My new planted tank project

My bad, sorry for my moment of newbie-ness !! Am going to my LFS on Sunday or Saturday and am going to get my filter and some mopani wood or driftwood.
Going to order the tank within two or three days

 

Ok, new plan. I know what I said about getting the 1.5 . But my LFS had a Xmas special, 10% of all tanks. The 1.2 m was R1200 and is now R900. This is anexcellent deal and I will buy this. Am going to pick it up in two weeks and am using a 1200lph pump with a large DIY C02 injection system.

 

@FishLover - If it's a standard 1.2m x 0.45m x 0.45m (6mm glass) then thats not a good deal? 1.2's cost R450.00...

 

@MarcHawke , where do you shop? Please tell me as I have not bought the tank yet! Give me the name and location of where you get them and how much does a standard 1.5m one cost there!!?? Please tell me and I will organise to buy one there! I had no idea as Rustenburg has only one or two LFS ! Thanks for the heads up and thanks for alerting me to my problem. THANK YOU @MarcHawke .

 

Update

Ok, got my tank today and I am very pleased. It is 120x45x45 . Some people told me that this is not big and and and........ but it is very big to me!! It looks very awesome and I am excited!! I also looked underneath some shelves at my LFS (similiar to what happened to @Ammar )
and found dragon rock at about R25/R30 a kilo. So I took all they had. Plants will arrive in a week or two and will post pics tomorrow.

 

Nice, that 4ft is perfect, not sure if you have a leather grain hood or not (I think they are a waist) I have ended up putting a 6mm glass slab on top of the tank and run the T8 under the glass and just under the brace The slab is 120x 30 leaving a large enough gap to do most tank maintenance without moving the glass. Not sure if this will work for you?

Later Ferdie

 

I am using my father as labour ( He is very good at carpenting) to make a wooden frame and hood for the tank.

 

What did you land up paying for the tank in the end? 1.2m is a lovely sized tank. You will have about 200l once you put substrate, decorations etc in the tank. WC's are also not too bad depending on wether or not you are doing the bucket brigade like I have to! Congrats and enjoy

 

I also have to use my trusty bucket but I cant seen to find a better way. I payed R900 for it in the end as I got three quotes:
R1400,R1000,R1200. I chose my LFS as this is the best price anywhere near me.
I am very excited about setting it up, it looks like so much space to use!

 

I remember this feeling and the next thing you know you have pieces of wood in buckets and bags of gravel and tanks with cuttings and....:cheesy:

 

lol @MarcHawke

 

How thick is the glass?

 

I think its 8mm. Will check when I get home.

 

Ok...That would explain the cost difference. My 100l is only 5mm and there is a huge price increase when you increase the glass thickness. To give you an example my 300l cost R1450.00 but it's made from 10mm glass where I could have got the standard 1.2 for R450 made from 6mm glass.

 

I checked, its 8mm.

 

Nice! That gives you a factor of safety of 3.4 which is considered to be safe. My safety factor is 4.1. I'm not sure if you have ever been shown this site but take a look:
http://www.theaquatools.com/building-your-aquarium

Apparantly your tank glass will weigh 50kg and the tank with water will be 293kg

 

Thanks man, good to know.

 

Update:
The hood is almost built and its looking really good. Going with a dark varnished wood. Going to get plants within the next two weeks from TASA members (thanks guys) and am going wood hunting on my farm. Got some mopani and am gonna try find some sekelbos.

 

Will post pics tomorrow.

 

@FishLover, please check your inbox for a pm.