jcgd

I assumed you were young if it makes you feel any better!

Yeah, I should have said gate valve. A ball valve cannot be adjusted fine enough.

Ask and you shall recieve... 6 months later... Just tore out a lot of plants, cleaned the glass and sump and weeded through a lot of the dead leaves. Pretty large overhaul actually; probably pulled out half the plants. It's a little awkward looking until the plants settle back in. I'm thinking of selling the tank. I want something like a 24" cube for the corner maybe. Not sure yet.

I myself would put a ball valve on the 1" for the main full syphon drain and use the 1 1/4" pipe for the back up that is plumbed straight into the sump.. It's really a perfect setup for a Herbie style overflow. My 160 gal has only 1" drains and they are more than sufficient.

I've noticed similar issues on most forums, and I don't think it's the forums fault, but the engine seems to be very basic. If you type whatever you want to search in Google and type the forum name afterwards the hit quality tends to improve. i.e. 90 gallon albertaaquatica You don't get a ton of hits but they are sometimes closer to what you are after. The big forum names give a lot of bang on results.

Thanks! The araguaia is pretty sweet. If you hack it back it crawls and forms a neat little bush. I let it grow really tall so last the other night I trimmed it up and planted it in the back/center where I want a bush. I was going to remove it with the rest of my stems but I love it too much. The gracilis prefers to be topped (cut and replant the top) but I did just hack it down everyone in a while too. The issue is that it doesn't like to be hacked much and it would often stunt. The new tips usually didn't look great and it took a loooong time for the plant to rebound. I recommend topping if you want it to look good. I pulled it because gracilis is a very large plant. It was getting 4" or more in diameter. Much too big. Thanks homie. Take a look at the updated pic below. I'm moving to more of a jungle feel with the ferns and more slow grower to reduce the work load. More crypts and anubias and something to fill in the back a little. The foreground is in rough shape from being shaded... oh the joys of point source lighting.

Thanks.

Can anyone advise me what I would use for a heat pack to ship some plants from Calgary to Vancouver? I'm planning on using standard mail and a flat bubble mailer so it would need to stay thin. I have no clue what to use and I don't want to freeze or cook the plants. I'm not even sure if a heat pack is safe in a package so small. Thanks.

Thought I'd add one of my current layout at it's prime. I'm getting close to doing a rescape. 160 gallon. Really bad photo, but you can see how the ferns filled in. I let the stem plants go though and now the tank is drastically different. There is about double the ferns again since this photo.

I'll just second some stores... Bulkheads - Concept Aquatics. Pretty close to cost pricing. Regular pvc fittings - Lowe's. Relatively cheap union ball valves too. Irregular stuff and FLEX PVC - Western Pump. Be nice and they will often do contractor pricing.

I have one that does that. Just a cheap white one from HD or Rona or someplace. On/off/auto and the auto never works the day I set it unless I set it before the lights are supposed to come on. Try setting it to come on a few minutes in the future and see if it works. If so, set it normally and check it the next day. Just in case, make sure you are in the proper outlets. I believe one side is switched (aka, always on unless you flip the red power switch) and the other is timed.

Yeah, that's a pretty solid article. It's an easy read and is pretty bang on.

I like Jager because the quality is pretty good and you can calibrate them so they match your thermometer. My Jagers are the only heaters that read 77 degrees when the water is actually 77 degrees. I like the Hydro ETH inlines if you want an inline heater. They work well and shut off if the water stops flowing.

:thumbs: