My 75 Gallon Rimless Build

[powerdyne6]

Recently finished building my aquarium stand and finally bought my 75 Gallon Rimless tank.

Not much to share right now but over the next few weeks I will be getting this set up.

Looking at a group of Loaches (not sure on the species yet), a group of Penguin Tetras which I currently have and maybe another group of something (but still undecided)

This is not the final home for this build as the tank still needs to come off the stand so I can apply some matte clear stain.

I would appreciate some feedback and ideas on setting this up.

Thanks

 

[Wills]

This looks really interesting! Penguin Tetras are a great choice, going to stay in the top third of the tank so I'd get an active loach species - Dwarf Chain Loaches could be a great choice, stay small so in proportion to the Penguins and a nice active species.

Wills

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello power. Interesting tank. Will be interested to see how a tank with no support framing will withstand the pressure of 750 lbs. of water.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[powerdyne6]

This looks really interesting! Penguin Tetras are a great choice, going to stay in the top third of the tank so I'd get an active loach species - Dwarf Chain Loaches could be a great choice, stay small so in proportion to the Penguins and a nice active species.

Wills

I currently have 10 of the Penguin Tetras in my 15 gallon tank. I was looking at the Dwarf Loach Species and a couple more that stay relatively small.

My water is very soft / soft so I am looking at fish with these requirements.

 

[powerdyne6]

Hello power. Interesting tank. Will be interested to see how a tank with no support framing will withstand the pressure of 750 lbs. of water.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Well I had the store fill the tank with water and I didn’t see any noticeable flexing / bowing of the glass.

The glass is 12mm so it is thick. Hopefully everything will work out because it will be a pretty big mess if something happened.. lol

 

[10 Tanks]

Hello again. It's not so much the thickness of the glass, but the strength of the seams and the silicone, super glue or whatever adhesive is used to hold the sides together. With standard tanks, you have the strength of the heavy plastic frame to hold everything together. Then, there's the time issue. The constant pressure of the water against the joints over a period of several years needs to be considered. Some of my tanks have been running for close to 20 years, but they're the old fashioned, black frame kind. I guess time will tell.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

 

[Wills]

I currently have 10 of the Penguin Tetras in my 15 gallon tank. I was looking at the Dwarf Loach Species and a couple more that stay relatively small.

My water is very soft / soft so I am looking at fish with these requirements.

Thats good news with the soft water Do you have any other ideas on a third species? I was wondering about something like a good sized shoal of Spotted Headstanders? Quite an under rated fish IMO, gets to a nice size, interesting body shape compared to the rest of the fish and their colour and patterns would compliment nicely too.

Hello again. It's not so much the thickness of the glass, but the strength of the seams and the silicone, super glue or whatever adhesive is used to hold the sides together. With standard tanks, you have the strength of the heavy plastic frame to hold everything together. Then, there's the time issue. The constant pressure of the water against the joints over a period of several years needs to be considered. Some of my tanks have been running for close to 20 years, but they're the old fashioned, black frame kind. I guess time will tell.

10 Tanks (Now 11)

Rimless tanks are pretty common these days with quite a lot of big brands offering larger tanks too like ADA, UNS, Aqua One - the custom tank builders in the UK all offer them too and well over 4 foot, quite a few 5 footers around - they are just using very strong, modern silicone products rather than some of the more traditional ones. I've got a 4 foot 75 gallon waiting (eternally) to be set up and no real reservations about it.

Wills

 

[Byron]

A couple observations on fish species. Loaches are very interesting fish, there are some species that would work better than some others with respect to other fish in the tank, as well obviously as tank size. I'm assuming this is a 4-foot length tank. Yo do want soft sand for loaches, or cories which is another interesting fish for the substrate level. Play Sand is very inexpensive, or one of the inert aquarium sands which are expensive. Avoid black or white, both cause issues for fish.

You have the space for decent-sized groups of the species you decide on, which will mostly be shoaling/schooling fish needing 10-12 or more. You can get by with fewer loaches, but I would not go below six or seven. Loaches quickly establish an hierarchy, and once they do they do not usually accept newcomers. Some specie have issues with certain upper level fish, others do not.

 

[powerdyne6]

Thats good news with the soft water Do you have any other ideas on a third species? I was wondering about something like a good sized shoal of Spotted Headstanders? Quite an under rated fish IMO, gets to a nice size, interesting body shape compared to the rest of the fish and their colour and patterns would compliment nicely too.

The third species is still up in the air.. as for the fish you mentioned I have never seen any of those in my area of Canada (well at least the couple stores I visit regularly)

As for the amount of fish I would like to be around the 15 to 20 mark or maybe even more depending in size.

 

[powerdyne6]

A couple observations on fish species. Loaches are very interesting fish, there are some species that would work better than some others with respect to other fish in the tank, as well obviously as tank size. I'm assuming this is a 4-foot length tank. Yo do want soft sand for loaches, or cories which is another interesting fish for the substrate level. Play Sand is very inexpensive, or one of the inert aquarium sands which are expensive. Avoid black or white, both cause issues for fish.

You have the space for decent-sized groups of the species you decide on, which will mostly be shoaling/schooling fish needing 10-12 or more. You can get by with fewer loaches, but I would not go below six or seven. Loaches quickly establish an hierarchy, and once they do they do not usually accept newcomers. Some specie have issues with certain upper level fish, others do not.

I am possibly looking at the Zebra Loach, Yoyo Loach to name a couple.. maybe even the Dwarf Chain Loach.

Yes this Tank is 4 feet long.

I have already decided on Sand as a substrate and the sand you mentioned is what I have already purchased (play sand from Home Depot)

For the Loaches I am hoping I can squeeze in about 10 to 12 of them (again depending on size)

 

[Byron]

Sounding good. Quikrete Play Sand is good, I changed all my tanks in the fishroom to this some 9 or 10 years ago, never have had issues and wised I'd changed sooner.

Zebra Loach covers two if not more different species...if you mean Botia striata this is a nice loach, quite peaceful. The Yo Yo (Botia almorhae) is a risk, this is a feisty species and some upper level fish can be mercilessly picked on. A better option and one that looks so very similar is Botia kubotai. The usual "dwarf" loach is Ambastaia sidthimunki. It spends more time in the upper water column than the others. All of these must have a lot of bogwood, chunks with tunnels and crevices; each loach will select its "home," and they love chasing each other through these. Malaysian Driftwood is ideal for this.

 

[powerdyne6]

Help me decide in a third fish species… (yes I am still trying to decide)

Looking for another schooling/shoaling species that stay relatively small (2-2.5 inches). Maybe something with some colour.

Something that will work in soft water with a PH of around 7. Something that will work with 12-15 Dwarf Chain Loaches and 20-25 Penguin Tetras.

I have a 75 gallon tank currently being set up. The Tetras will be moved into this tank from my current 15 gallon
Thanks

 

[Byron]

Help me decide in a third fish species… (yes I am still trying to decide)

Looking for another schooling/shoaling species that stay relatively small (2-2.5 inches). Maybe something with some colour.

Something that will work in soft water with a PH of around 7. Something that will work with 12-15 Dwarf Chain Loaches and 20-25 Penguin Tetras.

I have a 75 gallon tank currently being set up. The Tetras will be moved into this tank from my current 15 gallon
Thanks

Your options are almost endless. I have the same water so this is easy. Any peaceful characin, rasbora, barb, or danio are options. The loaches are somewhat active, the penguins less so given their nature to cruise among floating plants. So with this in mind I would not look at danios here. I cannot think of other characin species that would not work, the most "active" being the rummynose tetra but this activity is no where near that of some danios that charge around. Other species are more quiet, thinking of many of the beautiful disk-shaped species in Hyphessobrycon, including the Black and Red Phantoms, Rosy, or the Bleeding Heart which is a lovely tetra for larger tanks as it gets larger but is peaceful, and remains basically mid-water. The others mentioned here in the Rosy clade are generally a bit lower in the water column, as are the rummynose. But the Bleeding Heart, the Black Phantom, the Penguins, rummynose, with the loaches--something like this would spread the fish out in the tank. All are shoaling so groups of 12-15. Avoid the Serpae/Red Minor tetra, they are notorious fin nippers and I can see them tearing into the Bleeding Hearts.

Many if not all of the medium-size rasboras would be other options. Several of the barbs, those that remain medium-sized and are not overly-active. The Black Ruby Barb is a real beauty, the males very colourful, in a group of 12-15 again, they are active but not overly so. I had these in my 90g for some years, then moved them into the 33g and some of the eggs from their frequent spawnings survived predation and hatched. A lovely barb.

 

[powerdyne6]

I haven’t posted an update yet as I have been busy putting the final touches on this tank and I think I am there

Filter: Oase Biomaster 350

Heater: Eheim 200 watt x2

Substrate: Quikrete Sand

Hardscape: Seiryu Stone, River Rocks, Manzanita Wood (4 big pieces) which create some nice hiding spots

Plants: An assortment of carpeting plants, some Anubias and a few others I don’t remember the names and about 50% coverage of floating plants (already removed some as they were growing like crazy)

For livestock I went with

10 Blue Tetras (knodus Borki)
10 Penguin Tetras (which I already had)
10 Yoyo Loaches

The Loaches were just introduced yesterday afternoon. They were the last fish to go in.

Now I can sit back and enjoy

 

[powerdyne6]

Finally got around to getting a picture of my 75 Gallon