Viable sized tank for polys.

[DRteugelsi]

So as some of you may know I'm going to be building a tank in the next few months (hopefully once it starts to warm up) but I was thinking since poly's are bottom dwellers I could do a really short but large tank I was thinking a 96"x36-40"x16". Do you guys think that is too short. I just really am not a fan of tall tanks and it'll save me some money in filtrations also I feel like it will be a lot easier to maintain. Any input will be helpful!

 

[kno4te]

I remember D drb discussing this and 12 inches of water was a bare minimum kind of number. Will see what he says.

 

[Polyaddict86]

If that was me ill go 96"x30"x20" cause you still going to add some substrate maybe 1".

 

[DRteugelsi]

Yeah and I have plenty of time to work things out. My wife and I just got on the topic tonight so I was wondering. I was maybe even thinking of doing 2" of substrate and doing some Hardy live plants. I really want it to look nice because it's going to be taking up a good 30% of our other fish room on the main floor of our house. I'm extremely excited to get this going.

 

[Polyaddict86]

Yeah and I have plenty of time to work things out. My wife and I just got on the topic tonight so I was wondering. I was maybe even thinking of doing 2" of substrate and doing some Hardy live plants. I really want it to look nice because it's going to be taking up a good 30% of our other fish room on the main floor of our house. I'm extremely excited to get this going.

If your going lower jaws and plants it might not work, lower jaws get big and when they get spook they will knock down and destroy your plant. Most people will get plants attached in their driftwood but any rooted plant will end up getting pull out.

 

[thefredpit]

I plan on eventually building a plywood tank too I was planning to max it to 96"x48"x 20" so I can have as little scrap as possible

 

[Polyaddict86]

I plan on eventually building a plywood tank too I was planning to max it to 96"x48"x 20" so I can have as little scrap as possible

Only thing with wide tank and polys is sometime polys intend to stay in the back of the tank, so you will have a hard time viewing them, but wide tank is good so you can add other fish

 

[DRteugelsi]

I plan on eventually building a plywood tank too I was planning to max it to 96"x48"x 20" so I can have as little scrap as possible

That was my original plan but at 48" it just sticks out too much in the place I want to put it so I have to downsize a tad.

 

[DRteugelsi]

Only thing with wide tank and polys is sometime polys intend to stay in the back of the tank, so you will have a hard time viewing them, but wide tank is good so you can add other fish

Speaking of which what do you guys think of keeping them with some geophagus winemilleri I think they'd make a really nice addition to the tank but I don't have a lot of experience keeping bichirs with cichlids other than the ones I have and they mostly keep to themselves. Especially the EBA.

 

[Polyaddict86]

Speaking of which what do you guys think of keeping them with some geophagus winemilleri I think they'd make a really nice addition to the tank but I don't have a lot of experience keeping bichirs with cichlids other than the ones I have and they mostly keep to themselves. Especially the EBA.

Idk if geo are aggressive since i never kept cichlids, but if you have UJ i dont see a problem, even with LJ aslong as the geo is big enough not to get eaten you should be good. Polys are not aggressive toward bigger fish.