Tank depth?

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badisbadis101

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 16, 2008
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Houston
I have an acrylic box that i am hoping to turn into an aquarium in the future. It is About 6' long and 5' wide, however, it is only 1' deep. I plan on putting a thin layer of sand at the bottom (less than 1"), and will have the tank filled to probably 1/2" from the surface, so there will probably be 10 - 11" of water in the tank. I have quite a few ideas for what to do with it, but one that i recently came up with was a CA community. I just do not know if 11" of water would be enough for them to thrive. Below is a list of fish i hope to keep in the tank

Convicts
Rainbow Cichlids
Plecos
Silver Dollars
Firemouths

And probably a few other smaller CA cichlids (Nothing over 8" probably). So, is 11" of water enough for these cichlids to thrive?
 
I'd say it's fine.

I lived in Hawaii and there were some Japanese gardens that had all sorts of cichlids introduce to it, and it wasn't more than 18" deep at the deepest. It contained oscars, convicts, green terrors, and African Cichlids, not to mention several non-cichlid species.
 
interesting. 11" is pretty shallow.

I would be concerned about mixing bottom dwellers with top or mid dwelling fish.

It sounds like it would look pretty darned cool. Lots of aquascaping with plants and it would be a really attractive community.
 
bichers would be cool, as would rays, catfish, etc, but i am trying to divide my current tanks into geographic groups, and i need a home for CA cichlids, and plecos,so i though this might be a good idea.

Nekojin - are you referring to the catfish and silver dollar mix? It think they would be okay, as there is a lot of bottom area, so they couls tay out of each others way

FYI - it is an old table cover, which is why it is so shallow. I want to set it up on a low stand, so it can act as both a pond and a tank. I plan on decorating with mostly marginal pond plants, and lots of rocks :)
 
badisbadis101;2059135; said:
Nekojin - are you referring to the catfish and silver dollar mix? It think they would be okay, as there is a lot of bottom area, so they couls tay out of each others way
Click to expand...

yeah, thats what i meant. I guess i just dont know. I would wait for more responses though.
I know it does have a huge footprint -- which is way cool btw. But even then, 11" just seems so shallow for cichlids....

But then again. if you are maxing out at 8" fish.... then maybe it wont be too shallow.
hmmmm.... maybe try searching around the web for any other people who have done something similar...
otherwise, you could totally just try it and see. ;)
 
I think the cichlids you listed would be fine, but would be worried about the silver dollars. They do get tall and move around a lot.
 
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