1320 liter clearwater biotope

[Haavard Stoere]

Greetings friends

A week ago I received my custom made all glass tank from in Denmark. It arrived in one piece, and went in through the window without any problems. It was carried by 10 people.

The tank is all glass measuring 2200x1000x600 mm. All sides are 12mm. The bottom is 19mm. It was made by Aqualine in Denmark. It is beautifully assembled with black silicon. My friend Ronny Thomassen cut all the aluminium for the stand and assembled in on site. Lighting is a homemade hanging thing with 12x18 watts T8 daylight tubes.

The tank will be used to house medium to large plecos and some nice characins. I estimate the project will take about 6 weeks to complete.



For the filtration I will use 2x200 liter tanks as sumps. These will be connected so that water flows from the first tank that will be a well lit fry raising tank. Water wll flow to another tank with filtermaterial and return via a large pump to the two inlets of the tank.

Water flows from the tank via two 50mm homemade durso standpipes. If you wish to learn more about how a durso standpipe works please read this: http://www.dursostandpipes.com/
Estimated flowthrough will be between 6500-10000 liter. I will do some experiments when the tank is up and running.

Right side dursostandpipe:


Closeup:


Underneath the standpipe: The holes were drilled using a 27 and 55mm diamond tipped drillbit.


Left side standpipe:


This is where a 25mm flexible hose from the pump will be connected and spread to right and left. The pipes 20mm rigid pipes were bent with the use of a heat gun.


The rocks I will be using is a dark basalt like type called Amphibolite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibolite It resembles the dark basalt of Rio Xingu.


A lot of the caves will be made from ordinary concrete painted and sealed with epoxy resin. I have made this kind of caves before, but decidid against using them for safety reasons. I have discussed this briefly with PC member Farid who really liked the concept. There is no reason whatsoever that epoxy sealed concrete should leak anything.

The concrete will be cast in earth/sand moulds with a slab of natural rock on top as roof. If I need to take out fish I can simply lift the rock. I beive I can make the concrete look exactly like the rocks.

[Haavard Stoere]

The first three rather large rocks have been cut. Two of them will be mounted on the back glass, and one will be mounted on the left glass hiding the lower parts of the piping.


The cut surfaces:

[Haavard Stoere]

The rock module for the left side glass is finished with 4mm glass backing. It is ready to be mounted.

[pturley]

Very, very NICE! I really like the dimensions you chose.

I want one too!

One suggestion for an aquarium this large. You may want to consider installing spirit levels on each side of the aquarium on the horizontal supports. With rocks, gravel, water and glass your total mass will be an estimated 4400+ lbs. (this may be conservative!)

1320 Kg water + rocks, glass etc. = Est. at least 1.5 Kg per liter. = 1980 Kg = 4365 lbs.

Even with the aquarium on a concrete slab, with this much mass some settling can occur. The spirit levels will at least give you some warning prior to a potential catastrophe. If you are on a second level of a house (joist flooring), before you fill it, you are going to need to structurally re-engineer this portion of your house!

Here in the states, interior concrete slabs can be as little as 4" thick (existing, not current building codes), but 6" (15cm) is more typical.

I'll be watching this thread in great anticipation of the final results!

[Haavard Stoere]

Luckily my fish room is in a cellar with foundations on granite bedrock, so there will be no settling. I totally agree that a lot of considerations concerning stability should be done.

The left rock module is in place. It was a bit heavy, so I glued a permanent rock pillar under it. I will have to do the same to a lot of the rocks I intend to put on the back wall.

[jerry58]

Hi

Looks like a nice tank in the making good luck with it just a quick question do you need to put anything between the tank base and the metal frame,I know you do this with wood bases but just shocked me to see none and only seen metal bases on much smaller tank say 3 foot and under.

Thanks Jerry

[Haavard Stoere]

I use nothing between the metal stand and the tank. There are 10 loadbearing points, and I am confident it will be fine. These tanks are made to be self supportive. This means that support of the four corners should be enough.

If the tank fails I will have to eat my words

[Haavard Stoere]

Its been a busy day. Here are the last updates.

The temporary supports under the left module has been removed.





The largest of the rocks has been mounted on the back wall some distance to the left of the center. It is very heavy. Around 25 kg I think. I will make a permanent support once I find a suitable rock.





I will have to do something about that nasty looking wooden wall on the left, or maybe just paint the left glass black like the back glass.

[Haavard Stoere]

Updates:




A little magic

[GW_NL]

I'm looking forward to every update, considering you're one of the true artists when it comes to decorating a tank.

Btw. hope to see more of your Pseudacanthicus too. I'm a true Pseuda-fan and I'm inspired by the recent breeding successes on PC.

I can get two L065 which are labelled female, but don't know where to get a male and besides... I will need an extra tank... which won't be happening in the near future

[Haavard Stoere]

I'm looking forward to every update, considering you're one of the true artists when it comes to decorating a tank.

Thank you It is hard work, and I am a bit stuck at the moment. I have gathered hundreds of kilos of rather nice rocks, but the nicest ones don`t fit anywhere. I will have to gather more rocks.

Btw. hope to see more of your Pseudacanthicus too. I'm a true Pseuda-fan and I'm inspired by the recent breeding successes on PC.

I can get two L065 which are labelled female, but don't know where to get a male and besides... I will need an extra tank... which won't be happening in the near future

Yeah! I am a huge Pseuda fan as well. It is bad timing getting interested in these species since they are hard to get and more expensive than ever.

In the long run I will use this tank for Pseuda`s, but at the moment almost all my Pseuda are really small, and don`t need all the space in this tank. I will keep my 13 Baryancistrus demantoides (L-200 hifin), my Leporacanthicus sp. L-240 and perhaps my Pseudacanthicus spinosus (it may not be a good idea considering the L-240s)in this tank.

[Martin S]

As always, very impressive, Haavard
I look forward to seeing this progress, as with all your previous set-up walk throughs.
Martin

[Richard B]

Haavard - this has the potential to be your greatest masterpiece yet (& that's saying something) - i feel even more envious than usual, but then again i'd be filling it with tanganyikan synos

Please keep us posted with as much info as you can

[Haavard Stoere]

As always, very impressive, Haavard
I look forward to seeing this progress, as with all your previous set-up walk throughs.
Martin

Glad you enjoy my walkthroughs

I am struggling quite a bit with the composition as I cannot choose the exact shapes of the rocks. I wan`t them to relate to each other like worn and eroded bedrock. This is quite difficult.

but then again I'd be filling it with tanganyikan synos

I would very much like to keep synos in at least one tank. Petricola maybe?

Please keep us posted with as much info as you can

I will for sure.

The pictures get a bit dirty with all the glass, stains, reflections, my mess, etc. Unfortunately I can never make a picture of the whole tank from the front because of limited space. I will have to stich in photoshop to show the whole finished tank.

[Haavard Stoere]

Last update today... I have decided to paint the left side black. The durso standpipe on the right will not be covered at all. I only want the higher rock formations on the left side. There will be a lot more rocks of course.

Another rock threaded around the standpipe:




Tomorrow I have to go to work, so I only plan to find a suitable rock for this location... Next I will paint the left side black. I go crazy looking at the ugly wood behind the tank.

[Jørn Kåsa]

Håvard,i have sean your oil paintings.They are incridible.Why not you paint "Rio Xingu"stone on it insted of black.

Jørn

[andywoolloo]

I really enjoy getting to see your progress on your masterpiece tanks. Thanks so much for sharing again!!

It looks beautiful so far.

2200x1000x600 mm

so is that what in inches or US gals? when i try to convert 2200 mms into inches it says 3 inches which cant be rt but if i do it centimeters its 310 inches X 155 X 93 so 26 feet long xs 13 feet deep xs 7 feet tall? I must be doing it wrong. I wish they'd have taught us yanks the metric system.

ok wait!! the length and width are in cms and the height is in mms!! 26 x 13 x ..no.
Stand by.

K i had a friend help me is it 7 feet xs 3.25 feet xs 1.92 feet ... wow!!!!!! (drooling)) that's a lot of lucipinnis.

[Bas Pels]

10 mm = 1 cm

2,5 cm = 1 inch

2200 mm = 88 inches
1000 mm = 40 inches
600 mm = 24 inches

the beauty of the metric system is that it all comes down to 10 times bigger, or smaller. And, 10 cm, cubic, is precisely 1 liter

[MatsP]

And to convert liters to gallons, divide by 3.8 (US) or 4.5 (UK).

Here's a trick for dividing by 3.8:
1320 / 4 = 330 [if you have a bit of math capability, you can do that mentally, or with a piece of paper if you aren't very good at mental divides]
3.8 is 5% less than 4, so we take 330, divide by 10 -> 10% = 33. Half that is 16.5.
Since dividing by a SMALLER number, you get a bigger number: Add 16 to 330 -> 346. Calculator 1320/3.8 says 347 and a lot of decimals. So not very far off at all.

Of course, Google supports all sorts of calculations:
"searching" 2200 mm in inches
results in a page which first shows 86.6...
"searching" 1320 liter in gallons
comes up with 348 gallons (a gallon is actually 3.785 liters, so my calculation above is still a little bit off, but I don't think it matters much).

--
Mats

[DutchFry]

what nice dimensions this tank has! especially the depth of the tank is great for bottom dwellers, good choice man!

you still have lots of work to do, but the first rocks are in place and it looks great already.

good luck with the rest of the scaping part, i will stay tuned!

[apistomaster]

I like your concept of using one of the 2 approximately 50 gal sumps as a fry refugium, if I understood your design correctly. The fry being in the first tank(sump) to receive the unfiltered water should work very well for providing the little bugs that always live in the settled detritus which they can search for live micro foods in addition to whatever you feed your fry. It should help the fry get off to a good start.
I would probably allow some free floating natant plants in the fry tank too. Maybe some Ceratophyllum or Najas? The plants would help create a more complex ecosystem. I'm a big believer in trying to doing that sort of thing. Doesn't mean I would plant the show tank.

[nvcichlids]

You know, If I win the lottery, I am flying you over here to set me up a tank and you can bring some fish with you (oh and don't worry about it, will send you back with whatever you want if I win the lottery lol.)

Awesome start. I may Attempt something similar on a smaller tank to start, then upgrade the idea when I get a another large tank I mess around with.

[Haavard Stoere]

I like your concept of using one of the 2 approximately 50 gal sumps as a fry refugium, if I understood your design correctly. The fry being in the first tank(sump) to receive the unfiltered water should work very well for providing the little bugs that always live in the settled detritus which they can search for live micro foods in addition to whatever you feed your fry. It should help the fry get off to a good start.
I would probably allow some free floating natant plants in the fry tank too. Maybe some Ceratophyllum or Najas? The plants would help create a more complex ecosystem. I'm a big believer in trying to doing that sort of thing. Doesn't mean I would plant the show tank.

You understood me correctly. Refugium is the word. I will probably not use plants, but that is not important. I would like a lot of algae in all my tanks, but the fish room gets to hot, and the bills... The whole idea is to have a tank with the same water as the large one for egg-hatching and raising of fry. If fry hatch in the main tank and gets sucked in to the PVC system the will end up in the refugium.

Do you remember about a year ago I asked about canister filters for my 12x200 liter tanks? You advised me to use to use central filtration instead. I recently purchased and installed heavy duty PVC parts and large lifting pumps. It was an extremely expensive makeover, but I am very glad I did it. Soon all my tanks will be have similar systems. It is much more efficient and easy to maintain. Thanks Larry

Awesome start. I may Attempt something similar on a smaller tank to start, then upgrade the idea when I get a another large tank I mess around with.

That is very wise! Always attempt such things in smaller tanks. Preferably several times. The level of difficulty increases with tank size when using rocks.

Not much progress, but here is yesterdays update:


Left side black:

[Bristlenose 94]

..... WOW. that looks like it took a lot of skill to make.

what fish are you gonna put in it?

[apistomaster]

Hi Haavard,
I'm glad you liked how my suggestion worked out for you.
Your creative approach to your pleco tanks has, in turn, helped me.
We have many talented fish breeders here on planetcatfish and it shows in ways like the rapidly expanding list of catfish now being bred where at one time, people may have said it wasn't even practical to expect them to ever breed in captivity.

[nvcichlids]

I was wondering what the exact product you use to silicone/adhere the rocks to the tank.

[Haavard Stoere]

..... WOW. that looks like it took a lot of skill to make.

what fish are you gonna put in it?

Thank you
I will keep my L200 hifins, L240s, L160s and L128s in the tank. There will of cource be changes as I get new species.

We have many talented fish breeders here on planetcatfish and it shows in ways like the rapidly expanding list of catfish now being bred where at one time, people may have said it wasn't even practical to expect them to ever breed in captivity.

It is really amazing how many of the supposedly difficult species are breeding. This is important and nice since Brazil are getting more restrictive on export.

About using industrial pvc in sentral systems. I believe that most fishkeepers with a fishroom/shed with several tanks would benefit greatly from this sort of system in one form or another. It takes some skill and knowledge to design and assemble. Luckily I had a very good local friend and consultant, so I could get it right the first time.

I was wondering what the exact product you use to silicone/adhere the rocks to the tank.

I use black silicone for aquarium use. Silicone adheres very well to non porous rocks like granite, some basalts and in this case amphibolite. Gluing porous rocks with silicone is hopeless.

[Haavard Stoere]

Today update:

I dislodged the large rock on the right and moved it 10cm down and 15cm to the left.

[Lloydy]

I'm sure not what its going to take, but I am already thinking of ways to bribe the girlfriend so she lets me get a tank like this.

I could imagine a big group of L25 or big Royals would look amazing in a huge tank like this, or maybe 25+ hypans!

Now I need is the space, permission from the girlfriend and probably about £2.5-£5k to buy, stock and maintain something that big!

[DutchFry]

Haavard, good choice to replace the big rock!

it looks nice this way and more important, it looks far more stable like this with 3 instead of just 1 permanent rock underneath!