L Shaped Oscar Tank

[JamieBailie]

Hi, I've recently become interested in Oscars since a new LFS opened, Which has a lot more stock than the usual LFS around where I live.

The Oscar is truly in a league of its own!!

They had an Oscar that was around 12 inches long, Beautiful. I stood untill the shop closed just watching him! The young Oscars they sell are between 2-3 inches.

Basically I have a computer desk which isn't used anymore, It's L shaped, Dimensions as below:

18 Square foot surface area, I'll post some pics of the actual desk later, I'm not sure if it could hold that much weight.

I'm not sure what size I would want the tank yet, I won't be able to afford this until mid September so this gives me plenty of time to plan it.
I have a few questions which hopefully someone can help me with

1) Am I best getting a custom tank made (New LFS specialise in this) Is this better financially?

2) Suggestions for filtration + Heating.

3) What size would be suitable/not look out of place?


Going back to school here, 1ltr of water = 1kg, Right?



If anyone has a similar setup i'd love to see pics/info on it

 

[england]

that sounds pretty intreging idea if the tank was that size.....smart....fiteration would prob best having something like a fluval fx5 in each side of the lshape tank and if you could streach it a sump to also maintain it.....heating iam not to good with....you could have quite a unique setup there....but itll be costly....if moneys a prob then id reccommend looking for second hand large tanks on places like ebay...you can find deals with tank/stand/filters/lights/heating/and sometimes fish////the desk i dought would be up to the job of holding that weight...youd have to cnsult the tank builder
keep us updated sounds intresting

 

[mattster]

looks very interesting, i would love to see pics of this working out

 

[jayjay]

Would be a great size tank. I don't think the desk would hold that weight though. It's also going to be around 270g isn't it? I'd go for some kind of sump I'm not sure how it would be set up exactly with the tank being L shaped though, this would give you place to put your heaters as well. Also I'd use a trickle tower just because they are fairly easy to maintain, just washing and cleaning the filter floss every week.

 

[kat11180]

you mean like this

but prob a bit bigger?

 

[JamieBailie]

Hi, Yes that is the shape of tank i'm thinking about.

Here is a pic of the desk:

I really don't think the desk would that much...

 

[Aphotic Phoenix]

I don't think that desk could hold a tank that large... Remember to guesstimate about 10 lbs per gallon.

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

Doesn't look sturdy enough. I would consider adding some support to that desk before constructing the tank.

 

[idlefingers]

Yeah, that definitely looks like it'd need re-enforcing for the weight.

That'd make a very interesting tank though!

 

[JamieBailie]

I had a good look last night and decided the desk isn't suitable at all. Even if I re-enforced it, it wouldn't be very sightly..

I've sent an email to a few local bespoke aquarium manufacturers asking for quotes