Alex

The alternative to the above was a big Malawi Hap tank - Champsochromis, Fossochromis, NImbochromis etc. See if i can grow out some fish to their full potential, either is a good option really. The only thing that bothers me with the tangs is the wasting disease in the lepto's.

Nice looking fish. I am not a huge fan of the black sand though.

Good Afternoon, Thanks, yes I have spoken with a store in Perth (the one actually building my tank) and they are looking at potentially doing German shipments again next year once their is some sort of 'normal'. Apparently a fella in Melb' also gearing up for regular imports next year also? (mate of a mate). Tank is 360x100x75 (2,700L) + 900L sump with an Aqua Decor background (back and sides + bottom rocks) - gone all out for this display. Should be pull of water at my house late Feb 2022. I want the star of the show to be a very large school of Leptosoma (always been something I have wanted to do) - thinking either 'kitumba' including some 'albino kitumba' or specklebacked Moba's. I like the idea of being able to buy quality for overseas. A loose stcoking list so far is; - Leptosoma kitumba or moba's (approx 200 fish) - C. furicfer 'Kigoma' - E. malanogenys - G. permaxilaris - J. regani 'kipili' - N. leleupi I have reserved myself to the fact that getting a school of 200 or so Lepto's is going to take some breeding and adding to colony on my behalf. As purchasing 200, especially imports would be cost prohibitive. Thanks, Alex

G'day After not keeping African cichlids for many many years, I am about to get back to where it all started for me. Is anyone in Aus still importing cichlids with any sort of regularity still (Tanganyikans)? Thanks, Alex

G'day Link if you are hard pressed to find any, City Barn in Perth have some. Ask to speak with Zach there. Thanks, Alex

An amazing fish if kept correctly. Fantastic growth out of them.

Do you have a link to something similar? Not sure I am following as well as I should be.

Yes, there is a hole drilled about 15cm from the base of the drum. I used a uniseal, being so close to the bottom of the drum the surface was fairly curved and I didn't like my chances of a bulkhead creating a tight seal. I also added a bit of silicone to the uniseal - don't know if this was necessary but it doesn't leak at all so happy days. Hopefully there isn't much crud to clean. The air loop sits right at the bottom creating uplift back into the K1 media and there is also the intake for the external filter at the bottom, hopefully whatever waste makes it past the wool/mechanical filtration is sucked back up and pumped into the tank rather than sitting at the bottom of the filter. In 6 months time I will put a siphon in there and see if much gets sucked. K1 media is great for rays. I have a vectra on my 8x3, and it is a great pump. I went for the DC Aqua Medic 9.1 this time, just to try something different really. So far can't fault is, seems to be well made, quiet and seems to pump the amount of water it claims. I have it on the lowest setting of 10 and is plenty! Yeah someone else suggested the sprinklers on the bottom to me. Will see how I go as more k1 is added, if it starts to struggle i'll get in there an young it around. The thought of sticking my head in that drum today is not a pleasant one. Will definitely look into the wedge wire - you had my at self cleaning. I'm sure the mech filtration will need to be revised at some point. Wedge wire is essentially like creating a drum filter yeah? Thanks for the tips.

The return to the top would be very simply. Instead of having the external return pump, pumping to the bottom tank i'd just extend it to the top tank and let the overflow flow into the tank below and then into the filter. Very easy but effective. Wouldn't require any more power or anymore equipment at all, just some extra plumbing.

Have to wait and see about the 'something bigger' will do a journal when the time comes. Got around to finishing off the filtration - it's about time too, this has been a very slow burn this project. The filter is made out of a '55 gallon dangerous good drum' bought brand new for $110. The idea behind the filter/reactor is to have enormous biological capabilities. I am a big fan of k1 and have gone that way again. So far I have 50L of brand new K1 media tumbling away. Everything is plumbed in and the heaters have been turned on, am waiting for the water to get to the correct temperature and then I will add around 5-10L of mature K1 media from the sump of my 8x3 to seed the new filter. I have also already added about 100g of white bait to the system to act as am Ammonia source for cycling purposes. I also find that adding something like white bait (or another semi-oily fish) also helps speed up the bio-film on the k media and gets it tumbling properly quicker. I am using a Pond One 70L/min air pump to move the media. Instead of using air stones I have connected irrigation hosing straight to the air pump - and run a line straight to the bottom of the drum and created a closed loop. I then inserted some tiny sprinklers into the irrigation loop (see image below) - as air is pumped through these sprinkler it is chopped up into nice big coarse bubbles and tumbles the media well - 50L of K1 media - you forget how white it starts off as when you have been looking at fully mature media for so long - The K1 is also moved a bit by the water coming into the drum - this is just being gravity fed from the overflows that have been installed in the tanks. There is a small area for mechanical filtration that the water first needs to pass through before getting to the k1 media. This is super simple just a suspended basket that is easy to access and change out filter wool. I may revise this later and make the area bigger, wait and see how regularly I am changing out the wool. I have also cut a piece of twin wall polycarbonate for a lid for the drum - to reduce noise, reduce humidity and trap heat. I just cut some holes for the intakes with a hole saw (will get a pic later). Also makes it look a bit neater. The filter and set up probably isn't going to win any beauty contests but it has a certain industrial type appeal that I like. The thing that I am interested to see is how much K1 media I can get effectively tumbling. I have already noticed that the 50L of K media in the drum is already tumbling great. It took my sump K chamber a good while to get going with biofilm (the drum and sump are both powered by the exact same type of air pump). I put this down to the shape of the barrel being much more suited to a K media situation than a square/rectangular chamber of an aquarium sump. Most people say 1L/min air per 1L of k media. So far I have 70L/min air for 50L and it is tumbling it straight out of the packet very well. Am thinking I could easily go with 100-120 - possibly 150L of k1 media. Will just keep adding more slowly over the next few weeks. Destroyed my fish room getting the filter ready, will clean it up and get some better pics in the coming days. Bonus pic - Male Monoc' lucky bloke shares the tank with 4 females and no other males.

Yeah, I haven't moved fish tanks in many years. Not going to be fun moving two 6x2x2.5's whether they are set up or not, the 8x3x2.5 will also be a big pain in the behind. I may have something even bigger than the 8 footer that will be revealed in good time

It's really no big deal, learnt not to sweat the little things. If it doesn't work out I have some nice black racking for storage in my garage. In reality the bowing is minimal and probably is what is to be expected, I'm guessing the foam and wood would counteract it anyway. May fill the top tank this weekend while I am home and see how it goes - bowing about 5mm in the very center compared to the joins on the uprights. The wife and I are looking at a couple of houses at the minute and a move could easily be on the cards at years end. Other option is just run the one tank for now and just get a proper stand made up when we move. Really bothered very little.

Thanks mate. Bottom tank is all plumbed up. I filled the bottom tank first and saw there were some bowing the in cross beams - not a massive amount but enough to make me think twice. The racking is weight rated at 2200Kg from memory and the tank/water weighs ~1,000kg. Cut out a couple pieces of wood and used them as supports in the middle of each beam, which seems to have eliminated any bowing in the cross beams. Not sure where the chance it with the top tank just yet or get a proper stand made. Will whack up some pics when I've completed the filter. Making it with a large dangerous goods drum (from memory a couple hundred litres), will have a prefilter for mechanical filtration and the rest will be k1 media. Have already plumbed the tank to the drum - using a uniseal - never used one before and have heard horror stories or people having leaks. So far its been full of water for a week without any leaks.

Wow this project has been a slow burn. Finally got the tanks onto the stand over the weekend - looks pretty cool but also looks like a bit of a monstrosity! Really should have just gone 6x2x2 rather than 6x2x2.5. I ordered the return pump last week for the filter I am making - should arrive this week. Then I am out of excuses, hopefully have water in them this weekend. Hopefully the stand holds!

Sorry to disappoint but the tanks are still sitting painted on the floor of my garage. Have decided to put this on the back burner until August. I am going away on my honeymoon for 7 weeks, and will have a house sitter looking after the fish (knows fish) had the plan of spreading the fish out over more tanks to decrease bioload. Instead I sold some of the bass to decrease the bioload. So these will not be set up until August. Will update then. Filtration will be very simple, top tank draining into the bottom tank then into a large k1 drum filter with a mechanical prefilter. Nothing fancy.

Tanks are pretty much painted now - the blue looks mint (first time i've painted any colour other than black), one more lick of paint and they are done. Felt like the blue needed way more coats than black to prevent light from coming through (could have been the paint i used). Although it has been hot in Perth and I'm known to be a sweater at times, my sweat must have diluted the paint to a 50/50 mix. Tanks will probably get lifted onto the stand this weekend. Then its time to get stuck into the plumbing.

Spiesie - I just collected the second tank the Saturday just been. There was some damaging to the bracing that the store needed to fix. So as it stands have both tanks sitting in my garage on the floor. Will get them painted this week and moved onto the stand this weekend and start the plumbing. So has been a pretty slow burn this project. Mainly due from the time it took from paying for the tanks to getting them home. Should start seeing some progress now.

Tank looks pretty good with the black silicone, and should look a million bucks on the black stand. The plywood I have used (sealed and painted) is 25mm thick and the Poly is 20mm, as well as the corss bracing so hopefully this is enough to remedy any potential slight bending of the beams. Excuse the mess in the garage, we recently moved in and it is on the hit list for a clean.

Yeah the black looks a million bucks. I picked up the first tank yesterday. The other had a small amount of damage on the cross bracing and the store is repairing the tank for me before i collect it. Tank weighed a lot more then I thought 12mm all round, in the 38C dry Perth heat yesterday, it was slippery work! but got it done. Will start painting the first tank this week and hopefully get some water in it before xmas.

Been a bit of a slow burn so far. Tanks are still sitting in the shop waiting to be drilled and the weirs installed, hopefully will be ready to pick up next week some time. A mate of mine that is a painter has come around a couple times this week to get the stand completed (painted). The side supports didn't need any sanding, but the orange cross beams seemed to be coated with something so we had to lightly sand them back to get the paint to stick to them. My mate also put an undercoat on the boards and then sprayed them with a high gloss exterior paint (several layers), so hopefully this should stop any water damage from occurring to the boards. We also painted the cross braces. So the whole lot is now in high gloss black, and I have to say it has gone from looking very ordinary in the blue and orange to absolutely amazing! Has come up a real treat, looks just as good as any stand I have seen. The high gloss black makes it pop! The spray finish is unbelievable. The grass copped a bit of a hammering, but its due to get mowed soon, so should be all sweet!

Mine is actually the exact same dimensions as the one you had mate. 2133 beams and 610mm wide. I guess the only real difference at this stage is the cross bracing.

Thanks mate. Should be good once it starts taking shape, at the moment just a whole heap of pocket emptying going on. Thanks mate, that gives me some added confidence. I have just regular ply wood that came with the tank at the moment. I will probably upgrade these to structural ply, and seal it. That doesn't fill me with a heap of confidence though. Were your tanks sitting directly over the beams? did you run cross bracing joining both of the beams together?

Set up the pallet racking just because I couldn't help myself. Will be getting resprayed back this week at some stage. The owner of the store I bought the tanks from has warned me of pallet racking bending and cracking bases of tanks, has anyone had this happen to them or heard of this? I have running 4x cross supports on each level to spread the load a bit more evenly and running a wood board underneath for the same reason.

Fish Dance -The plastic on my drum is quite thick and rigid. It is a DG container so it is built tough, so the uniseal should be a good option then. I have heard a bit of soapy water/shampoo works a treat. How are you bevelling the edge of the PVC? Would a bit of coarse sand paper to smooth out the edge of the PVC do the trick? I am not sure what you mean by the filtration being outside the tank could be a problem? Is that not essentially what all sumps and canister filters are? I have never run a sand filter, as I have never found the need to research them much or implement them. Can you please give me some more information? and what you mean by the term 'biological recovery'? I can only guess this is the time it takes for bacterial colonies to colonise filter media after an event (or when cycling). In terms of oxygenation there will be ~100l/min of air being used to tumble the K media as well as the natural mixing of air with water and air being sucked down pipes and water agitation from being pumped back into the top tank by the return pump (~7,500L/hr). The proposed set up is very similar to how I have my sump on my 8x3 set up. The main difference is the mechanical filtration will be disposable rather than washable and the 'container' is a drum rather than a glass aquarium. Having said that I am always willing to learn and try new things, but at the same time if it aint' broke why fix it? Ducksta - Agreed nobody! But i will hold out until I return from my honey moon, then I'll go nuts on the fish. Until then no new purchases. I implemented this on myself almost 12 months ago now, and have managed to stick to it.

Yeah I have seen a lot of the King of DIY on youtube - while I find most of his ideas and info quite good, I don't like the way in which he connects his plumbing to his containers. Basically what he has done is drill an appropriately sized hole, heat the rim of the hole with a heat gun then push the pvc through the heated plastic and then use silicone to seal. Heat is just such a silly thing to use when a bulkhead or uniseal would do the job. What if i apply too much heat to the hole? Then I have just ruined a $135 plastic barrel. Bulk heads and uniseals are also very easy to assemble and disassemble if needed. I am also not a fan of using contact for background either. Painting gives much more of a crisp look. Paint is easily removed with a new razor blade.