Starting a 180 gallon in Thailand

[Enki]

Hey folks. It has been a good long while since I have posted here, I have been out of the aquarium thing for a few years after a move where I had to cut lose my several tanks and then a move across the Pacific to beautiful Thailand with only 2 suitcases and a backpack.

I'm settled here now into a place where I feel at home and plan to stay for a while and I miss having fish. Also Aquarium stuff is insanely cheap here. What is available is limited but amazing prices I was looking at a brand new 7 foot 180 gallon with stand tank and light hood for about 150 bucks US. I saw a used one for half that. I have always wanted really big tank and this seems like the time to do it.

My main question right now is about filtration. The tanks I'm looking at have dual corner overflows built in, about 6"x6" on each side. They are set up to put a big powerhead in the bottom of the overflow to push the water back in to the main tank after it flows down through a few layers of filter media. I'd really like to keep this simple as possible, so I'm hoping that between the 2 overflows there would be enough filter capacity for a decently stocked mbuna or peacock tank.

For decor I'm thinking of going with a sunken temple sort of theme, stone veneer glued to the back of the tank and broken statuary piled up as rockwork.

Pretty excited about this tank, I miss having the fishes around.

 

[Enki]

Been reading up and refamiliarizing myself with the hobby and I have an idea that might be stupid or it might be genius



On the left is how corner box filters are usually set up here, water from main tank flows in over the top and drops through a couple layers of media and then is returned to main tank via a powerhead that pumps through a bulkhead in the side of the corner box near the bottom.

On the right is my crazy idea. Put the powerhead on the outside and pump water in at the bottom through a bed of sand to make a fluidized sand bed. This would give me massive biofiltering on one side and the top skimming and general funk filtering on the other side. I like my tanks over-filtered for the most part as I tend to pack the fish in, especially in a mixed cichlid type tank.

 

[jwh0818]

Is the tank drilled?

 

[Enki]

Have not got a tank yet but I have not seen any drilled ones. Or maybe more clearly they all seem to come with a hole drilled and bulkhead installed between the main tank and the corner box. Not really wanting to do a sump unless I really have to.

 

[jwh0818]

Have not got a tank yet but I have not seen any drilled ones. Or maybe more clearly they all seem to come with a hole drilled and bulkhead installed between the main tank and the corner box. Not really wanting to do a sump unless I really have to.

If its already drilled for a sump thats the easier way to go unless you plug it somehow

 

[Enki]

If its already drilled for a sump thats the easier way to go unless you plug it somehow

Well like I said, I have never seen a tank here drilled through the exterior glass for a sump, and I don't really want to do a sump anyway.

I am sure I can get the filtration I need for a normally stocked tank using the two corner boxes as filters like they were designed to work. I was thinking converting the corner box on one side into a fluidized sand bed might boost my level of bio-filtration and allow me to crowd the tank a little more.

Even if I did go with a sump I would probably set up something with siphon hoses as I have no idea how I would go about getting a tank drilled here.

It's a whole other world over here, the things you can get are really cheap for the most part, but there are a lot of things I would be able to easily obtain or get done in the states that are just about impossible to find or get done here.

 

[Rivers2k]

I just got back from Thailand 3 days ago (I am still really jet lagged). I really enjoyed it over there. It is crazy how cheap things are over there. If you want to keep it simple just get a couple canister filters this way when you decide to move back to the states you can pack them up and ship them and you wont be at a total loss.

 

[Enki]

I just got back from Thailand 3 days ago (I am still really jet lagged). I really enjoyed it over there. It is crazy how cheap things are over there. If you want to keep it simple just get a couple canister filters this way when you decide to move back to the states you can pack them up and ship them and you wont be at a total loss.

Like I said, what I can get is limited. I have not seen a single canister filter at any local shop, a high end reef place in Bangkok sells some but they are super expensive. That 100% import tariff and the 'falang tax' can skyrocket prices.

There are big pond type filters built from big *** plastic barrels but they are big and leaky and noisy. Not so good for inside.

Pretty much, if I can't build it from power heads and PVC pipe it may be out of reach for me. TiT as they say (This is Thailand) gotta learn to improvise.

 

[Enki]

Yeah after double checking the one place I know of in BKK i'd much rather pay $15 each for 2000L/Hr powerheads and pennies a meter for some PVC, than almost $800 for one 2500 L/Hr Ehiem filter.

 

[Tbox]

Does eBay or amazon work over there?

 

[Enki]

Does eBay or amazon work over there?

Sometimes, sort of. 100% import tariff comes into play, plus massive shipping costs.

Amazon, it's no trouble making the payment. Ebay, many won't take payment from here or won't ship here.

This project, like many others I have taken on, is an adventure in adaptation. I am homebrewing cider with water bottles, vinyl airtube, styrofoam coolers and bread yeast. Every single single bit of my homebrewing gear is repurposed from something else. Yet my cider is quite tasty.

I can't even begin to express the world of difference between how things are done here vs in the west. Not just with this but with everything. If you let it get to you, it will make you angry and bitter. If you just learn to roll with it and make an adventure out of it, you will be much happier.

So I'm rolling with it and looking at it as an opportunity for some creative DIY.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Sounds like an adventure! What are the fish stores like there? What about the usual stock?

 

[Enki]

Lots and lots of goldfish. Goldfish are believed to bring good luck into your house so many many households have a goldfish or 2 around. and if you have ever had goldfish you know they tend to just roll over and die for no reason so there are plenty around to replenish the fishbowl.

Other than that the stock is pretty limited, most shops have one or 2 'assorted' cichlid tanks, and then some little baby oscars and some little baby jack dempseys. the assorted cichlids are really assorted as lots of them are obvious random hybrids. Some weird kind of parrot fish are really popular too. Most shops also have some Koi. seen a few discus in the bigger shops. The biggest shop around here has a nice assortment of guppies along with plecos and some other random community fish too.

I see very little saltwater fish, only at the one big shop I remember seeing any salt water and that stuff is really limited.

The big pet market in Bangkok supposedly has anything you want if you can just track down the right stall. The one time I was there, a few years back, I was not really shopping for fish, but what I did see made me believe it. No where else have I ever seen birds of prey available for sale.

 

[Tbox]

Unfortunately I haven't been to Bangkok lately. I'm guessing in a city like that there must be a local fish blog society where you can buy/trade supplies. Get in there deep. Back alley late night aquarium dealing. Is Bangkok on Craigslist?

You could always become a falconer if the aquarist thing doesn't pan out.

 

[Enki]

I have not yet found an english language Thailand fish keeping forum or any sort of online community. There is craigslist here but it's been pretty disappointing so far. Used tanks can be found by the dozen at used furniture stores, that is where I have been shopping for them, while shopping for some other stuff for my new place.

Honestly, I would count it a big bonus if I could do this project without a trip to BKK, I hate that place, it really is an awful city IMO. I do need to make a trip over there sometime in the next few months though, so if I can time things out right I may be able to have a tank ready for fish and be able to hit the pet market right at the end of my BKK run and be able to have the fish bags floating within a few hours of buying them.

 

[Tbox]

Maybe you could investigate putting together a local biotope tank. Forage the tank decor and catch the fish yourself. That would be cool!

http://fish.mongabay.com/data/Thailand.htm

Do you have a reliable source of electricity?

 

[Enki]

Electric and water is pretty reliable, though brief lapses in either service are not uncommon.

A biotope tank might be a cool project if I was gonna be doing a fish room with several tanks, but really all I can do is one big one, so I want something I know is going to have lots of movement and color, plus I'm already familiar with keeping this kind of fish, even though I'm a little rusty.

 

[Jmedic25]

The easiest, most flexible filter is a sump. Not to mention a large tank needs a sump IMO. Yes you can use a can filter. But a sump really is the way to go.

 

[Enki]

I hear what you are saying about the sump. It does sound like it is perhaps the best of the solutions available (Tho canisters were never in the running, Not paying $800 bucks for an Ehiem)

OK say I do go with a sump, and I can't find someone to drill the tank, will some kind of suction/siphon pipe coming over the top from the corner overflow box work well enough? Do I just need to use big pipes for big flow? Luckily PVC pipe is super cheap and available.

Maybe I'm just being nervous, but the idea of holes drilled into the bottom of my tank sort of freaks me out too.

Another place I see going with a sump as a possible advantage as there are more tanks out there with only one corner filter. One corner box is the most common set up, 2 is the second most common and then there are a few tanks which have none. I figured I'd need 2 for the amount of filtering I'd need if I used them as they get used here.

I also started thinking about water changes, and how I'm gonna do that. The water here is pretty heavily chlorinated so I'll need to plan ahead and get it into a some sort of container to 'air out' for a bit before putting it into the system. That got me thinking about the sump thing again and integrating it all together into a system that can do a constant exchange and drip out to water some plants with the used fish water.

LOL typical me, I either go super simple or I go mad. When my fish room in the states was done a few years back I had all 3 tanks on a semi auto water change system that outflowed into a reservoir for a drip irrigation system.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

For a sump without drilling you need an hob overflow I believe