Upgrading....

[bmxer4ever]

Thinking, very seriously,(like this week!), about upgrading to a 6ft x 21" high (or 18" high) x 15" to house my big fish.
We're talking about 2 x 5-6" Clown Loaches, 1 x 4" Clown, 1 x 3" Clown, 2 x 5" Syno Eupterus, 1 x 6" Distichodus Sexfaciatus, small shoal of Congo tetras, couple of small Plecos and some Kuhlis hidin in there too...
Do those dimensions sound about right, or should I go for 18" x 18".
It's gonna be in the 100 gallon range anyway, but I'm a little worried about the weight....
Can anybody tell me how heavy a tank like this will be, fully loaded, minimal substrate, but plenty of rocks for hiding places - my fish are shy!

Current tank is this - sorry about the crappy pics! - and all those Platys are gone....! 4ft x 15" high x 12"

 

[johnptc]

Thinking, very seriously,(like this week!), about upgrading to a 6ft x 21" high (or 18" high) x 15" to house my big fish.
We're talking about 2 x 5-6" Clown Loaches, 1 x 4" Clown, 1 x 3" Clown, 2 x 5" Syno Eupterus, 1 x 6" Distichodus Sexfaciatus, small shoal of Congo tetras, couple of small Plecos and some Kuhlis hidin in there too...
Do those dimensions sound about right, or should I go for 18" x 18".
It's gonna be in the 100 gallon range anyway, but I'm a little worried about the weight....
Can anybody tell me how heavy a tank like this will be, fully loaded, minimal substrate, but plenty of rocks for hiding places - my fish are shy!

Current tank is this - sorry about the crappy pics! - and all those Platys are gone....! 4ft x 15" high x 12"

imo go big in the front to back dimension

 

[Bogwoodbruce]

Why not just go for a 6x2x2 so they have plenty of room.

 

[davidefc]

yeah if its possible get a 6by2by2 and thats 180gallons you can add more fish. good luck remember width and depth is alot better than hieght

 

[bmxer4ever]

Why not just go for a 6x2x2 so they have plenty of room.

yeah if its possible get a 6by2by2 and thats 180gallons you can add more fish. good luck remember width and depth is alot better than hieght

Two reasons - weight and cost. If I go up to 2 feet in height I have to use thicker glass and this doubles the cost of the tank, never mind the fact that I'm worried about weight of a 100 gallon tank as it is- 180 gallons is just way over what i'm thinkin at the moment.

I'll need to check the price of a 72 x 18 x 18, because that sounds like a good idea....works out as 84.5 UK gallons, slightly more in US gallons, not 100 gallons as I thought - must have been doing calculations wrong before!

Just gonna call lfs and see how much that would cost.....need to get a custom hood for that too.... and upgrade my stand.....Jeez...more money!

 

[Dr Joe]

Try this calculator... http://boonedocks.net/fishtank/ftweb.php

 

[bmxer4ever]

Okay...just off the phone to lfs that builds tanks...£147.00 approx. for the tank....£120.00 approx for custom built wooden hood.
That's actually good prices for this kinda stuff here, but when you convert it to dollars, probably doesn't sound so hot, but that's just the way it is!
Going on current exchange rates, that's about $300 for the tank and $240 for the hood, but then again, the pound is very strong against the dollar at the moment.
It's actually reasonably priced for the UK, considering they will be building both for me from scratch....
Goin to take a look at wood samples for the hood tomorrow and put a deposit down!

Going on the calculator Dr.Joe sent me to, it will be 100 US gallons - my first MONSTER tank! Yeah! Mind you, the whole things gonna weigh half a METRIC tonne! Roughly 1,000lbs if I've read the calculator right...

Oh yeah....and 108 inches of fish...now we're talkin'!

 

[Dr Joe]

Couldn't you build a hood cheaper?

And that's 108 inches of fish...not a 108 inch fish!!!

Keep us posted,

Dr Joe

.

 

[bmxer4ever]

Couldn't you build a hood cheaper?

And that's 108 inches of fish...not a 108 inch fish!!!

Keep us posted,

Dr Joe

.

It's the old time vs. money thing with the hood. I don't really have the time to build one at the moment. Besides, although I'm involved in the building trade at the moment, I've only been at it for just over 6 months, and don't know if I've got the skills to build something like that yet. And besides, the materials I need for it would probably cost me about half of what they'll charge me for a custom one!
The difference works out as a days pay at the moment, and I'm prepared to take that hit! In fact, tank and hood works out at less than a weeks pay, so I can live with that.
I'd rather go down the road of getting someone else to do the dirty work, and do it professionally. This tank will be the centerpiece of our lounge, as well as holding back 100 gallons of water from my downstairs neighbours ceiling!
Will let you know what I decide after I've visited lfs tomorrow - going to check out how they build things and what wood choices they have for the hood. At least my fiancee has given me the go ahead, and that's the important bit!

 

[bmxer4ever]

"And that's 108 inches of fish...not a 108 inch fish!!! "

Do you think I should add any more fish. I was just going to get more Congo tetras - I have one male and two females at the moment, but would like more as they don't get too big, are very active, fill up the middle of my tank AND I want to breed them in the future....
What do you think?