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Re: NFC: Re: Large Tanks
All,
I have found this thread interesting, because I am in the process of setting
up a 180 gallon tank that will be built in to a partition wall between the
Liv. and Family rooms of our new house. As far as I can tell, the "stock
size" for a 180g (in the 2' thickness, front to back) is 2' deep by 6'
long. I can reach to the bottom of a two foot deep tank with my arm, so I
feel that this depth is about the upper limit for me. The bottom of the
tank is at four feet from floor height, so most of the maintenance will be
done from a step ladder. I am currently planning for two 250w Metal halide
lights at 5500k. I'm hoping that 2.8 watts/gallon will suffice for growing
plants. The tank itself will be open-topped but the MH lights will be
enclosed in a space above the tank that will be accessible through a cabinet
door that swings up overhead. The walls of this area above the tank will be
sheetrocked with "greenboard" to resist water damage and a ceiling mounted
bathfan will be included above the lights to draw off heat and moisture to
the outside. One end of the tank wall abuts an exterior wall of my home. I
have left a space here where the walls meet, to enclose the filtration, CO2,
control equipment. An access door in the outside wall will allow me do any
maintenance to this equipment FROM THE OUTSIDE, thus preserving my
marrige........ :) Has anyone here had a "see-through" tank like this one?
Pros/Cons?
TIA,
Brian Perkins, President
Metroserv, Inc.
Tigard, OR
503-245-4877
----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Hedemark <chris at yonderway_com>
To: <nfc at actwin_com>
Sent: Sunday, March 05, 2000 7:02 AM
Subject: RE: NFC: Re: Large Tanks
> The guy who wrote this page is often available to chat with in some of the
> more popular fish chat rooms under the alias "Neptune". I saw photos of
> this tank a year or so ago when I had 20" pacus that were rapidly
outgrowing
> my 135G tank. He showed me photos of his pacu to let me know the worst
was
> yet to come. Unlike the popular LFS myth goes, these fish DO NOT stop
> growing if they are in a smaller tank than their maximum natural size
would
> support.
>
> Now my tank is not HUGE. But it is BIG. 135 gallons is not a tank to
take
> lightly. It is also too deep to do proper gravel cleaning. The lighting
on
> it is very poor and cannot sustain live plants. I've got a pair of
whisper
> 5's and UGF filters with big powerheads. Right now the tank is very
lightly
> populated with some dollar sunnies and a pair of slender madtoms, but I
dare
> not put much more than that without getting a better filter(s).
>
> And like I mentioned earlier, lighting is a problem. Two rows of
> flourescent tubes is not enough. Metal halide would be needed even for
> freshwater plants. We did saltwater in here before and there was ZERO
green
> algae. All the algae was brown and red. The height also causes a problem
> with algae scraping when the lights are strong enough, as magnetic algae
> scrapers don't work on such thick glass and the stick types usually aren't
> long enough to reach everything without getting into the water up to your
> shoulder.
>
> The lid for this tank is nothing like a well fit lid on a smaller tank.
It
> is made up of plates of glass, and there are large amounts of surface area
> that are completely open which translates into massive amounts of
> evaporation every week to take care of.
>
> I've been putting off and putting off the day that is coming where I will
> have to invest in all new hardware for this tank from the lids to the
> lighting to the filtration and more. It's going to be very expensive to
do
> this, but it needs to be done. A UV sterilizer IMHO is not the way to go
> because it would take way too long for all the water in the tank to cycle
> through the UV unit. Ozone may be a better solution. I've used it very
> successfully in a marine environment despite all the claims that ozone
will
> burn your fish. Mine worked for a couple of years with zero disease in
the
> tank. Then I moved and the ozonizer broke in the move, and I never did
> replace it.
>
> If I were to do a "big tank" all over again, I'd definitely go with
> something much much lower. No taller than a 55 gallon tank.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-nfc at actwin_com [mailto:owner-nfc at actwin_com]On Behalf Of
> Anthony Andrew
> Sent: Saturday, March 04, 2000 3:24 PM
> To: nfc at actwin_com
> Subject: Re: NFC: Re: Large Tanks
>
>
> On Sat, 4 Mar 2000 13:12:16 -0600, nfc at actwin_com wrote:
> > Thank you Tony... But mybe we could see the article listed somewhere ?
>
> Whoops! That would help, wouldn't it? Here's the link-
> http://www.tomgriffin.com/aquamag/pacu.html hth
>
> Sorry :)
>
> Tony Gustafson
> DeKalb, IL
> ----------------------------------------
> The only problem with the gene pool is
> there is no lifeguard.
> -----------------------------------------
>
>
>
>
>
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