As this is my husband's department-I'm more for the maintenance and mechanics of the hobby. After contacting two trustworthy LFS for their opinions, going to call Marineland and get their input on my problems, going to have someone actually come and look at my tank...we need to construct a FAST indoor pond. We are still in the making of the indoor build for the catfish (insulating the garage), but now being under extreme pressure (read previous post) we don't have time to wait. Our garage leaks water and freezes as we live in the western PA. No basement, we live in a townhouse (rent), but there's a drain in the garage (bonus). Laundry room too small. We have a shed, but no electric in it. Now, we need to tear down the 265 to "rebuild" it, literally. So, we need room in the garage to work on it. This will be another thread, with pics of course as we'll need help. We're going to dissemble it from where it sits-the dining room as it's so dang heavy. Now, the indoor pond make. We were already preparing the garage-cleaning it out, planning on the insulation as we are compromising on the pond. We had time we thought, until May to finish this. Not now.
Options:
!) Move the breakfast nook (not main kitchen table) out of dining room and put 120 gallon pond tub there (largest my lfs carries on hand, cheap), we were thinking of the filtration plumbing building a sump and fx5. I cannot remember dimensions but it is shallow, but is wider than the 265 and maybe 5 feet long. Again, I can't remember the dimensions. I told hubby it would be enough to support both 2 foot catfish as they could turn around and swim as long as we put mega filtration on the tub...but to the extreme, that's cruel.
2) Same as above with the 120 gallon pond tub in dining room, rearrange living room-move 125g which we have to do anyways for something else, put a 2nd 100g pond tub in living room. Essentially separate the catfish. This would be more ideal than above.
3) Build a wooden frame in the garage where it does not leak water, although it is freezing in there since we haven't insulated the entire thing; use pond liner/swimming pool liner (this is where my hubby comes in) He would build the pond, quickly I would assume. Would need to use heaters, which we don't use in any of the tanks. I haven't for years...last time I used them, maybe 5 years ago, brand new, I tried them again after bad experiences, they never shut off and fried my fish. All of my tanks have been room temp-smallest of 5 gallons is still warm with tetras and no problems.
4) Use our pop up 8' by 30" swimming pool, coat it well with extra paint on liner (or whatever), but we have the heater problem...
5) He wants to get some acrylic or glass panes and build a tank as well as the stand in the garage. However, we're back to the original issue of rebuilding the 265 as we don't have the time nor the weather nor the space right now to build a huge tank. It's too humid where we live for the silicone, right?
Mainly in the garage, it's the heater problem. I'm not keen on space heaters. Afraid of them catching on fire or crazily running up the electric bill just to warm up the water.
Again, this is more for an emergency issue to rehouse my cats as my 265 is breaking down and I don't trust it. We rent-I'm sure those renters out there understand this one. I am not giving up my cats, and we discussed it and finally reached a common decision that we're not getting rid of the tank. We knew we needed an indoor pond, we were getting ready to accomodate for it although it's our loss since we rent, but we've been here already for so long, but this is an emergency as the one seam is breaking down.
Any opinions for a quick, but awesome and sturdy indoor (cheap) pond (considering we're fixing the 265 at same time)?
Options:
!) Move the breakfast nook (not main kitchen table) out of dining room and put 120 gallon pond tub there (largest my lfs carries on hand, cheap), we were thinking of the filtration plumbing building a sump and fx5. I cannot remember dimensions but it is shallow, but is wider than the 265 and maybe 5 feet long. Again, I can't remember the dimensions. I told hubby it would be enough to support both 2 foot catfish as they could turn around and swim as long as we put mega filtration on the tub...but to the extreme, that's cruel.
2) Same as above with the 120 gallon pond tub in dining room, rearrange living room-move 125g which we have to do anyways for something else, put a 2nd 100g pond tub in living room. Essentially separate the catfish. This would be more ideal than above.
3) Build a wooden frame in the garage where it does not leak water, although it is freezing in there since we haven't insulated the entire thing; use pond liner/swimming pool liner (this is where my hubby comes in) He would build the pond, quickly I would assume. Would need to use heaters, which we don't use in any of the tanks. I haven't for years...last time I used them, maybe 5 years ago, brand new, I tried them again after bad experiences, they never shut off and fried my fish. All of my tanks have been room temp-smallest of 5 gallons is still warm with tetras and no problems.
4) Use our pop up 8' by 30" swimming pool, coat it well with extra paint on liner (or whatever), but we have the heater problem...
5) He wants to get some acrylic or glass panes and build a tank as well as the stand in the garage. However, we're back to the original issue of rebuilding the 265 as we don't have the time nor the weather nor the space right now to build a huge tank. It's too humid where we live for the silicone, right?
Mainly in the garage, it's the heater problem. I'm not keen on space heaters. Afraid of them catching on fire or crazily running up the electric bill just to warm up the water.
Again, this is more for an emergency issue to rehouse my cats as my 265 is breaking down and I don't trust it. We rent-I'm sure those renters out there understand this one. I am not giving up my cats, and we discussed it and finally reached a common decision that we're not getting rid of the tank. We knew we needed an indoor pond, we were getting ready to accomodate for it although it's our loss since we rent, but we've been here already for so long, but this is an emergency as the one seam is breaking down.
Any opinions for a quick, but awesome and sturdy indoor (cheap) pond (considering we're fixing the 265 at same time)?
