I've got my 4'x2'x2' safely in my home, it's bloody heavy! I've started
staining/and varnishing the 800mm high colonial style stand and hood. It's
a big job!! there is almost 10metres of surface area to varnish the inside
and outside of the stand and the hood, and I have to do this 3 times!!!

I have built my filter, it looks great and will fit 3, 1 inch pieces of foam
(about 1' x 1' square) and about 20 litres of sump area, with some filter
media in the bottom. I'm going to return this to the tank with a resun
6000, which will pump at about 1600 litres an hour with the head that it's
got to contend with.

next step is to build the background, and I think I like the idea of
styrofoam coated with cement/sand/water/colouring/ mix looks the best. does
anyone know, if I've going to keep africans, if I'll need to seal this
background?

anyway, looks like more staining/varnishing this afternoon, lots of work to
go!! hopefully I can get some photos of the finnished product, cos I think
it should look great!