[Hotspot]

Hi,

do the setup has to look dining-room-capable or is the look unrelevant ?

If the latter is fact here is how I'm doing it with all of my tanks.
All covers consist of simple styrofoam, which is quite sturdy if you take the 5 cm/~2 inches thick ones (here in Germany the biggest ones in the stores are 100 cm * 50 cm/~40 inches * ~20 inches and 5 cm/~2 inches thick). If those pieces are too small you can attach them together with cable fixers. These covers have openings in the middle for the lighting (covered with thin acrylic glas with the lighting and ballasts on top which weigh the glass down so no fish could push it up) and two openings for feeding and maintanance (big enough to stick my arm through (> maintanance can be done with cover & lighting), covered with fitting pieces of styrofoam and weighed down too to prevent escape).
For wiring and filter tubes I simply cut out what needed to be cut, all openings got stuffed with simple fine filter floss (which can be stuffed quite hard if the cover lets it). I had no single escape with that in ~ 20 years .
Big advantage of the styrofoam imho is it's relative softness. If big fish would jump against it the chances of injuries in reduced compared the plastic, let alone glass.
Big advantage of filter floss is that you can close every tiniest hole while letting that tank breathe to the room environment in which the tank stands .

If look is important you can just go with wheighing down all light parts of the cover and stuff every tiniest hole with filter floss .

PS: 75g and ornate bichir for life is a no-go imho. I had a ornate and it was ~60 cm/~24 inches and the 95g it inhabited temporarely with a large footprint was too small (at night those fish tend to cruise around in the upper water levels).

greets

Peter

[Morledzep]

i think that minimums and what is best for the fish are two different things. i like keeping multiple bichers, and some get quite large. my dels and endli are kinda chubby and my ornates are kinda long and thin and my poor little senegal is a skinny little guy that never seems to grow, but manages to stay out of the mouths of his larger brethren and the cichla with some skill (i'm sure he's growing, it just doesn't seem like it because he'll always be smaller than the other bichers).

the only reason these guys aren't in the 330 now is because i have no intentions of setting it up just to have to break it back down in a couple months to move. IF in September when we go to court, i'm allowed to keep my home, then the real work begins. the 800 gallon will be set up for the big fish and the 330 will be set up for the bichers and the smaller cichla and the 180 will become my growout tank, or an altum angelfish tank, still debating. lol. and, if i don't get to keep my home i get to move to AL and do it all there..

[Varanus]

Hotspot, on 27 June 2011 - 02:51 PM, said:

PS: 75g and ornate bichir for life is a no-go imho. I had a ornate and it was ~60 cm/~24 inches and the 95g it inhabited temporarely with a large footprint was too small (at night those fish tend to cruise around in the upper water levels).

Okay, but then what about the 125 gallon I mentioned? Is it still too small?

Morledzep, on 27 June 2011 - 03:14 PM, said:

i think that minimums and what is best for the fish are two different things. i like keeping multiple bichers, and some get quite large. my dels and endli are kinda chubby and my ornates are kinda long and thin and my poor little senegal is a skinny little guy that never seems to grow, but manages to stay out of the mouths of his larger brethren and the cichla with some skill (i'm sure he's growing, it just doesn't seem like it because he'll always be smaller than the other bichers)

Thing is you seem to be keeping a LOT more fish than I am looking to keep. So my question still stands about a good tank size for what I am looking to keep, as well as how much I need to scale back what I want to keep to fit the tank sizes I have available to me.

If I could trust buying used tanks then the sizes available to me might be different as well as lessen their financial impact, but I have heard there are a lot of horror stories out there of people who buy used tanks only to find out they leak or are damaged etc. Are there any sites you could recommend for buying used tanks that have some buyer protection?

[Morledzep]

like i said, it's not about minumums. it's about taking good care of your fish. i wouldn't keep a group of 3 or more bichers in anything less than a 180. and i would prefer something far larger. bichers are NOT sedentary fish, they are very active and they need room to swim and lots of places to hide.

with the exception of ONE tank, every tank i've ever purchased has been used. including my 800 gallon that is in pieces in my livingroom because it can't be moved intact.

i purchased a 240 gallon for $300 that needed to be resealed. i bought a 210 for $300 that didn't need to be resealed. i also paid $300 for a 180 gallon acrylic tank that didn't need to be resealed. i got the 330 gallon tank for $350 but it needs to be resealed even though it was full of water the day before i bought it, you can see where it has been seeping on the edge, so i know it needs to be resealed, i don't believe it was ever cleaned and assembled properly to begin with so i may just break it all the way down and start from scratch.

to me, used tanks are a blessing. some need some work, usually just cleaning. the trick is to see them up and running and full of water before you commit to purchasing them. even on ebay, folks put up pictures, make sure they are recent pics and when you go to pick it up ask to see it still full of water, ask lots of questions before you bid too. so far, every tank i've ever purchased on ebay has been good. the ones i've had to reseal have been the ones i bought off of folks on fish forums.. lol.

[Varanus]

Morledzep, on 28 June 2011 - 02:34 AM, said:

like i said, it's not about minumums. it's about taking good care of your fish. i wouldn't keep a group of 3 or more bichers in anything less than a 180. and i would prefer something far larger. bichers are NOT sedentary fish, they are very active and they need room to swim and lots of places to hide.

with the exception of ONE tank, every tank i've ever purchased has been used. including my 800 gallon that is in pieces in my livingroom because it can't be moved intact.

i purchased a 240 gallon for $300 that needed to be resealed. i bought a 210 for $300 that didn't need to be resealed. i also paid $300 for a 180 gallon acrylic tank that didn't need to be resealed. i got the 330 gallon tank for $350 but it needs to be resealed even though it was full of water the day before i bought it, you can see where it has been seeping on the edge, so i know it needs to be resealed, i don't believe it was ever cleaned and assembled properly to begin with so i may just break it all the way down and start from scratch.

to me, used tanks are a blessing. some need some work, usually just cleaning. the trick is to see them up and running and full of water before you commit to purchasing them. even on ebay, folks put up pictures, make sure they are recent pics and when you go to pick it up ask to see it still full of water, ask lots of questions before you bid too. so far, every tank i've ever purchased on ebay has been good. the ones i've had to reseal have been the ones i bought off of folks on fish forums.. lol.

What about craigslist? Nothing on ebay of an appropriate size (i.e. 250 or more gallons) is close enough. And is it difficult to transport a tank in the bed of a truck without risking breaking it? Resealing sems like it would not be particularly difficult if necessary so that is an obstacle that seems possible to overcome, but then there is the problem of figuring out if my floor could even support the weight of such a huge tank.

[Hotspot]

Ebay is king with tanks if you are a bit patient . Just look it up for a few weeks and I bet something useful will be there.

As for maximum weight capabilities of the floor I would ask the owner if you rent it, maybe he has more information. If you own it then I would spend some money on a good surveyor, you would need him/her only once and would then know relatively well what is really safe .

Peter

[Varanus]

Hotspot, on 28 June 2011 - 12:28 PM, said:

Ebay is king with tanks if you are a bit patient . Just look it up for a few weeks and I bet something useful will be there.

As for maximum weight capabilities of the floor I would ask the owner if you rent it, maybe he has more information. If you own it then I would spend some money on a good surveyor, you would need him/her only once and would then know relatively well what is really safe .

Peter

A surveyor? *sighs* This is getting more and more complicated. Thing is I've done a bit of research on this and found that most wood floors can handle aquariums up to around 125 gallons without a problem. It's above that that things get problematic. This, price, and availability make the 125 gallon really attractive to me. I live in a building that was wheeled in on a truck so I doubt that its foundation is stronger than average.

It's not that I don't believe the advice I'm getting, I just wish I could get more than one person's opinion on this as only Morledzep has said anything about what I want to keep and the tank size I am considering. I mean reading about people who have reported their bichir keeping here showed a number of them seemingly successful in keeping groups of bichirs in tanks in the 100-125 gallon range. Could such a tank at least provide a good home for the two bichir I alrerady have, a senegal and (what may or may not be as its dark on top and light below but have no banding pattern) a palmas? Could I still add a few ropefish?

This post has been edited by Varanus: 28 June 2011 - 02:23 PM

[Morledzep]

i guess i'm spoiled by owning a house that sits on a concrete foundation. i have no crawl space or basement the carpet and tile is laid directly on the concrete.

i know that most wood framed, stick built homes can accomodate a 200 - 240 gallon tank if it's set up level across several beams. anything more than that and i would reinforce the floor. as for manufactured homes, i have very little knowledge of them or mobile homes. i have been in several mobile homes that have very bad floors that buckle under 300 lb people, i don't know if it's poor construction, or wear and tear from the herd of HUGE people that thunder over the floor day in and day out, but i firmly believe that mobile homes and aquariums don't mix well.

if i was dead set on keeping bichers and a 125 gallon aquarium was my only option. i would get no more than 2 bichers, maybe 3 but i think that 3 is pushing it. i also know me very well, which means i would probably overstock the tank and use that as an excuse to do major renovations, reinforce the floor, and buy a 300 gallon tank..