underwater
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Jun 5, 2009
- Messages
- 21
I have a 125 gallon freshwater that I took apart, and was going to redesign/restart soon as a regular community tank w/some basic live plants. However now I know that I want a river tank / paludarium in addition to a community freshwater.
I am wanting some advice on various things so I can decide what is the best plan for me:
65 gallon seems like the ideal standard size to me for my second tank. I really love that it's taller (over 24"), and not too skinny (over 18") and shorter length makes it look more square. My plan was to wait around until I found the right used tank because of the savings.
Unfortunately if I am only looking for 65's that is a hard size to find. So unless one shows up, I'll probably get really tempted and end up buying a 110 ideally or 120 (or 100)... which might not be good on my time/energy but maybe it's okay. If I went with a 65 I run the risk of wanting to upgrade someday too (lots of time and energy needed for that).
Anyway, one thing is that I did find someone selling a used 65 gal. It comes with many of those plastic tan plastic River Tank kit things already siliconed to the tank. They are fairly ugly. It's an older style kit, the manufacturer discontinued it. The plastic is cracking a little in one spot, probably no big deal. The good part is that the way it's arranged, you get about 5 separate pools. The bad part, besides, the color/pattern, is that it's "overbearing" and takes up so much space. It also comes with a screen top and a powerhead and gravel and a couple branch things but does not come with anything else. (I might not want the gravel.) So I would have to find myself some nice enough furniture to use for a stand before I filled the tank. I decided against getting it and using it as is... but...
Maybe I should get the tank since it's the size I want, and just cut out all/most of plastic and throw it out (or someone could buy it cheap)? I mean, just get it so I have a 65 gal empty tank and don't have to wait for someone else to sell that size. I am not sure if the screen top is okay with me though, I don't know if it has a place for cords, etc, I suppose I can manage to cut it.
I avoid certain kinds of DIY, I am not good with certain tools / don't want to buy certain ones / etc. I know that if someone were handy, they'd cut out the plastic and then cover it with paint/sand/gravel/rock/etc and epoxy it and put it back. Or possibly try to paint it while it's still attached. I read a lot about making backgrounds from styrofoam and great stuff, and started to attempt it, but gave up... partly because I don't have the right foam, etc... but partly because I don't want to wait 3-4+ weeks and deal with those toxic fumes.
I got to thinking that maybe I should use my 125g for the paludarium. OR use both for paludariums but one or both would have a LOT of water (say, 50-70g water in the 125g) so that I can have a lot of fish and it's basically like a community tank inside the paludarium. Since I only wanted small fish in my community tank anyway.
Although. I worry that I won't be able to make one that looks nice enough and I don't want a BIG not-so-pretty display. If done right, the 125g palu could look GREAT though! It would give me a lot of room to add my big piece of driftwood, etc.
I want freshwater crabs in the paludarium. Unless the crabs are too limiting (not compatible with a bunch of other stuff I want in there).
I have cories and danios that would go nicely. I also have a gourami and a rosy barb and I hope these could go in the palu. I think I want loaches. I also already bought TMS. I have standard gravel I don't want to use. I have lots of natural river pebble gravel. I also got a small amount of that coated black gravel (forget the name right now).
So, I am leaning towards using the 125g and making the best palu that I can but with having plenty of room for community fish. And mostly using what I already have, so money can go toward plants and fish and other contents.
I am wanting some advice on various things so I can decide what is the best plan for me:
65 gallon seems like the ideal standard size to me for my second tank. I really love that it's taller (over 24"), and not too skinny (over 18") and shorter length makes it look more square. My plan was to wait around until I found the right used tank because of the savings.
Unfortunately if I am only looking for 65's that is a hard size to find. So unless one shows up, I'll probably get really tempted and end up buying a 110 ideally or 120 (or 100)... which might not be good on my time/energy but maybe it's okay. If I went with a 65 I run the risk of wanting to upgrade someday too (lots of time and energy needed for that).
Anyway, one thing is that I did find someone selling a used 65 gal. It comes with many of those plastic tan plastic River Tank kit things already siliconed to the tank. They are fairly ugly. It's an older style kit, the manufacturer discontinued it. The plastic is cracking a little in one spot, probably no big deal. The good part is that the way it's arranged, you get about 5 separate pools. The bad part, besides, the color/pattern, is that it's "overbearing" and takes up so much space. It also comes with a screen top and a powerhead and gravel and a couple branch things but does not come with anything else. (I might not want the gravel.) So I would have to find myself some nice enough furniture to use for a stand before I filled the tank. I decided against getting it and using it as is... but...
Maybe I should get the tank since it's the size I want, and just cut out all/most of plastic and throw it out (or someone could buy it cheap)? I mean, just get it so I have a 65 gal empty tank and don't have to wait for someone else to sell that size. I am not sure if the screen top is okay with me though, I don't know if it has a place for cords, etc, I suppose I can manage to cut it.
I avoid certain kinds of DIY, I am not good with certain tools / don't want to buy certain ones / etc. I know that if someone were handy, they'd cut out the plastic and then cover it with paint/sand/gravel/rock/etc and epoxy it and put it back. Or possibly try to paint it while it's still attached. I read a lot about making backgrounds from styrofoam and great stuff, and started to attempt it, but gave up... partly because I don't have the right foam, etc... but partly because I don't want to wait 3-4+ weeks and deal with those toxic fumes.
I got to thinking that maybe I should use my 125g for the paludarium. OR use both for paludariums but one or both would have a LOT of water (say, 50-70g water in the 125g) so that I can have a lot of fish and it's basically like a community tank inside the paludarium. Since I only wanted small fish in my community tank anyway.
Although. I worry that I won't be able to make one that looks nice enough and I don't want a BIG not-so-pretty display. If done right, the 125g palu could look GREAT though! It would give me a lot of room to add my big piece of driftwood, etc.
I want freshwater crabs in the paludarium. Unless the crabs are too limiting (not compatible with a bunch of other stuff I want in there).
I have cories and danios that would go nicely. I also have a gourami and a rosy barb and I hope these could go in the palu. I think I want loaches. I also already bought TMS. I have standard gravel I don't want to use. I have lots of natural river pebble gravel. I also got a small amount of that coated black gravel (forget the name right now).
So, I am leaning towards using the 125g and making the best palu that I can but with having plenty of room for community fish. And mostly using what I already have, so money can go toward plants and fish and other contents.
