"Maintenance free" ideas

[SnailPowered]

That is a great deal! The hard thing for me is that I don't really want any of the trimmings lol. I am looking for a bare tank to turn into a sump/refugium deal. Not sure if it is called something different in a FW set up. I don't know what lights to use but I am definitely wanting a very planted tank. I love swords and anachris. I also want some grass looking plants and possibly something that carpets. I don't know much about plant names though.

 

[logansmomma1228]

I also have an Eclipse 12g system that I wanted to put some small fish in such as maybe bumblebee gobys, or maybe neon tetras. I am looking for fish that get no bigger than 2 inches. All ideas are welcome!

www.liveaquaria.com , Age of Aquariums - Tropical Fish - Main Page
www.animal-world.com

I haven't made it through the rest of this thread yet so I don't know if these have been recommended already, but I use these sites and this forum to find different kinds of fish that would go in my tank. Livebearers, guppies, badis badis or even mollies and platies would be good for a 12 gallon IMO. I get opinions off of here, research the fish and then decide if I like them or not.

 

[logansmomma1228]

That is a great deal! The hard thing for me is that I don't really want any of the trimmings lol. I am looking for a bare tank to turn into a sump/refugium deal. Not sure if it is called something different in a FW set up. I don't know what lights to use but I am definitely wanting a very planted tank. I love swords and anachris. I also want some grass looking plants and possibly something that carpets. I don't know much about plant names though.

I am pretty sure you can find just a bare tank on craigslist for a good price, or on ebay even. The only thing with ebay is you probably would have to find something locally, shipping a tank would be a nightmare. (And I dont mean while you are in Iraq, idk if you could get that on deployment?)

As far as things you are wondering about, have you checked out the articles on this site? They have some really good ones. And if you go into different parts of the forum, like the planted tanks section for example, you will find stickies with tons of information. Most of my research is done browsing around on here.

 

[SnailPowered]

Lacey,

I will definitely look on craigslist. Right now I still have 6 months of deployment left so there really isn't much sense in looking at the moment. I can't have any pets while deployed. I am on this site constantly and browsing non-stop lol. I will eventually find what I am looking for I am sure through perseverance but if someone came through here and dropped some knowledge on me I would be much obliged! Thank you for the link! I think that mollies are kind of ugly...or at least the ones I have seen. I really like vibrant colors. I wanted to put some dwarf puffers in there but those things are so dad gum mean that you can't have them with anything. Sometimes they get along but not very often. Thank you for your suggestions and help! I appreciate every piece of advice I can get!

 

[Greenmaster]

Do you not have someone who could buy the tank for you? Because if you have 6 months... Craigslist is a waiting game

 

[SnailPowered]

I suppose I could ask my mom to go get it for me, I doubt that my dad would do it lol. My brother is rather busy although I am sure that he would store it for me. I was thinking about getting the tank in Georgia because that is where I am stationed now but I don't know anyone there very well at all.

 

[SnailPowered]

So, I am haunting the craigslist threads and I have been thinking that maybe I could just get my brother a bigger tank and then steal his 30g lol. In reality I think I would like a 55g for my sump/refugium idea. Has anyone on here ever tried to put their own holes in a tank? I have "drilled" a few holes in glass before with my Dremel but I am not sure if the tempered glass used for aquariums would be that same or what the likelihood of cracks spreading from my hole would be. After all, there is a LOT of weight on that base when you have 100 or so pounds of substrate and 75 gallons of water.

The other question that I have is about lighting. I was looking at lighting and being that I am A.) cheap, and B.) going to build my own hood and enjoy DIY projects, I don't really want to spend $300 on a light fixture. I found this one and I was wondering what people thought of it. I am sending them an email because from what I have seen I don't think that it would have internal ballasts. My other idea was tin foil for a reflector because I have seen people use it for growing plants indoors. All in all I am just wondering what is the least expensive yet effective way to light a tank? I will be building a hood/top deal out of wood with doors to feed and I am thinking that using computer exhaust fans to pull the heat from the lights out would be a good idea. Any suggestions?

 

[Greenmaster]

you can drill most aquariums but not any that have tempered glass. (most the bottom is tempered and the sides are not. but I would check to find out if yours is or not)

 

[SnailPowered]

Hmmm, I bought my tank at Petsmart about three years ago. They don't even offer it on their website anymore. Are there markings on it to look for? I guess if the bottom is tempered I will have to go with an over the back overflow setup. I really like the cleanliness of the drilled tanks is the reason I wanted to do my own. Thanks!

 

[Greenmaster]

if you are not sure then the panel braking needs to be a risk you are willing to take. I prefer to drill a whole on the side anyways... also you are better off to buy a drill bit off of say e-bay and use that to drill a whole instead of your Dremel.

 

[SnailPowered]

That is an enormously better idea! I don't know why I was being so stubborn about drilling the bottom of the tank. Thank you Greenmaster! Did you happen to look at the lighting I am considering? I would like to get as many opinions on it as possible. Thank you again!

 

[Greenmaster]

I do DIY MH so I'm not sure but it looks okay.

 

[SnailPowered]

Mine is a Top Fin aquarium I am sure. I managed to find it on Petsmart.com but I couldn't verify whether or not it has tempered sides and bottom or just the bottom. After looking around I think i might just try my hand at very carefully drilling the bottom lol. Either that or does anyone have advice on how to build my own aquarium?

 

[SnailPowered]

Well I looked around and found some stuff on making my own tank. The craziest thing to me is that from what I read the glass on the bottom of the tank is entirely supported by silicone, is that correct? I plan on building something like a 150 if I build my own so that would be a ton of weight on the bottom glass!

 

[Greenmaster]

I was going to build my own glass aquarium but I was going much larger then you... The main reason I ended up getting it made for me is I didn't want to buy the equipment to grind the glass to the perfect size... I could not find a glass shop that would guarantee me the size I wanted with no more then 1/16" variation, with the window of error they were giving me it was not practical to try and fill the gaps that would be created as it would weaken the tank too much... I went to an aquarium manufacturing location and watched how they got the glass to the perfect size and decided I would let them build it for me... you may be able to find a glass place that would take the cut sheets and grind them to be the proper size with square/strait edges. But the three major glass places in my city would not/could not.

 

[SnailPowered]

Where did you get your aquarium? I think I am actually going to risk trying to drill the bottom of my aquarium because I am hard headed. I keep going back and forth but we will see what the end product is.

 

[Greenmaster]

If you look at my location I am in BC, Canada. I got it made at the local (sort of local... 200 miles away) aquarium builders... they build aquariums for all the pet stores in a wide radius and they are the closest builders to me... located in Victoria BC. (I don't remember the name as they do not have a store front, they want people to order from the LFS and not directly from them... but with a tank my size I was an exception)