What's your dream Aquarium?

[FishyDan]

If you could design and build your dream aquarium, what would it be like? How big, what type of filters, lighting, substrate, fish, plants, etc, etc.

I have sketched out the plans for part of mine. It would be 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 6 feet tall (5 feet of glass and 1 foot of base to give it a nice look. It would fit with the back 6 inch of the tank into the wall with a little "fishy" room behind it, sink, QT tanks (yes more than one) and all other supplies needed. There would be two shelves built into the back of it to put lights half way down the tank. Water would be sucked out of the bottom of the tank, filtered, conditioned (when needed) and put back into the top with an automatic fill device. There would be lights on top (with cooling fans), and in the two "steps" in the back (again with cooling fans). The two "light steps" would stick into the tank about 6 inch and be angled downward/frontward at about a 45 degree angle so the whole bottom of the tank could receive light and plants would grow. They would also be flat on top so I could put more gravel and plants there also.

I would also have to design tools to work on the inside (or buy a scuba outfit)

I would have lots of fish, not big ones (nothing over 8 - 10 inches) but mostly angels and don't know what else.

Would that be cool or what?

What about you, what would you like?

 

[snapcrackler]

I would like a clear shot glass, with a single miniature christmas light on top, a single strand of macroalgae, one pebble of pea gravel and a single dwarf goby.

 

[jsoong]

This is one I saw on the web. A 10,000 gal "aquarium" as the center piece of a house (something like a 15'x15'x6').

This aquarium is built right in the center of the house, like an indoor pool. Rooms in the house surround the aquarium, with windows in each room so you can see into it. The top of the aquarium is a skylight/atrium so it gets natural light.

There is a seperate room to house the water filtering/conditioning plant & all the gadgets so nothing ugly is seen inside the tank.

And when you get tired of watching the fishies, you can go swim with em!

 

[savga]

Check out number 5 on theis page (it is in portuguese but the pictures are worth the visit). http://www.naturacquario.net/amano/ This is what Takashi Amano spent his money on

 

[Christmasfish]

That is soo sweeeet i am getting diabetes looking at it!

 

[Menagerie]

That is soo sweeeet i am getting diabetes looking at it!

8O

My dream tank would be one I don't have to clean! Oh, and while I'm dreaming, all my cichlids stay small and nonaggressive. I'm not up yet...I don't have to worry about water parameters and I can put all my favorite fish in the tank. Don't pinch me yet! And I *never* see the fish expelling waste (my plecos are gross).

 

[madasafish]

(it is in portuguese but the pictures are worth the visit).

Actually, if my Italian serves me correctly, that's Italian, not Portuguese... "Gli Acquari di Takashi Amano" is "The Aquariums of Takashi Amano" etc. Really nice link, though!

OK, Jsoong and SnapCrackler--tooooooooo cool. I really dig the dwarf goby idea. Have you heard of Trimmatom nanus, Snap?? It's the smallest goby in the world--only a cm or so long. It's so small that it only lays one egg at a time. WOW!! Was that the goby you were talking about?

And... well, there's really no upper limit on size for rockin' cool aquariums!

 

[patryuji]

I'll like to try to bring a "river system" indoors. Maybe have several long tanks (20-40 gallon sizes). I would have all the tanks staggered such that each tank is successively 1/2" lower than the previous tank. The edge of each tank would connect such that the top 4" of the higher tank and 3.5" of the lower tank would be cut out allowing an "overflow" type system to drain water from one tank to the next. The last tank would be connected to a sump using a standard overflow box to prevent fish from going into the sump. The filtration would be handled from the sump and in turn would connect to a pump with the outlet connected to the first tank.

The interfaces between two tanks may be changed to keep larger fish from intruding on the areas occupied by smaller fish...so they could reproduce. While if the smaller fish wanted to venture into the tanks with bigger fish (bigger meaning 6-7" adult size)....

The last tank in this "river system" may be setup as a squarish tank rather than the "long" configuration of the others. This way the current flow would be less drastic and species of plants and animals which prefer calmer waters could exist here.

The last tank and sump would be of such size that the capacity would handle a pump failure allowing all the water of the higher tanks to drain through the system (down to the 3-4 inch level of the tank interfaces). A back up pump would be triggered once the level of the water in the first tank becomes low enough for it to have nearly completely drained.

 

[Christmasfish]

I am now looking at the basement dojo in a new light as I posted elsewhere since seeing that tank!

 

[Atlarge]

realistically, I'm going to duplicate a 300 gal Discus/ray tank I saw.

 

[snapcrackler]

Have you heard of Trimmatom nanus, Snap?? It's the smallest goby in the world--only a cm or so long. It's so small that it only lays one egg at a time. WOW!! Was that the goby you were talking about?

That would be the one... it's the smallest fish in the world I think.