Building

H

houston

Reefing newb
Now that I am getting back into my aquarium hobby of old, I've been considering building a wall long aquarium. It will be freshwater. On one end I want to stock smaller FW like neons and cardinals... and on the other barbs or cichlids. I don't want to make it very tall, maybe 2 ft tall and then a series of 4 ft stretches. And I'm thinking of putting partitions in between the 4 ft sections with holes for the fish to swim through (especially the smaller ones).

Any ideas?

Houston :twocents:
 
Well as for the holes in the divider goes. If your cichlids are anything like my old ones or my cousins are.... That would be bad lol. Your small fish are going to all end as food.
 
I would have agree with ReefWannabe.I used to keep african cichlids.They MEAN.So after awhile onside will have no fish.The idea would would work with the barbs.But sooner or latter you will havea mix on both sides.Sounds cool though
 
i use small holes for my breeding chiclids so the small fry can escape the adults.it also makes it easyer to catch them. than i sell them to the lfs help support my saltwater hobbies
 
It would only slightly work though. Cichlids are very fast fish. And with their size, the barbs would only make it until they start to get big lol. Any fish is food for cichlids. They only fish ive seen cichlids leave alone are plecos.
 
I would agree cichlids will make any :sfish: smaller in size food :shock:. Your barb idea I will never recommend stay with specie tank only. All your going to do is scare the :pooh: out of your smaller :sfish: that will die of stress.


My :twocents:
 
Cichlids

On second consideration, I think everyone is right... I think I will avoid the Cichlids. I think maybe I will do just Tetras. Maybe then I can stock some rare species.
I was originally considering building this in the garage, because we are thinking about turning it into a game room... but I'm concerned about the temperature.
I live here in Texas, so it gets warm from time to time. But tetras are tropical anyway. The only other place in the house I could keep it, but be in the foyer.
 
If you want the hotness, have one of those planted gardens..... Man I wish I had the skills to do that lol, they look so awesome. You can still make a cichlid tank though, they are fun fish to have, especially if you setup one like their natural habitat.
 
Well, that I have also been considering. If I were to build my own aquarium, I don't necessarily have to do FW... I was also thinking SW as well. How do you think a SW tank would do in a garage environment? Temperature wise I mean? If you had the chance to build a wall-length SW aquarium... what would you do?

Houston
 
Well as long as you have a chiller for heat days, and heaters for the cold. Should be the same as inhouse. The cost though for such tank...... I wouldnt want to imagine. Sounds like what you had in mind was at least 8 foot. Id go a bit taller if Saltwater and make sure its nice and wide. You could keep anything you wanted almost. And again lol the cost, would probably be at easily at least 10 times what you had originally planned.
 
If you truley have a garage as stated would not be my 1st choice for an aquarium. although once the aquarium was finished you could convert the garage to a family or fish room. just a thought.
 
Well, this is a long term project, so cost really isn't an issue... but I am supposing you are correct... I should go wider maybe 4' W x 10' L x 3' H... I really don't want it too tall... I want a shallow tank.

I am guessing acrylic. I will have to go pricing.
 

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