Hi everone. I'm Jaco and I have made a return to tropical/plantes tanks after a 4 and a half year stint on the marine's side. I have a 4ft tank with a sump totaling to 350L - 250L display, 100L sump. I have filled the tank out with 27L/kg of probibio's Aqua growth soil. Am curntly in the cycling phase and added a few plants and 8 neon tetras and 10 glowlight tetras. I have purchased a CO2 system and are on the lookout for better priced CO2 cylinders. Any advise will be appreciated. Jaco The General
Welcome. Have you tried going directly to a fire equipment shop? In Cape Town a lot of us use Novamarine who do supply, servicing etc for the industry. 2kg should be less than R500. The wheel valve conversion is expensive at around R600 for a high pressure valve and refill is about R25/kg
Thanks. Sitting at TransFire as we speak. Got CO2 Fe with gate valve fitted for just under R1k. Refill is R18/kg. Shure I'll be sorted out by days end. Thanks for the assistance.
Thank you @Quintin. Struggling a bit with brown algae. Sure it will pass as soon as the setup is cycled. Got some additional plants form @drsparky. Will update as we go along.
The last two are of the SMD LED lights that I have installed. Started out with only the blue one's, which imitates moonlight. I have added the red for extra red light during the day, but it turned out to yield a great sunset/sunrise effect. These photos doesn't do the effect justice. Will take the proper camera out and see if I can properly capture the effect.
So, the weekend started off with a visit form uncle Murphy. Really don't like the bugger in any ways...
That aint nice at all...!! That's the problem with those thin pieces of wood, not as strong as one thinks. And when the tank doesn't fit flush on the stand, the weight bearing falls squarely on the wood, not the levers/legs of the stand. So with the back of the tank "supported" by the stand, the front part was supported by the thin piece of wood, it only has to give way slightly for the tank to crack under that pressure. The irony of it all, the tank prolly ran like that for a lengthy period...and then all of a sudden...disaster. We've all been there... When using wood only...up to 100L I like using those thick (50mm) counter tops...I reckon if it kan hold my fat ass when climbing on it, it will hold a tank (touch wood, still going strong). Anything over 100L, I start using steel as cross members underneath my tank...running back to front for extra support
I've had the tank on the current stand for only about a month. So not a lengthy period of time. Where can I get 10mm/12mm glass for the new tank? Who does tank builds?
Depends where you want to go. Closest to Brits, you either looking at Pretoria North or maybe Muldersdrift/Roodepoort You can try Aqua Empire in Muldersdrift, for PtaNorth you'll have to do a google search and phone shops in the area (unless you want to give PetStop a go...but they a bit pricey with their tank builds)
Just an update at this point in time. So every one knows about the crack in the display tank. This actually turned out a lot better that initially anticipated. (But not the wallet) Did replace the tank with an 1200mm x 600mm x 450mm rimless skinny overflow tank. Had to redo the plumbing again and then once again to get all the necessary items in (Gate valve to control the water level at the back of the tank in order to minimise the noise created during the overflow as a by product). And with some assistance from @quattro, added some additioanl plants to the mix.
