[plantbrain]

Here's a 12x4x4 ft behemoth, about 1600-1700 gallon total water volume with sump.

The wood is not set in the photo, I was seldom taking photo's because I was working so it'll be awhile till we get some good ones.

There will be roughly 8 sq ft of HC, 3 of hairgrass, 1 of Erio, 1 of dowoni.
The fish list:

24-36 10" Discus never seen them this size except at the Discus competitions
60 Rose lines, yes, 60
1000 cardinals
64 Altums

The list goes on.........


Regards,
Tom Barr

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•  Barr__s_behemoth.jpg (54.95K)
  Number of downloads: 124

[TrueNoob]

plantbrain, on Aug 29 2006, 07:13 PM, said:

Here's a 12x4x4 ft behemoth, about 1600-1700 gallon total water volume with sump.

The wood is not set in the photo, I was seldom taking photo's because I was working so it'll be awhile till we get some good ones.

There will be roughly 8 sq ft of HC, 3 of hairgrass, 1 of Erio, 1 of dowoni.
The fish list:

24-36 10" Discus never seen them this size except at the Discus competitions
60 Rose lines, yes, 60
1000 cardinals
64 Altums

The list goes on.........


Regards,
Tom Barr

HOLY !@$&^%!(@#&$!@ *^!% #(*!%^ send me one, ill pay for shipping

[demonmagus]

wow, can't wait to see it in full

is it your tank or is it for a business?

[netcode]

can't wait to see some pics of the plants. Do tell us what this tank is for.

[Boids-n-more]

Wow i got to get me one of those. i thought the 300 gallon was a monster of a tank.

[TrueNoob]

Boids-n-more, on Aug 29 2006, 08:57 PM, said:

Wow i got to get me one of those. i thought the 300 gallon was a monster of a tank.

300 is a monster, ive only got 55:(

[Themuleous]

Sod a dog! Thats a chuffing huge tank!! You could quite literally get in there with the fish! Man do I want one of those!

Just out of interest where is in located? Looks like a warehouse, seems a shame to have it not in someones house?

8sqft of HC! That's crazy you'll need an underwater lawnmower to keep it low!

On a more serious note, how do you go about cleaning, maintaining and pruning a tank like this Tom? What will the fert regime be? automatic I assume? and how much light will you put over it?

Thanks for sharing, looking forward to seeing the update pics!

Sam

This post has been edited by Themuleous: 30 August 2006 - 08:25 AM

[plantbrain]

I have at leats 3 more this size and larger to do yet.

This one is a personal client's.
It's in their Den, not much else is in there except a nice view of a number of famous Hollywood stars, LA skyline, the San Gaberial mts, the ocean etc:-)
The home is not yet finished. He is a possessed fish hobbyists by all accounts.
See the fish list, Amano does not do fish list like that.

High profile Beverly hills etc.
The other 3 will be for the LA Zoo's Amazon exhibit.

They will be in the 20x6 x 4 foot range.
One community like this one, one Hydrocoylus/stringrays etc, one piranha.

That does not include the other folks that will see this in the client market base I deal with.
Likely will get several more out of this one.

The tank will grow and evolve nicely.
The wood weighed 300lbs for one piece alone. See pic, the 2" PVC pie is a just in case it moves type of thing.
Took 5 people to set it in.
Fortunately, nothing moved afterwards and filling.
Placement ballast rocks will be removed after the wood soaks a bit more.
I am going to do some replanting in 2 weeks.

Then polishing around Oct 5th for 3 days.

4 gaint 1 micro bag filters, 500wUV, pure O2 controller injection system to maitain at least 8ppm O2.
160lb petrified wood pieces.

Tank is 30 minute old in the pic.

Regards,
Tom Barr











Ferts are EI, the client doses and likes to feed the fish.
700Gallon RO reservior and 1000gpd RO unit.

Cleaning and maintaining are secrets:)
Maybe I'll tell later.
It's not hard really.

I expect minus feeding fish, to have the client spend 2 hours a week of work.
He has 20+ tanks now and spends too much time that takes away from his family, so one big uber tank is here to prevent that.

The water change is auto valves, nothing more than a turning a lever and fill/drain rapidly.
All my client's tanks have this added for the last several years.

There are a few stem plants, but they only need trimmed once every 2 weeks or so, and while the tank drains, the water levels is low and you prune with long tweezers and scissors.
By the time the water levels come back up, you get out, add the ferts, clean filters etc as needed(bag filters are the only things that need changed really and the prefilters which are quick).

I maintain other 4ft deep tanks with less access than this tank.
There are some simple tricks.



Regards,
tom Barr

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•  bigwoodleftsideresized.jpg (52.88K)
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[Miss Wiggle]

awww man I'm so jealous, that's stunning!!!!

[Themuleous]

Right I see, cool!

[PaulEbs]

What I wouldn't give to own an aquarium like that.

Plantbrain - exactly what sort of business do you run... Do you need an apprentice?

Would love to see some pics of other large tanks you've scaped if possible?

Nice one,

Paul.

[catxx]

imagine the electricity bill on THAT!!

can't wait to see it finished! you'll need scuba gear to clean it...

[Themuleous]

I didnt even know they did 1000gpd RO units! and a further 700g reservoir! You need a big space for a tank like this! And you say hes got over 20 others! Crikey and I thought I was obsessed with planted tanks!

Sam

EDIT - interesting to see you're adding a UV, I was lead to believe that affected ferts in the water like iron, made them less available to the plants?

This post has been edited by Themuleous: 30 August 2006 - 11:14 AM

[hcolyn]

dude this is awesome!
i would never leave that den!
any more info will be appreciated.

[Neal]

I'd just like to point out, my bedroom is 8'x7', anyone got a wagon load of silicone and a crane to take my roof off?
Thanks for making us all jealous Tom, I think I may need to get one of those when I retire. I suppose if you get bored of aquascaping, you could always go for a swim...

Neal

[mikster]

*removes jaw from the floor*

[lljdma06]

Neal, on Aug 30 2006, 11:11 AM, said:

I'd just like to point out, my bedroom is 8'x7', anyone got a wagon load of silicone and a crane to take my roof off?
Neal

Yes, Tom, that tank is bigger than my room too. 64 altums, that's money. Wow!

[plantbrain]

PaulEbs, on Aug 30 2006, 10:41 AM, said:

What I wouldn't give to own an aquarium like that.

Plantbrain - exactly what sort of business do you run... Do you need an apprentice?

Would love to see some pics of other large tanks you've scaped if possible?

Nice one,

Paul.

Haha, why own it and waste $$ when you can get paid to take care of it, set it up and design it?
The apprentiship program is a tough one , I have several folks already in mind B) , but I do train public aquarist, eg Monterey Bay Aqaurium, other public staff etc.

I do large scale tank projects, planted, marine, lakes, wetlands, you name it.
I'm not cheap.
You dream it, I can get the folks to do it.


Regards,
Tom Barr

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•  resizedleftsidwe2.jpg (63.81K)
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[excaliborg]

I'm lost for words, incredible tank on a huge scale! Do you have a website or portfolio plantbrain?

[Graeme Edwards]

Quote

I'm lost for words, incredible tank on a huge scale! Do you have a website or portfolio plantbrain?

I second that!!!!,
how did you get into this side of aquaria Tom??