Fish Compatibility in a Large (3,000 gallon) tank
- Thread starter Drstrangelove
- Start date
I hear ya! Call me a planning freak (I admit it), but I like to have most of a project spelled out before it gets to the spending stage.
I submit project planning regularly...this sort of project is like this
1 financial planning
2 space planning, structural concerns
3 design of tank
4 filtration heating design
5 build
6 livestock concerns...
Where are you at bro?
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1 financial planning
2 space planning, structural concerns
3 design of tank
4 filtration heating design
5 build
6 livestock concerns...
Where are you at bro?
Sent from my iPhone using MonsterAquariaNetwork app
Congratulations on getting your 3,000 gallon dream tank. Not many people get beyond the dream part. Are you building it yourself, or are you having your tank made? If you are having the tank manufactured for you, what manufacturer did you go with? Is the tank going in a garage, or are you going to build a fishroom to contain the tank? What kind of foundation do you have going under the tank? Would love to see you do a thread on the filtration you plan for your tank. Are you going to have a separate filtration room?
Going from a 150 gallon tank to a 3,000 gallon tank is a tremendous upgrade. Congratuations. I am looking forward to pictures of your new tank set up.
Going from a 150 gallon tank to a 3,000 gallon tank is a tremendous upgrade. Congratuations. I am looking forward to pictures of your new tank set up.
Great question. I see you are way ahead of me in thinking things like this through. Please critique my replies and expect me to listen to your responses with interest.
I basically did the financial planning a few years back and am taking advantage of working about 9 months longer so I can buy exactly what I want. Since I have no other expensive hobbies (no golf, skiing, traveling, pro sports, etc.) it's a fairly easy plan.
Space will either be a new house that is exactly what I want (unlikely), one that I can add a room to, or one I have built to my design specs. I'm leaning towards the latter since I have an in-law who is gifted at building plus a large family to lean on. My concern is having a room 30' by 20' by xx' high (minimum) with a floor that can hold 20 tons of water/tank/sand/sump (in a relatively small area) with adequate electric and heating support and limited potential that a tank break could severely damage the rest of the house. (I haven't decided exactly how tall the tank will be or how it will be seated and I need to work how much space I'll need to deal with any work to do inside the tank. Will I need a 10' 12' 14' ceiling?) How will the tank materials be brought into the house, how will I deal with sunlight, how will I light the room for maximum effect? How will I handle ambient noise? What other things might be done in the room?) By spec I'd have good plumbing and drainage and likely have that room set a foot lower than the rest of the house or deal with possible breakage issue in some way. This is where I am totally open since simple design choices could make the end result much nicer. How will I handle a power outtage? A 750 gallon water change? Working inside the tank? How will viewing be done?
Tank design for me is a bit interactive with the fauna choices and limitations on the home structure, and there is some limit on the spending, but I have flexibility with the current design. For example, I opted out for Pacu and Irridescent Sharks (because rightly or wrongly) I simply worry a lot about the potential damage that these nearly full or full grown fish could do to the tank. If I find out that my fish choices can't coexist and that there aren't suitable alternatives, then I'd consider decreasing the size. Luckily that so far is not appearing to be the case! Yea~!
I haven't asked about acrylic or glass (yet), but I absolutely don't want to take on a massive project to build this. I am woefully inept at this task, which is why I kept working so I could afford not to have to test my feable skills. I know there are a lot of pros and cons on this topic.
Filtration is something I thought I'd tackle at full bore once I had the fauna set, although obviously one can just add more if needed. I love clean tanks, large water changes and healthy fish, plus I never mind understocking a tank. In tha past this has helped my fish survive my errors or judgment. I'm choosing fish that will live (hopefully if I handle this well) for 10-20 years. I want a robust system that can handle things that may only happen once in a rare time. Losing these fish after 8 years for example, due to something that could have been prevented or anticipated would make me quite sad.
However, my plan is to get lots of feedback and input on this design. I have thoughts that a large sump next to or under the tank would allow me to handle this well. I'm strongly leaning towards having a sand substrate (~4"), which considering my fish choices, I hope will stay well turned, and using over flows to route to a lot of mechanincal and biological filtration in the sump. I've considered adding driftwood (strengthed with nylon fish line and silicone adhesive) inside the tank along with Java Fern / Java Moss and some large river stones. This I have not raised to anyone, so I'd like to get input. It's possible part of the sump could be Java Moss, with just the Fern in the tank, but having 'extra' food and coverage for the fish isn't bad. I haven't completely worked out how to address the Arowana's structural needs, so that's a task.
Heating will occur in the sump, but my plan is to have specific room heating designed for that spot, so the ambient room temperature could be different from the rest of the house. I'll defer to others on this, but I think with good planning I can minimize heating costs, while creating a second 'eco-system' in the house. Obviously, adding insulation to that room on all the perimeters is better done ahead of time.
My main livestock concerns are:
1) choosing animals that can coexist and thrive in the environment I've chosen for a lifetime.
2) planning their introduction and growth phases as well as the full adult phase.
3) Never having to return these fish or to move them. Many of these will be hard to move at adult size and I have no illusions of that as a reasoble option. Morever, I only want fish that I'll enjoy, so I wouldn't want to move them. If they aren't compatable, I need to know that (if possible) in advance. A bigger well thought out tank gives me the most chance that individual temperments/needs of the fishes can still be accomodated.
So building the tank is not so much as something I'd like to as it's something I am actively planning. I've been making choices in my work life that will make this doable, etc.
All great questions.
Short answers (since I'm a slow typer): I'm not budiling this myself because when I started going through the DIY forum (I have been lurking here for about 3 years), I realized how far from competent I am to handle this. I admire anyone who has done these whether successful or not. It's something that I was awed by in just looking at what people had thought through and were willing to try. Doing your own tank build is really challenging.
I have looked at several acrylic manufacturers, but I'm not certain I want to use acrylic. I need advice from people, especially for large tanks where fish have gotten large and where maintenance needs to be done on 8-12 year old tanks. I honestly don't think I can or want to try to move a bunch of large fish at that point, which makes me think (perhaps quite incorrectly) that glass is better in the long run. I'm not set on that but I will want to think about what a 12 year old tank is like.
The tank will have it's own room possibly with room for a much smaller marine tank or a lizard tank. Likely single specimen, and probably in the 200-250 gallon range.
For the floor, I was thinking of poured reinforced concrete, asking an engineer / architect to design it specifically for this project and with a larger than normal safety factor. Because it will be difficult to 'fix' normal flooring problems, I'm going to try to reinforce the foundation as needed for external flooding, minor quakes, excessive freezing, settling if it's a new house, etc. It'll probably add some expense, but if it's advised, I'll add it.
Great question on the second room! I was leaning towards having it in one room, but using an actual wall partition (like 2 feet below the celing, and 25" long in a 30' long room) but with pre built holes for piping. I'm not sure if an architect will agree with that 'look.' It could be in a different room of course, which may be is the best way to go. I'm not much on room design, so I will hope people will chime in and let me know what sounds best. I though about an under the tank sump, but I worry if it's as easy to access and easy to fix (if problems) if it's under the tank. Also, if I have to do a major fix on it over the years, it's really not in a great place.
The sheer size of the tank you want poses its own problems. The tank will not fit through any regular door opening. You will need a sliding door, french doors or a garage door to get the tank into your house. I believe that's why so many large tanks end up in garages. You do have the option of having the tank built on site. Midwest Custom Aquariums can build a tank on site. Our big tank upgrade is slightly more than half the size of your dream tank. At 15' x 4' x 4', we had to move it into the new fish room before the outside walls were finished. There is absolutely no way the tank can be moved out without tearing down walls. If we were to move, there is no way the tank will move with us without major wall demolition.....something for you to think about. Ideally, your fish room should have doors that a forklift can drive through.
Very very true. I will have to consider having french doors, removable sliding doors, possibly over sized non-standard doorways (for example 10 feet tall), or some solution to get the large sections in and yes, they'll have to construct it on site. I've seen pictures of fork lifts doing that and it's a sight for sure.
Ok so how will I ever get it out? I won't or at least I have plans to not move. I don't move a lot (2 times in 20 years), and I'll be retired, so I better be happy with my house!
But you make a great point that I hadn't even thought about. Maybe the architect could design it to be a little less destructive if he knows in advance it might need to be moved? I'll need to add that to my list.
Ok, so you have some particularly interesting experiece. How long did you wait between putting the tank in and having the final wall construction completed? How did you manage to avoid damaging the tank? Was the floor and the area outside the house left mostly unfinished to allow for the traffic?
bigrich545 was able to have double doors put on his build, but not the garage door he wanted.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...-tank-1-000-gallon-tank-many-others-and-ponds
bigrich545's tank was initially featured as a 4000 gallon salt water installation in someone's garage. The filtration system was neat. I loved the platform behind the tank.
http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...000-Gallon-tank-install-(H20-Custom-Aquatics)
Our roof was on, but minimal framing of the front wall was in when the stand and tank were moved in.
Our tank was in a storage facility for a year before our build had progressed to the point where the tank could come home. (DIY addition to our house). The storage facility was a moving company, so I hired them to move the tank. I was not around when the tank was brought home. My husband said there were some scary moments, as the movers weren't particularly careful.
A higher ceiling is good. We went with an 8' ceiling--mistake--we have only 2' clearance above the tank.
I really liked the platform idea, and we built a platform with hinged doors for the floor. We should be able to easily access the filtration and sump under the platform, and we need the platform to access the top of the tank for feeding and maintenance.
