Question For The Goldfish Fans

[cynic]

Had a reply from a crowd in Nottingham who can make me a tank, rather than risk something second hand.

60 X 11 X 18 (LxWxH) with a 2 piece sliding flat glass top. Somewhere in the region of 180L internal volume.

The new home for a black more (now gold) and a metalic veil tail, better known as frazier and bubbles. Be more companions but those two are what we have at the moment.

Position dictates the width, could be longer but would be at risk of passing knocks. And height doesent matter that much but much over 18 and it will be too high to easily maintain.

Verdict? i have to give him a call sometime this week to confirm.......

 

[fluttermoth]

11" is really a bit narrow tbh but it'll do You don't need to go much over 48" long and 15" deep if you don't want to.

 

[cynic]

Hmmm 15 inch deep. that would be tricky. Its a part of the living/dining room, well a divider of sorts and it was built with something like this in mind a few years back. Its all stout 3x2 timber rawl bolted and cross braced. Thing is its only 12 inches deep by just a knats over 6ft long.

If i replaced the top for a wider one i'm not sure how that would fare with the tank structure as there really wouldn't be all that much under the outer inch or so each side save for some half inch timber.

If i could ask direct FM, what would be best size wise, the wife likes the length at 5ft as it fills the space nicely, constructing some reinforcement to go out to maybe 14inches is not impossible. I based the 11 inches on the bits i've seen putting veil tails and moors growing to around 20cm as they have the length to swim, or is that something else i've got wrong .

The tank will be viewed from both sides as a centrepiece so i will have to spend time getting it right as it will be the first thing you will see as you walk into the room.

I was considering using the lenght to have a graduated enviroment in the tank, having some pebbles and bogwood one (hiding associated filter/heater gubbins) end with plants going out over gravel/stone to open sand at the other.

Its whats in my minds eye anyhow...

 

[fluttermoth]

You'll be fine with a 5 foot by 11"; depth is what's convenient for you really, I just wanted to point out that you don't need 18"

 

[cynic]

Er, think i'm on the wrong tack. I was talking depth as in front to back. The actuall depth of the water could be 6 feet if i went near to the ceiling

 

[fluttermoth]

Now I'm confused as well, lol

So, your proposed tank is five feet long, 11" from front to back and 18" deep, from top to bottom, yes?

If that's right, that's a pretty good size, although a couple of extra inches, from front to back to give the fish more 'turning space' would be preferable if you can manage it.

Bear in mind I don't have a mechanical kind of brain, so don't know how much support you'd need to add; I have engineer friends I shout for in those sorts of situations!

 

[cynic]

Yep thats it, at that size it can go straight in within reason, i'm going to hide the pump stuff in a corner cabinet and route the wiring so it is all hidden within the structure supporting the tank.

If i get it right there should be little evidence of the clutter you normally see round fish tanks, i don't like clutter. Doesent bother the wife and kids though

Do you think my idea for the scape has potential, its just a lot of the stuff i've seen seems a bit 'full' ponds and streams have plant growth and such at the sides and clearer, sandy area's in the middle. I picture a section through that.

 

[fluttermoth]

Yeah, clutter doesn't bother me either; just as well ss my entire house is full of it

Your idea for scaping sounds great; the trouble with that kind of set up normally is that the small shoaling fish most of us keep tend to hug the banks and don't venture into open water that much, but goldies are very confident fish and don't mind being out in the open and so would be perfect for that kind of set up

 

[cynic]

Here you go FM, this is the spot, the tank you can see is the present 18X10 they are slumming it in...I know we have an ancient stereo but it works fine so why replace it, so there.

They really will be the focal point of the room, i can't stand the idea of them being stuck in a spare room.

 

[Wills]

It is a little bit of an awkward sized tank due to the width and it also limits the volume of the tank quite a lot which impacts on the total number of fish you could have in there your volume works out at 190 ish liters around 50 US gallons - the general advice for Goldfish is 20 gallons for the first one and 10 gallons for each after that. So in 50 gallons you would have the two you have now and two more - so long as your filtration would cope which would probably mean either a few internals or an external filter.

For me I would rather put a heater in it and have small schooling fish like Microrasboras or small Tetras and some Dwarf Cichlids and small Gourami species.

As for scape I am a little confused by what you say but think I can picture it all I would say is keep substrate thin and go for slim twiggy wood rather than lumps of wood or rocks as this will take up volume that you need to keep.

Hope thats helped
Wills

 

[fluttermoth]

Fair points, Wills, but the goldies the OP has now are in desperate need of an upgrade ASAP!

 

[cynic]

Gawd the infomation i'm battering to my now overloaded grey matter with is ridiculous. The wife has seen the replies and i have now been told, well the sentance "if it were up to me" was used, gulp .

So i'll have to check some numbers strength wise but i think a 60x15 is dooable although thats getting towards 240odd litres internal volume. Maybe drop it back to 50 in long, but again wifey likes the idea of the long tank.

Both me and the wife have been stood on the 'wall' together decorating but were now above that weight with these numbers although much better spread so i don't see any issues. The actual load PSI is not actually that high. So 'minor' refit should see it done. As you only buy this kind of thing once so i want it to be right.