to get a few red-colored plants to mix up in our 29g. tropical fish tank. Our twin tube 30" T5 fixture includes a colormax and 6500K mix of light, one commentor called that "medium" light. Do you know of a reference online with pictures of actually used plants? Maybe you even have a plant to sell?

Hi. I too have been looking for good info on stand design for our 90g. Found the below reefcentral.com reference to an apparently engineered stand design notably not requiring supports in the sump area over a 72" length. Will be building one for our new tank. Others on this forum have probably seen these before as we are new to AlbertaAquatica. Lengthy discussion of the design occurs following the first post. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...hreadid=1169964

Self edit , , ,sorry pick up each species one specimen @ a time. No sense in buying more than one of any particular plant - until you know that it will work for you :smokey: I got your suggestion. I love the range of textures, ie. coarse and fine, along with the colors ie. deep greens to light greens, reds, purples? It's very rewarding mixing them into a visual delight for the eyes.

Good tip Sam thanks.

Thanks Jason. I will check out Nature's Corner soon. I will research canister filters too. What is a HOB?

Jason will smile at this.. lol. Wait for the sales in the classified- ok good tip.

With the help of Jason (Jvision) we acquired a good 90 gal tank for tropical fish. Now we are designing a stand that can be used for fresh now and salt later. We plan an Angel fish/Cichlid tank with suitable plants, rocks, and sand. After trying some lace rock from Canar we like the way it looks in our first tank, a 29 gal, and may repeat that in the 90. We like the contrasting colors and textures examples of plants seen at Big Al's. We are wide open to your best suggestions for the first occupants benefit as for lighting, heating, filtering equipment. What would you get now based on your experience with your equipment?

Thanks for the info. I will be adding a couple of tablespoons of salt to the tank for the tetras, mollies and white cloud minnows.

Thanks Jason. I need to know whether all the fish will benefit first. More reading to do.

I have been reading that a few tablespoons of salt would be beneficial for certain fresh water fish. Have you done this? and how did it turn out?

Just saying hello.. I am new to this salt water fish aquarium passion.. Hoping to put together a 6 foot aquarium over the next year. Nice to meet you. bill missen.