OnlyGenusCaps

That tank looks really nice, @madmark285!!! You are always the PVC king! If the screening becomes a problem, I wonder if Poret cut to fit in between the PVC might work better? Not for more biofiltration surface area, obviously. But, it would hold the gravel up, and if it got clogged, you could pull sections out to rinse them, in a pinch. Just a through. Like I said, it looks great!

Sumps are better than canisters. Full stop. If you are looking for a DIY vertical sump/can substitute @eatyourpeas built a nice one! Long live the V-sump!

'Tis the season:

You, sir, remind me of a friend of mine in our local club. He bred more ACA recognized cichlids than anyone outside of Chicago last year (what is it with Chicago and cichlids?!). He's always got his eyes on the next project, but loves each species along the way. It takes a special kind of dedication and passion to do what you do. And I wouldn't have fully recognized it if I hadn't seen someone similarly driven locally. Hats off to you, sir! To the folks reading here, it's even more impressive than you think. I assure you!

And now for something completely different! Edgard Varèse, Ionisation:

Well, slow but steady. I've got a few other irons in the fire, so I shoot to cycle between them all as time allows. I recently built, what I think anyhow, is a decent stand for over and under 75 gallons. Once I had the height figured out, it was pretty easy. I thought I would share the joints I used here, just in case someone else wants to build an easy but overbuilt stand. So this is the joint over all. I used 2x6 boards out of an abundance of caution. What I like about this system is that I have mostly separated holding the structure together from the weight bearing aspect of the stand. Not the cleanest holes, or saw lines. I'm no carpenter! The internal frame that will hold the tank is held together by 2 1/2" deck screws. Get the star drive. Makes a big difference! Once those were together, I attached the uprights with more deck screws, which you can see better below. On the left side of the upright. With just 2 deck screws per corner that would be bearing the full weight of the tank (these would be the only pieces between the tank frame and the supporting uprights at this stage), I wouldn't trust this stand to hold a 75 gallon tank. But you can see there is more. Those two bolts were then added. Well the one on the right is actually some sort of screw, but a big one! It is 4" long and passes through the first two boards into the long part of the frame. These two chunky pieces of metal are now there to hold the majority of the weight of the tank as they are now the largest pieces that will transfer the mass of the full aquarium to the uprights. They are each about 3/8" thick stainless. I'm thinking that will suffice. I inset them (poorly I know! again, not a carpenter) because I have very little wiggle room for extra width. But the nut on the inside is allowed to protrude as you can see here: I specifically chose to have the short side be the one that runs the full distance and long side to be affixed inside of that. This replicates the short side support that Cory has in his shop to hold up the tanks, but provides extra support along the long face of a 4' tank. At least that was my rational. Anyhow, I hope this perhaps overly detailed discussion about aquarium stand joints helps someone. Someday. Somewhere. Thanks for looking!

Thanks! I took that into account when building the rack. Mine will top out a little higher, but the bottom tank is still very low. Oh well. No way to get around it without making maintenance on the top one a real pain in the keester, I suppose.

I'm looking for opinions here. I am about to build a stand to stack two of my 75 gallon tanks. I hate that my current setup puts one of them like 2" off the ground. It's hard to clean under there, and they fish hide at the site of legs (I find some do this more than others, but in my experience fish seem to hate being too low - don't know why). So, let me know what the center point height of the two tanks would be, in an idea world, in your opinion! I realize that there are a number of factors that go into this decision, but I'm purposefully not going into the construction right now because I'd like to hear optimal heights in folks' opinions. I will say, the tanks are 21" tall and I am 6' if that helps. I'll talk about construction once I get some thoughts, and I'll let you know what I go with in the end. Thanks in advance for all the input!

Perhaps my favorite Scottish fiddle player, Jenna Reid. I had the good fortune to run into her on one lovely, blustery October day in Steòrnabhagh on the Outer Hebrides. In case you are wondering, she was lovely, wonderful woman.

In honor of yesterday's passing of Steve Harwell, here is a lesser known song from Smash Mouth "Waste":

Nice! Thanks for posting about this! I'll be trying this with my viv plants for dart frogs next time I set up a viv. Right now the standard protocol is to bleach all the plants for fear of transferring some terrible pathogens like chytrid. I've been taking some risks, because I'm not super on board with the whole bleaching of plants that frogs will then hangout on. So, I figure this might help. Will RR eliminate fungal spores? Don't know. But I'll still QT the plants post treatment. At least no slugs, snails, and plant insect pests are likely to be introduced with this method!

How wonderful to hear. I fully support your decision. *Even if you have now reconsidered and edited this part of your comment out.* @Galabar, so it seems a generally respectful discussion can be had about filtration, but perhaps not on the "hot button issue" of Prime. 🤣 In all seriousness, this was a wonderful social experiment in addition to being a good discussion topic! Plus, as someone who enjoys thinking about and discussing filtration, it's nice to know that filtration generally seems to get people less red faced these days. Thanks for starting this topic!

The thread was shut down because people got max aggro about it, but there are chemical means that suggest Prime could work pretty well as the label says. Up front I'll say, I am not here to argue about this with anyone. I just thought you might be interested in some of the chemistry and patents related to that and similar products. If not, feel free to ignore it and move on. No hurt feeling from me if that's what you decide. (I know it's a lot of hedging language, but this topic seems to bring out something in a few folks like they have a dog in that fight or something. I don't know why. But now I do a bit of this first. Sorry.) It's a long read, but I really like the post:

Wait a minute. I'm no economist, but doesn't higher demand typically result in higher prices? If that's not the standard view, I think I might be onto something here! 🤪

I've got a nice M. veitchiana. It's a bit of a sentimental plant for me. When I was in high school, my mother met an older woman in line at the grocery store who was having trouble maintaining her orchid collection. My mother selflessly volunteered me to help her because I liked "stuff that's alive". Well, it turns out this woman and her husband were in their 90's at the time and had traveled throughout Latin America in the 1930's collecting orchids (they had the absolute best and craziest stories!!!). They had one of the largest private collections of orchids on the West Coast; it covered 4 large greenhouses on their property. Anyhow, I've never been super big into orchids, though I've had to care for hundreds of species in my career. But they have never been my thing, if that makes sense. Well, after 3 years of helping her out for at least a few hours each weekend, I was headed off to college. She asked me which orchid I wanted when I got back as a gift. I told her I liked the M. veitchiana most; when in truth it was about the only one I cared about at all. She promised me she'd divide her only plant for me. Unfortunately, she and her husband died before I could get this kind gift. Her family, not caring for her collection, sold it off piecemeal to the highest bidders. I never got to say goodbye, and never got the plant as a memory of this kind and adventurous woman. So, I decided I wanted to one day grow this plant again. I have essentially built a whole room to optimally house it. I think she'd be proud. 🙂