450 Gallon tank what would you do

[itiwhetu]

So we don't clog up the other thread here is a new one for all your ideas of what to do in a tank that is

10 feet long 3 feet wide 2 feet high 450 gallons

I have copied my reply to the other thread here,

I have been thinking about what I would do with a project like this, and have decided I would replicate this,

Silver dollars and their young

So you have a better idea of who I am I thought I would share this with you. After breeding fish for many years commercially I decided that the true test of a community system (furnished aquarium) was if the fish would breed and raise their young. This silver dollar picture shows the parents and...

www.fishforums.net

To make it work I would run a divide the full length of the tank about 12 inches from the back wall. Then I would plant that and use it as a bio filter to make the tank stable. The plant that section produces I would use to feed the Silver Dollars.

The main problem with this tank design is that all the fish will hang out at the back of the tank and you will never see them.

 

[ThatFishGirl6231]

id totally get big fish like discus or angelfish

 

[anewbie]

id totally get big fish like discus or angelfish

I find this amusing because when some people think of big fishes for a 10 foot tank they tend towards well larger fishes like giant gourami are even common pleco.... angelfishes (which is what i would put in a 10 foot tank) are tiny little things compare to well 'large' fishes.... and if the tank was a wee bit larger and one truely wanted a 'large' fish they might consider a sturgeon of which some exceed 20 feet.... of course we might want our tank to be 800 feet instead of a measly 10 foot... but...

 

[ThatFishGirl6231]

I find this amusing because when some people think of big fishes for a 10 foot tank they tend towards well larger fishes like giant gourami are even common pleco.... angelfishes (which is what i would put in a 10 foot tank) are tiny little things compare to well 'large' fishes.... and if the tank was a wee bit larger and one truely wanted a 'large' fish they might consider a sturgeon of which some exceed 20 feet.... of course we might want our tank to be 800 feet instead of a measly 10 foot... but...

yes but when i think of BIG fish i think of a tank at least 1000 gallons like the king of diy.

 

[itiwhetu]

I would have thought that a 10 foot tank would be about as big as you could go in an average size house. Here in New Zealand 6 feet is about as big as we go. Something that is 1000 gallons is more for public display.

 

[OliveFish05]

What i would do.... easy!

a big Parana River Biotope, with sand substrate, big driftwood branches, heavily planted with tons of Amazon Sword, Brazilian Pennywort, and a variety of Cabomba (ive seen green, red, and purple cabomba varieties, so it would add some good color and contrast, and help To add some variety to the tank, what with the plain leaf shape of the amazon swords) and my stock would include Geophagus Sveni, Bloodfin Tetras, Buenos Aires tetras, Cory hastatus, peppered Cories, and otos.


OR I would do a sand substrate, driftwood branches, a wider variety of plants, heavily plant the tank, and the stock would include discus, bloodfin tetras, Congo tetras, Cory hastatus, emerald green Cories, cardinal tetras, and a starlight bristlenose pleco

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Wow, it's fun to dream. Cool ideas so far. I think with a tank this size, I'd follow a long dream and do a Rocky Mountain Foothill Creek biotope, or maybe a beaver pond biotope. A ton of current, massively oversized canister filter(s), a chiller, tons of rock work, sand, native water plants. Stock with Colorado river cutthroat trout, crawdads, mountain suckers, sand shiners, mottled sculpins, and redside shiners.

 

[itiwhetu]

Wow, it's fun to dream. Cool ideas so far. I think with a tank this size, I'd follow a long dream and do a Rocky Mountain Foothill Creek biotope, or maybe a beaver pond biotope. A ton of current, massively oversized canister filter(s), a chiller, tons of rock work, sand, native water plants. Stock with Colorado river cutthroat trout, crawdads, mountain suckers, sand shiners, mottled sculpins, and redside shiners.

That would be really cool, cost a small fortune to run, but really cool.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

The main problem with this tank design is that all the fish will hang out at the back of the tank and you will never see them.

I think you could avoid this with good scaping. Most captive fish get over their fear of people pretty quick, and they'll go where the good habitat is.

I love the idea of a dedicated plant-based filter. I think it would be interesting to have big container garden of terrestrial or bog plants growing in fine gravel, and pump tank water through it. Many people put syngonium or pothos in their tanks; this would take that idea to the next level. Doubt I'll ever try it because I'll never have the space. But like I said...it's fun to dream.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

...cost a small fortune to run, but really cool.

Hey, if I could afford a tank that size, and a house big enough to hold it, I probably wouldn't be too put off by the cost. ha ha ha

 

[itiwhetu]

I think you could avoid this with good scaping. Most captive fish get over their fear of people pretty quick, and they'll go where the good habitat is.

I love the idea of a dedicated plant-based filter. I think it would be interesting to have big container garden of terrestrial or bog plants growing in fine gravel, and pump tank water through it. Many people put syngonium or pothos in their tanks; this would take that idea to the next level. Doubt I'll ever try it because I'll never have the space. But like I said...it's fun to dream.

I have run plant based filters on several tanks in the past. Really good for Cichlid tanks. I have always done it with side by side setups. Where the planted tank is setup next to a larger Cichlid tank, it works really well. I also setup a plant growing tank where I didn't want fish disturbing the plants. The advantages are huge because in the tank described above you can always put the fry in the back section to grow on before putting them in the main tank. Say if you had it setup with Angels or Discus.

 

[anewbie]

I have run plant based filters on several tanks in the past. Really good for Cichlid tanks. I have always done it with side by side setups. Where the planted tank is setup next to a larger Cichlid tank, it works really well. I also setup a plant growing tank where I didn't want fish disturbing the plants. The advantages are huge because in the tank described above you can always put the fry in the back section to grow on before putting them in the main tank. Say if you had it setup with Angels or Discus.

Tuesday night fx6 got clogged in my 120 (picture attached) for about 12 hours and i lost my sae, a yoyo, a cardinal and an oto in my 120 - the sponge filters were still running fine of course and the fx6 had a small trickle. The clown loaches were almost white and hanging at the very top of the tank as well as the angels were gasping at the top. The reason for this post - is i don't understand how your 'plant' filter would provide adequate filtration by itself. I'm presuming the issue was oxygen due to reduce flow in the tank but i actually don't know for sure why the fishes died (nitrite and ammonia remained 0):

 

[itiwhetu]

Because your tank is so heavily planted at night the tank will produce a high concentration of CO2, that is where your problem lies. If you have more than one filter running you will always have water movement. In the system I describe above I would run 4 1000 liter/hr internal filters ( there is always a back up). What the plants do mainly is strip ammonia from the system. If your tank is slightly acidic the ammonia is turned to ammonium less toxic. Any tank always has to have water movement so that gas exchange can take place.

 

[anewbie]

Because your tank is so heavily planted at night the tank will produce a high concentration of CO2, that is where your problem lies. If you have more than one filter running you will always have water movement. In the system I describe above I would run 4 1000 liter/hr internal filters ( there is always a back up). What the plants do mainly is strip ammonia from the system. If your tank is slightly acidic the ammonia is turned to ammonium less toxic. Any tank always has to have water movement so that gas exchange can take place.

Ok thanks. yea there is also an eheim 2217 as well as two sponge filters but the 2217 doesn't really produce enough flow (which is why i got the fx6). Anyway thanks for the explanation and sorry for the diversion.

 

[itiwhetu]

Ok thanks. yea there is also an eheim 2217 as well as two sponge filters but the 2217 doesn't really produce enough flow (which is why i got the fx6). Anyway thanks for the explanation and sorry for the diversion.

Diversions are great, If you want to know more detail about how I would setup a tank like this please ask. The great thing about plant and the correct substrate you can create a large bio mass filter that then makes the tank on a whole very stable.