Substrate for large fish

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nzafi

Goliath Tigerfish
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Mar 14, 2008
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I am in process of setting up a 535g tank and the inhabitant will be a single aimara wolf fish. I keep debating over whether I will be going bare bottom or sand filtration will include an Ultima ii 1000 with intakes either on the bottom (if bare bottom) or slight elevated off the bottom (if I use sand). The ultimate goal for me is to completely minimize tank maintenance.

My aimara is about 14in now and he will get over 2ft within another 1-1.5years. For those of you with large 2-3ft fish do you bother with substrate or is bare bottom the way to go?

Considering the size of the tank and the inhabitant, I am trying to plan ahead as much as possible and make as informed decisions as I can. I have never had larger fish so no experience with this.
 
I would go with sand. It's only 1 fish so even a tank that size wouldn't be a pain. It just looks better. If you had multiple fish then I'd say go bare bottom. You gonna put some dithers or anything else in there?... gonna look empty lol
 
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No matter how many fish... if you set the tank up right you could have minimal to no maintenance at all.

In my 600 earlier this year I had about 15 fish all ranging from 9-20 inches and i spent only 1 hr a month on maintenance due to my drip system and filteration.

Just saying If your keeping only the wolf due to upkeep there are ways around it
 
Below is a pic of the current designed except that I have decided to move the intakes all the way to the back of the tank to create a gyre/swirl flow. I am expecting my only maintenance to be backflushing the Ultima and cleaning out the HMF sponges once ever 8-12 months. Aside from that nothing.

My main concern with sand is that it will get into the Ultima. I will have a ton of flow in the tank (up to 10,000gph). The next concern is with maintenance in keeping it clean and making sure there are no air pockets.

If I go bare bottom the back of the tank is going to be black and then I will probably go with a graphite gray or lighter for the bottom. Something light enough so I can see the aimara.

As far as tank mates, the problem is that this guy is 14in and by June when the tank is running he will be 16-17in I suspect. Considering how long he has been solo I suspect it is going to be very hard for me to get anything in there. While he does not attack me in the tank he is an extremely aggressive feeder.

The other problem is that I am "going all out" for this tank. I am expecting this setup to cost me between $7-8K because I want to go with everything new an high quality. I will struggle to convince the wife to let me spend more $$ on any other fish before this tank is setup or immediately afterwards. :(

I was toying with the idea that if you do not sell your VATF I would grab him but that is very low possibility. Plus if something goes wrong I don't have a second tank.

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nzafi, Mar 23, 2018
 
btw, original plan was to use sand but speaking to a couple folks with larger fish, they moved away from sand to bare bottom. Hence the reason I am trying to get a broader concensus/input.
 
nzafi said:
btw, original plan was to use sand but speaking to a couple folks with larger fish, they moved away from sand to bare bottom. Hence the reason I am trying to get a broader concensus/input.
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If it’s an aimara that you are keeping, I would go bare bottom. I won’t want to stick my hand in there to clean the substrates.
 
dat_tiger said:
If it’s an aimara that you are keeping, I would go bare bottom. I won’t want to stick my hand in there to clean the substrates.
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Lol. Yeah. While he doesn’t show much aggression to me yet, he knows I’m the feeder. As soon as he sees me he sits at the top and follows me everywhere. Makes any tank cleaning a pain and he’s only 14in.
 
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