So I have dreamed for a good while now about building a beast tank. Frankly however I am not a man with a deep wallet maintaing a 7 person household with 2 dogs 4 running tanks(largest is a 125g) and a guinea pig( daughter had to have it). Has me lacking in project investment funds. I have considered plywood with an epoxy and eyeballed doing a pond liner but in both situations some crucial part of the build (epoxy, window sealant ect) is just out of reasonable reach for me. Most of my tanks were baught used aquired at auctions or lucky finds. ( most of my filters lighting ect were the product of trading electric blue lobsters that I bred like crazy for a couple years).
I have always had a simple issue with tanks they are always long so fish swim back and fourth width is almost always minimal. That in mind the tank I want (4'x4'x18") in glass is over $1000 just to get it to my city.
All that being said I feel I have finaly come up with a concept I can afford reasonably over time and wanted to bounce it off the guys/gals here as you guys have the most impressive DIY fun I have found on the net.
My bedroom is in my basement it is where all my tanks are set up. I am going to remove a bar that is in the room freeing up a 12' x14" area that is going to turn into my fish cave if you will with a 2 foot stand running around the wall holding all my tanks (I am short tanks at this height make my life easy). I want the center piece of this cave to be my new build.
I want to build a 4'x4' or 4'x6' square/rectangle (the size varies as I am gettimg my glass for free and am not sure measurements yet its 1/4 inch thick tempered glass table top) approximately 24 inches deep with an open top out of cinder block(properly motored ect) then line it with 45 mil epdm. essenttialy making an indoor pond / coffee table on steroids. with the glass on top I will not need a sealant to hold my water and with the liner I will not need apoxy.
For filtration I was going to drop sponge filters at the 4 corners and have the airpumps sitting inside the cinder block at those respective corners (the glass has slight concaves at each corner I can run air lines thru). I also have around 30 extruded polystyrene blocks 23"x5"x6" I will feed into the center of my blocks(non corners as they are for air pumps) for insulation.
For lighting I was going to look into under water leds and attach them to the bottom of my glass at the edges (suction cups silicone watever) with the fixture sticking into the water.
Stocking will be my senegal bichirs (3 now will be more if I build this), 10 inch jack dempsey, 2 breeding BN plecos ( I have soooo many babys), and once they reach full size I will be added a bunch of 4 inch mollys and swords as a test I was advised by neal monks that with a senegal if they are above 3 inches they should be safe from casual preditation. worst case my bichirs got a snack...and a bunch of live plants
My own questions are as follows:
Should I have padding between my liner and the concrete blocks ?
Will the filtration be sufficiant? ( know my dempsey is a slob )
What should I attach the liner to the block with? I plan on overlaying the edges around the glass with ceramic tile.
estimate for pondish build:
Cinderblock-$45 (less if the smaller size) (free if I can find the owner of the mountain of them down the street)
Liner-$70 (or i could get an abandon intex pool and cut it down
lights-$40-60 (i can just set a light on the glass for a while if I run outta money)
Sponge filters-$40 ( if I do all 4 corners)
air pumps- $30ish ( maybe much less if I wait till local club auction)
Glass-free
$225 -$240ish add in anothe $30 for mortar and random stuff
affordable for me since it will be done over a couple months time potentially almost free if I am patient. any thaughts suggestions or corrections would be appreciated.
I have always had a simple issue with tanks they are always long so fish swim back and fourth width is almost always minimal. That in mind the tank I want (4'x4'x18") in glass is over $1000 just to get it to my city.
All that being said I feel I have finaly come up with a concept I can afford reasonably over time and wanted to bounce it off the guys/gals here as you guys have the most impressive DIY fun I have found on the net.
My bedroom is in my basement it is where all my tanks are set up. I am going to remove a bar that is in the room freeing up a 12' x14" area that is going to turn into my fish cave if you will with a 2 foot stand running around the wall holding all my tanks (I am short tanks at this height make my life easy). I want the center piece of this cave to be my new build.
I want to build a 4'x4' or 4'x6' square/rectangle (the size varies as I am gettimg my glass for free and am not sure measurements yet its 1/4 inch thick tempered glass table top) approximately 24 inches deep with an open top out of cinder block(properly motored ect) then line it with 45 mil epdm. essenttialy making an indoor pond / coffee table on steroids. with the glass on top I will not need a sealant to hold my water and with the liner I will not need apoxy.
For filtration I was going to drop sponge filters at the 4 corners and have the airpumps sitting inside the cinder block at those respective corners (the glass has slight concaves at each corner I can run air lines thru). I also have around 30 extruded polystyrene blocks 23"x5"x6" I will feed into the center of my blocks(non corners as they are for air pumps) for insulation.
For lighting I was going to look into under water leds and attach them to the bottom of my glass at the edges (suction cups silicone watever) with the fixture sticking into the water.
Stocking will be my senegal bichirs (3 now will be more if I build this), 10 inch jack dempsey, 2 breeding BN plecos ( I have soooo many babys), and once they reach full size I will be added a bunch of 4 inch mollys and swords as a test I was advised by neal monks that with a senegal if they are above 3 inches they should be safe from casual preditation. worst case my bichirs got a snack...and a bunch of live plants
My own questions are as follows:
Should I have padding between my liner and the concrete blocks ?
Will the filtration be sufficiant? ( know my dempsey is a slob )
What should I attach the liner to the block with? I plan on overlaying the edges around the glass with ceramic tile.
estimate for pondish build:
Cinderblock-$45 (less if the smaller size) (free if I can find the owner of the mountain of them down the street)
Liner-$70 (or i could get an abandon intex pool and cut it down
lights-$40-60 (i can just set a light on the glass for a while if I run outta money)
Sponge filters-$40 ( if I do all 4 corners)
air pumps- $30ish ( maybe much less if I wait till local club auction)
Glass-free
$225 -$240ish add in anothe $30 for mortar and random stuff
affordable for me since it will be done over a couple months time potentially almost free if I am patient. any thaughts suggestions or corrections would be appreciated.
