I've been lurking for a while but decided to go ahead and register to get an account going. When I was a kid I wanted a dog. My mom didn't want to get stuck with all the duties so she said I had to have an aquarium for a year first to show her I would be responsible enough. I ended up with the dog and he was a great friend for about 15 years, but I also really enjoyed keeping that little 20 gallon tank going for a lot of years. In hindsight I must have had some hearty fish because I don't remember doing a lot of water changes although I cleaned regularly and topped off which apparently was enough because I didn't lose many critters. I had mostly little albino cats, angelfish and tetras. I had a "rubber" snake of some sort that suicided by escaping to the carpet and no further.
Anyway, In my most recent aquarium incarnation I had another 20 gallon tank setup with aquatic turtles for my kids, but ended up growing a 8 inch walking catfish in there who was considerably better at eating feeder fish than the turtles. Once the turtles and catfish outgrew the tank I donated them all to a local santuary where they are doing really well. I set up the tank as an all fish setup and am really happy with the hobby.
That was a few years ago and we are going to be buying a new house in a few months and I want to do a DIY concrete tank when we move. I will probably stick with freshwater because the setups are a lot simpler(maybe just seems that way to me because I have never had salt..)
I also have a fair amount of experience working with acrylic at work and have a vendor California Quality Plastics that has built some pretty cool industrial water tanks for my company. Acrylic is great but man there are some important lessons to learn with it and I am glad I have learned them from other peoples mistakes. I have done a fair amount of modifications/drilling and tapping holes and whatnot so I think it's my preferred material. I always am afraid one of my kids is going to find a way to break the glass.. Anyway.. when the time comes I will post plans and build details to share.
Anyway, In my most recent aquarium incarnation I had another 20 gallon tank setup with aquatic turtles for my kids, but ended up growing a 8 inch walking catfish in there who was considerably better at eating feeder fish than the turtles. Once the turtles and catfish outgrew the tank I donated them all to a local santuary where they are doing really well. I set up the tank as an all fish setup and am really happy with the hobby.
That was a few years ago and we are going to be buying a new house in a few months and I want to do a DIY concrete tank when we move. I will probably stick with freshwater because the setups are a lot simpler(maybe just seems that way to me because I have never had salt..)
I also have a fair amount of experience working with acrylic at work and have a vendor California Quality Plastics that has built some pretty cool industrial water tanks for my company. Acrylic is great but man there are some important lessons to learn with it and I am glad I have learned them from other peoples mistakes. I have done a fair amount of modifications/drilling and tapping holes and whatnot so I think it's my preferred material. I always am afraid one of my kids is going to find a way to break the glass.. Anyway.. when the time comes I will post plans and build details to share.
