What would be your dream size tank?

[pacu mom]

Not all of us are into "scaping" or can scape. My big, curious fish will eat, break, destroy anything and everything placed in their tank, or will injure themselves on objects like wood or stone when they go into characin freak out mode. They have even managed to break three bulkheads by ramming/slamming to pipes.

Not all of us are into tank maintenance. I cannot imagine vacuuming 60 sq ft of gravel on a daily or weekly basis. This does not preclude us from keeping fish. Thirteen years ago, I determined that our fish needed a bare floor, undecorated tank to keep them safe. I am still of the same opinion. Yes, decorated tanks are beautiful and work for a lot of fish, but as far as I'm concerned, they are contraindicated for pacu.

If I didn't have my pacu (which will probably outlive me) I would do a vivarium . I love Energy's tank.

1700 Gallon Stingray River

I thought I would share some pictures of my system. Dimensions are 15'6" long 5'wide and 33" tall. Water section is approximately 450-500 gallons with another 90 gallons in an elevated filtration tank. Water area contains - One leo, One Motoro, 9 Discus, some rummy nose and Cardinal tetras...

www.monsterfishkeepers.com

 

[FINWIN]

Scaping doesn't have to be elaborate or flashy. You could have some basic non sharp objects, or even one huge centerpiece. Even one huge round boulder or tree size log would work in a tank that big as a focal point. Not sure what you mean by no maintenance.

I'm curious what size is your tank?

 

[pacu mom]

Scaping doesn't have to be elaborate or flashy. You could have some basic non sharp objects, or even one huge centerpiece. Even one huge round boulder or tree size log would work in a tank that big as a focal point. Not sure what you mean by no maintenance.

I'm curious what size is your tank?

No tree sized logs or round boulders in my tank. The fish ARE the focal point. We need every inch of space for the fish. 15' x 4' x 4' The safety of our fish come first. Instead of a bare floor, I had a 15' x 4' rocky background made. We were concerned about our rambunctious fish getting injured by scraping themselves on the floor--so I gave the background away.


I did not write "no maintenance". I wrote that I am not into tank maintenance. Some people love spending many hours and every weekend doing water changes, etc., I am not....I have been there and done that. I'm all for low maintenance, easy maintenance...doing water changes by opening and closing valves, etc. We have hot/cold water lines directly above the tank, and lines to the sump. The tank is not set up yet. Family illness keeps me away from home all day and some nights, so I haven't been able to work on the backgrounds in the tank.

 

[FINWIN]

I'm not crazy about water changing and cleaning either. Always looking for ways to improve efficiency.

What kind of fish do you have? Did you build the tank or had it custom made?

 

[pacu mom]

Two pacu. The tank was built to my specifications. Husband and son built the addition to house the tank. Husband fabricated the stand out of 3 1/2" tubular steel. It is a beast of a stand.



He had to drive another hour and 45 minutes to get the stand powder coated.


Since we will have an undecorated tank, the eleven pipes for mechanical filtration will be the only "decoration" in the tank.

 

[Cardeater]

I'm hoping to get my realistic dream tank in the next year or two. It will be as big as can get into the elevator and into my condo front door, and the maximum my floor can hold (the floor is concrete so probably the dimensions will be the limiting factor).

The space it'll go in currently houses my 6ft 125g. I believe there's 8ft length available. I think 24" tall would allow it to fit through a door (I think door is 30" opening but I'm guessing actual door would have to be removed to utilize that room. 24" height would make maintenance easier and anywhere from 24-36" width (more likely 24" or 30" as wider might be too hard to maintain).

I want a drip/auto water change setup with a sump.

Now absolute dream tank would be something like Aquarium Coop has or a ten foot tank. I'd have to win the lottery for something like that as I'd need to move to a house just for a tank and I have no plans to ever move from my condo. As long as we're dreaming like that, I'd have a ten foot community tank on one wall and a mbu puffer tank on the other wall.

The realistic tank would just be what I currently have , supersized. I'd have like 20-25 clown Loaches instead of the 7 I have. I'd have like 60 rainbowfish instead of the 20 something I have now and several rare plecos (instead of just the pleco I have now).

 

[Poseidon2.0]

Two pacu. The tank was built to my specifications. Husband and son built the addition to house the tank. Husband fabricated the stand out of 3 1/2" tubular steel. It is a beast of a stand.

View attachment 1368414

He had to drive another hour and 45 minutes to get the stand powder coated.
View attachment 1368415

Since we will have an undecorated tank, the eleven pipes for mechanical filtration will be the only "decoration" in the tank.
View attachment 1368416

Woah. Very cool. Think I'm going to need some followup images of this build!

 

[SScharder]

My dream tank is 1000 gallons with 5 red arowana and 10 Sumatra datnoid ‍

 

[FINWIN]

Two pacu. The tank was built to my specifications. Husband and son built the addition to house the tank. Husband fabricated the stand out of 3 1/2" tubular steel. It is a beast of a stand.

View attachment 1368414

He had to drive another hour and 45 minutes to get the stand powder coated.
View attachment 1368415

Since we will have an undecorated tank, the eleven pipes for mechanical filtration will be the only "decoration" in the tank.
View attachment 1368416

Clever use of those mechanical pipes. Wish I had the space and resources for such a tank. Now that you mention Pacu I can see why they need it wide open.