My First [BIG] Tank

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I think you would be greatly disappointed with a 10' long tank but only 14" front to back. That really seems like a waste of space and money to me. The 14" really limits the type fo fish you can put in there, since the 10' length is begging for some wonderful animals.
 
hard to say... depends on what you want to put in there. But what's the limitation on bringing that tank farther out into the room? I can see the limitation on the back side angle.
Your call, really.
 
Ye that's fairly steep, regarding the width. The backside angled part is part of the roof on the othber side of the house, so that is imovable. However, the square bit is just a plywood addon and so we can remove it all in one peice and possibly extend it out into the room as far as we like really. The only thing would be that we would need to reinforce the extension and where it meets the diagonal esp if we're gonna be getting a glass tank, i personally think acrylic would be a better and cheaper call
 
You could also completely remove the existing shelf, and rebuild it a little higher, which would give you more width without intruding into the room any. Or do both, raise it a little to gain 15cm on the back, and come into the room 15cm, to give you around 65cm width.

Secondly, you can build your own tank for half of what that company quoted you. Talk to a glass company about buying the glass. Use the glass thickness calculator on this site to figure out how your cost increases as glass thickness does. Find your 'sweet spot' where your budget and a tank height you like meet. Order the glass and a case of 100% silicone caulk and go to work. For a tank that big, I think I might build a wood jig to help me hold the glass. (basically an L shaped piece of wood to hold the glass flush while the caulking dries. You might make a wooden 'frame for the bottom of the tank anyways, just to add some security.

Lastly, for me, here in America, the tank itself is usually about half of the cost of the complete set up. Between filters and pumps and decor and substrate and everything else. Then I usually spend about half the cost of the tank in stocking. This is a general rule of thumb for me when I am thinking about another tank.

For example, if I spent $500 on a tank, I'd probably spend around $500 on accessories (lights, pumps, filters, etc), and about $250 on fish to go in it.
 
I dont think we're keen to build our own tank, as there is too much scope for mistakes, and seen as it would be our first build, I don't think we'll risk it. However, I think the final dimensions will be 10'x28"x30", which should give us plently of water and space to play with :)
 
Hi all! had a long bday weekend off. Right, lots of good info and input. I wouldnt mind trimming tank length down to 8' it would leave some of my shelf to actually put stuff on! Aswell as cutting costs that wouldnt be too shabby im not too desperate for that extra 2'.

After a look into the shelf this weekend we found that the top layer is fairly hefty 3cm thick plywood and is upright re-enforced by some thick solid wood. (will upload pics of this tonight)

So the plan has changed as we feel we wont need to re enforce the shelf anymore we are just going to build an extension frame out from the existing shelf to meet the measurments we're after.

In terms of building the tank, i'm not too for it, seeing as if the location is on a second floor and inside so if something were to go wrong i'd be up **** creek without a paddle. However, i am still very much in the interest of saving money, so if we cant get it built for us for a reasonable price ( do custom tank builders have much scope to haggle?) i'd be open to that but it'd add alot of build time obviously.
 
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