Recent content by mongo

If you are nervous about the paint, use a 2-part epoxy paint designed for aquaculture use (aquaticecosystems.com sells many colors). It's expensive, but I had some left over from another project and used it to paint some PVC black/blue. Looks nice because it's the same color as my tank.

Yep. The hagfish is the "original" fish with fossils around 500 million years old. Interestingly these are osmoconformers (they change their osmotic levels to match the environment). The sharks are almost all marine with very few ever known to be freshwater (there are some freshwater rays)...

All marine teleost fish (bony fish, not the sharks etc) are derived from freshwater ones. The best evidence for this is that the osmolality (salinity) of the body fluids for marine teleosts is the same as it is for freshwater ones. This means marine teleost fish are hypoosmotic (less salty than...

Sort of... All marine teleost fish are derived from freshwater fish. In other words, all of the oldest teleost fishes are freshwater. Cichlids are a failrly old group, none of which are marine. You're right in that the African cichlids would not be cichlids if they had a recent marine ancestor...

You might get a number of different opinions on this...this is just mine. If you want low maintenance there are two keys 1) low bio-load and 2) some form of nutrient export. The nutrient export part is easy, set up a refugium with good macro algae growth that you harvest regularly. Low bioload...

Depends on the design. If it is properly designed with the right braces it won't bow. My 240gallon (8x2x2) bows less than 1/8". If built impropery glass will bow also. In fact, if your tank is going to bow you're better off with acrylic and acrylic adhesives than glass and silicon.

You're right about the bandwidth... Doesn't everyone have DSL, cable or T1 :?: My website is at http://schaefer.siue.edu, nothing there yet for my tank (tank is only a few months old), just classes and research. The old page (info is outdated) that has the changing images is at...

If you use the following code it will work in netscape, IE, mozilla or whatever. In your header, define the images and a function to swap them <SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript1.1"> <!-- { but0 = new Image(); but0.src = "image1.jpg"; but1 = new Image(); but1.src = "image2.jpg"; } function...

The wood is cheap so if there is any question you might as well go with 1" instead of 3/4". If you want to protect the epoxy you could set heavy items on eggcrate. I recently got a big lace rock boulder that weighed a ton so I put some eggcrate down, cover it with sand, and then set the heavy...

I'm no expert but here is my $.02 worth after building some good size plywood tanks. I think marine grade plywood is a waste of money. If your plywood ever gets wet the tank leaks and you have bigger problems. I always use plain AC and if properly sealed it will never be in contact with water...

You can do a search to find more details on this but I've had luck with using A/C grade 3/4" plywood, a frame made of 2x4 and then many coats of 2 part epoxy. The epoxy I use is available from http://www.aquaticecosystems.com, do a search for "paint". The 240g tank I built required two 1 gallon...

I've never tried that but I could see problems with sealing the seams between pieces of acrylic. Silicone doesn't stick to acrylic that well (not nearly as well as glass). If the tank was moved, or in the process of filling it, you might get two pieces of acrylic moving in relation to each...

Not sure on the exact weight but think about the weight difference between a 8x4 3/4" sheet of plywood and the same size piece of glass. I would guess a plywood tank weighs half as much or less. I can move mine around myself, but it took two of us to put it on the stand just because it's bulky...

A tank made with plywood and a glass or acrylic front. They have some advantages like being cheap, easy to customize, durable and lightweight. Downside is that you can only see in one side, unless you put more glass or acrylic sides in. They are perfect for in-wall applications. The last one I...

I've built two big plywood tanks, one freshwater (180g) and one saltwater (240g). Both of them are plywood on 3 sides with 2 part epoxy paint from Aquatic Ecosystems and acrylic front. I used 1/2" acrylic and it's plenty strong, easier to cut, and chaper than glass ($180 for an 8'x2' sheet...