Alex

Picked up my new Plastic 216L DG drum this afternoon - the plastic is quite thick and rigid. So I think the uniseal will be the go, can always install a bulkhead later on if I am not happy with the uniseal.

I think her main problem was that we plan on having kids in the not too distant future and she wasn't all that keen on having a large body of water inside our home that was fairly low lying to the floor, that could potentially present a drowning hazard. I know there could be safe measures around this but I tended to agree with her in the end, and went with the 6 footers instead (not a bad trade off really!). The fun has already started, 'doing everything yourself' rather than just buying everything from the LFS means I have a busy couple of weeks ahead of me going to a million different places to collect all the pieces that I need to put this project together. Picking up the plastic drum for the filter and the K1 media up this evening. Grabbing the airpump to drive the k1 media on Saturday, and paying the outstanding cash on the tanks Sunday + hunting around looking for all my plumbing components. On plumbing - has anyone reading this used uniseals before? I have always used traditional bulkheads, and think I will still use bulkheads on the actual tanks. But the uniseals look a good option for the plastic drum to plumb my return pump into? they look like they come into their own when being used on a slightly curved surface like a drum? Uniselas are made from rubber and like anything made from rubber I'm sure they have a tendency to become brittle with time, but as it is an indoor application should get some longevity out of the seal not being exposed to sun/extreme heat. As far as painting the tanks go, I have always just painted the back black, never had any other colour. I'm thinking of painting the base black and the back and sides on a nice blue colour. I have always liked the way the blue looks in pics and on other peoples tanks so thought I'd give it a run. I saw a tank on MFk with a black bottom and blue back and sides and it looked absolutely mint!

G'day Decided I needed some more space, as I have only been running two tanks. My 8x3x2.5' (tank journal below in photography forum) and a 4x2.5x1.5' (used as a grow out, currently bone dry). The reason I felt like I needed more space was to be able to separate my male rays from my females (being able to selectively breed males with my girls rather than a free for all not knowing what male has got the job done) when needed and to separate a pair or two of my Peacock Bass out (a couple pairs have formed), and give breeding a raising fry a crack. I am also going away for 7 weeks (overseas) next year and will have a family member feeding my animals (house sitting), and another friend who knows fish will be coming in once a week to do water changes. So while yes it is more tanks, the way I'm looking at it is the amount of time to WC two systems wont be much different and I wont be getting anymore fish between now and then, so will have the same amount of fish split up over a greater water volume so should give a bit of room for error. I brainstormed a couple of ideas, even threw the idea of setting a pond up in my house - much to the dismay of my fiance. What I finally decided on was a pair of 6x2x2.5's. When thinking about what i was about to do, ease of maintenance was pretty high on the list and both tanks linked to a central filtration system. I picked up the tank stand today - Dexion Pallet Racking, modified to the correct width, beams are slightly longer to give me a bit of space for plumbing. Got these second hand locally and picked it up this afternoon. racking looks near on brand new. I have a mate who is a painter by trade, coming around early next week to respray the whole lot black, he assures me that they will come up a million bucks and look the goods. Couldn't handle looking at the orange and blue colour it is now! Both tanks are being drilled with 2 holes (40mm) and a weir box installed. The filtration is pretty simple, top tank overflows into the tank below which overflows to the filtration system. Which will be made up of a large food grade water container (blue drum) with 100L of K1 filter tumbling, water will first flow through mechanical media and pumped back up to the top tank. Simple and super effective. Return pump will be a Vectra Ecotech Marine M1, could have gone something cheaper but have been using one of my 8 footer and think its the goods. Will start whacking up photos as things progress. Cheers, Alex