DIY tank/stand... ideas?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
P

PeteJ

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2006
86
0
0
41
Cheshire, UK
Hi,

After watching my oscars and GT's today i thought they'd really appreicate a huge assed tank! obviously. and after not researching how large giraffe catfish get (oops) im thinking it would be nice to expand a little! now this is subject to whee it will go, if it can be housed upstairs etc etc.
BUT from all your collective experience, what is the best way to either purchase or make a large capacity tank on a student budget?
im guessing breeze blocks + plywood make a sturdy stand, chuck a cloth over it and its good to go!
Tank wise i want to go as big as possible, in my dreams i'd hope for something like.. 80x39x39 inches about 440uk gallons but clearly thats mental and would cost a fortune in .. well everything.
so i currently have a 55gal one fullgrown oscar, one full grown featherfin, 2 juve GT's, juve senegal bichir, juve plec and juve giraffe. all growing faster than i expected! especially as i was sold the GT's as blue acara's..
so should i trawl the classifieds for a cheap glass tank with no heater etc and put together a sumper setup or something or go really crazy and go for a playwood?

please give me some answers! the budget is tight but im willing to try whatever :D
 
not sure on space, best get out the tape measure.
Im inclined to move the tank to a room where i get to see more of it, its currently in the box room next to mine and its hard work sitting down in there and watching whats going on!

be staying where i am for roughly another 2 years then i'll be moving out somewhere on my own so it'll be another change of tanks!
Kiddie pools are fine but they aint pretty! its more than likely gonna be either in the same room (could fit up to a 49inch glass tank against the current wall.. much bigger against another maybe up to 80 inches..)
its just materials though innit :D

i'll have a good read on here.. any more contributions are welcomed!

ah just aa quicky while i remember, my current lighting is a pair of flourescent tubes for the 55gal, which obviously wont be enough for a 5-6 foot beasty SO as there part of the fluval hood, would it be possible to rig up some custom lighting with something like floot lights? or spot lights? this must be alot cheaper than the starter units etc, and i've seen it done in a few books before, but never had many details on what kind of bulbs/lamps were used?
 
Ok, so we what pretty huh? Make your own plywood tank to fit your space (ooo custom :D )

Flood / spot / halogen / HID lights are all going to create alot of heat. But if you've got a cooler room you may be able to compensate for it. Could you fit another shoplight on top with the hood you have? If your handy maybe you could disassemble it and build it in the hood? Here we have a halogen about fixture about the size of a hockey puck that's self-contained that's easy to install and now they have them with LED's too (haven't tried them yet)

Keep the Faith,

Dr Joe

.
 
good news! parents have agree'd to let me stow a roughly 6 foot tank downstairs. so long as its purdy :nilly:
top banana!!!
just have to get exact dimensions and plan it all out :naughty:

glad my parents are so accomodating, specially for a 22 year old uni student hehe:screwy:
 
Go with a plywood tank, you can't beat the price anytime! All you would need is one seeing window which would cost the most of the whole thing. For a sump I would get a plastic tote, usually can find them in farm supplies, you could build a great sump to go with the plywood tank and not cost a huge amount.
 
PeteJ;505260; said:
good news! parents have agree'd to let me stow a roughly 6 foot tank downstairs. so long as its purdy :nilly:
top banana!!!
just have to get exact dimensions and plan it all out :naughty:

glad my parents are so accomodating, specially for a 22 year old uni student hehe:screwy:
Click to expand...



Yeah !!! :headbang2 :headbang2 Thanks Mom & Dad

You do realize that they will be hooked in less than a year and that you will never get that tank back !! Right.

Keep us posted.

Dr Joe

.
 
my dad already talks to my oscar like its his child anyway!

for the fish i have im hoping a 6x18x24 or even better 6x24x24 will be sufficient for all the full grown fishies?

i cant quite visualise it like..

the 6x2x2 is.. 180 US gallons i think.. about 680 litres.. 150 Uk gals.. think thats right

let me know on that count im crap with working things out late at night!

hopefully i wont need to ditch any fish.. im lovin the little fella's with some good luck i might evn have room left over... oops thinking about more fish already!
 
the 6x2x2 is.. 180 US gallons i think.. about 680 litres.. 150 Uk gals.. think thats right

Yeah that is right. Took me ages to find that out for sure.

I think in terms of budget, http://www.aquarist-classifieds.co.uk/php/detail62_43606.php may well be the cheapest.

I got a 6'x2'x2' delivered to central london same day as ardered for £20 dellivery £170 for the tank.

If you wanna go up market a little more, http://www.wharfaquatics.co.uk/wharftanks.htm look good too.

I'm gonna use a couple of eheim canisters (2329 and another one) for filtration.

It came without a stand (my cheaper option) but he does cabinets and stands too at reasonable prices. 6'x2'x2' with cabinet + £400.
 
yeah just checked the classifieds, a couple of V good deals on there.

i just phoned my work (LFS) and they're going to get me a quote which hopefully should be similar but with a discount it might sway me. (£10 delivery too)

filtration is something i havent quite figured out, i currently run a fluval 205 external. that does the job nicely. gets a weekly waterchange, and its never been a problem.

ideally i suppose a wet/dry sump would work best for a large tank, but plumbing it all up would be a real pain, specially where its going to sit (in the lounge that just had a new carpet.. eek)

perhaps a fluval fx5? they seem a good price and do a good water turn over, also i could use the water change feature on it to make life cleaner... but some people have said these filters arent really very good? my experience with fluval has been top notch so far...

price is the main issue, as its all done on a student budget unless my lovely parents are going to stump up some wonga to make its neater :D

(lets hope for wonga)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom