The Behemoth Tank

Are all those angels altums? i do see some koi lookers and didn't know altums could be like that :S also don't these fish grow to like 2 foot from top to bottom. i hate to be the only negative one here but when i saw the number 64 i was like :crazy:

but the tank .... :drool: nothin to say really. its gorgeous and a life sized photo of it would do me :D
if i saw that tank, i'd probably be there for hours just watching all the fish. it just seems so natural. i've always wanted to see fish in their natural habitat doing what they do best...swim.

you have the best career in the world :shifty:

x
 
weren't their roselines in the original plan?

Oh, those little things? There are 24 in here, you need to look carefully for them.
They dart around, once they get full size and about 20cm and nearly the size of a Bala shark, they will be seen. They are about 3-4" now and will get about 7-8" later.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Are all those angels altums? i do see some koi lookers and didn't know altums could be like that :S also don't these fish grow to like 2 foot from top to bottom. i hate to be the only negative one here but when i saw the number 64 i was like :crazy:

but the tank .... :drool: nothin to say really. its gorgeous and a life sized photo of it would do me :D
if i saw that tank, i'd probably be there for hours just watching all the fish. it just seems so natural. i've always wanted to see fish in their natural habitat doing what they do best...swim.

you have the best career in the world :shifty:

x

No, nothing negative taken here.

No, there are some Koi Angels in there and some wild Scal's.
But that's not Altums.

There are only 24 Altums in there right now. It's a test run and more will be added.
The owner choses only the best fish from a large selection for this home.

I think the rest will be added a bit later.
I think the other discus will end up at the office tank, I'm doing a 380 gallon (now I'm told).

I've done 3 Altum tanks for clients.
This is the largest.

I saw the 64 fish at his home in a bare bottom tanks and then saw them later, they had all grown a lot.
He and I talked a lot about feeding.

I always bother clients about this issue.
This guy is a good client, obsessed, caring about the fish.

I've never seen 64 Altums at once till I met this guy. But he's got the connection and the $ to support such habits the rest of us dream of.

But it's fun to work on such tanks, but it's a lot of work still.
I think the Altums have about 3x their size, (not length) to go still.

This tank is 4ft deep.
And it's 4ft front to back.

That makes working on it tougher.
Give me another 4-6 months and see what it looks like.
Once I get in there ans redo the Office 380, I can rework this tank during the same time.
I'm addign some nice baslat ADA like rock as mid divider and another nice piece of wood, and then move some plant groups around, fix the foreground up(he never was able to grow HC, namely due to messing with the tank too much and uprooting it all the time).

The aesthetic goal here is quite different than the ADA behemoth of Amano's.
I was aiming for some quitre different than that, but along those same lines for the aesthetic.

But the owner is a fish guy.........so I gave him both and personally love that more than a overall sense of scape aesthetic.

Amano would likely say the fish load is too high and too confusing.
In some ways he would be right, but in terms of viewing interest and delight, I think this tank is a lot more fun.

I have another small tank, 350 gallon where I used all small schools of fish and the asethetic is nice, and the tank looks much larger than if I'd chose large Discus etc.

Most of the scaping contest asethetics focus solely on a species type tank with a few suppport species at best. This tank seeks to make a community, I think there are some failings, but I am not stocking the tank personally. But I do prefer a larger tank that's a community personally.

That's the client wants......... and I go with what they want and pay for.
I have only so much say with some tanks, rarely do I get freedom from the bottom up.


Regards,
Tom Barr
 
I have it on good authority that the only time I will be allowed a new tank is when we finally de-do the kitchen. Given the potential size of the kitchen when sorted out, I do have a lovely space in mind for a superb aquarium which could (wife permitting!) be 8' in length :) Inspiration is truely gained by tanks like this one!
 
Some crazy fish stocking there! Not sure I personally like the range of discus colours, but then again its not my tank, so each to their own. If it allowed me to have one of these tanks, I think I could live with different coloured discus ;)

Amazing tank, truly amazing.

Sam
 
Many fish only folks look at planted tanks and see only a few fish.
I'm coming back to my roots, many are when they see such a tank.

I wanted to have lots of fish and a nice community and a nice scape.
Now the trade off is that the fish load detracts from the scape though.
So the goal is different than say ADA's aesthetic.
If you look at a nice AF Rift tank, they have high fish loads etc and it looks good there.

But no plants or rarely.....
Here we see a rare example of both plant and fish loading together. And it works quite well.
The plants still have yet to fill in well.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
Plants and fish, that's crazy talk! :fun:

Seriously though it does make a refreshing change to see a eclectic community look great. The sheer size of the aquarium helps of course but also the skill in aquascape design.

Remind us please Tom, what is the dosing schedule on this tank? How much CO2 is used?
 
Well I agree, I am going to try to get my tank full of fish and plants, it is nice to aquascape like ADA, but I like to see fish too...
 
Plants and fish, that's crazy talk! :fun:

Seriously though it does make a refreshing change to see a eclectic community look great. The sheer size of the aquarium helps of course but also the skill in aquascape design.

Remind us please Tom, what is the dosing schedule on this tank? How much CO2 is used?

Dosing is EI.
Plain and simple.

CO2?
A lot.
Maybe 30 bubble sec?

Yes, lots of plants and fish!

Crazy talk for sure.

If you see the small 350 I did, it's also a packed tank. Most are. That's what the clients love, fish and plants, not just one or the other, but rather a focus on BOTH.

Regards,
Tom Barr
 
If you see the small 350 I did, it's also a packed tank.

Small!!! You gotta be kidding me. I'm sitting here and complaining how much water change a 15 gallon tank needs!!! :lol:

Love the big-as-a-dinnerplate-discus, the colors are very patriotic :D

Hummm ........that applies to both the Union Jack and Old Glory.

Here's the 350:
 

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Here's a list of folks that saw it recently and the owner of course, demanded each to come and see it.

The rest of the house:

http://esquirehouse360.com/

Some folks that like the tank:

http://www.wireimage.com/FeaturedEvents/2219

That should give you an idea.
While most are in awe of such $$$, I could care less, my job is to save folks $$$ and help them achieve their dreams, whether is a poor student kid, or the Richest person around. They are all still people.


Regards,
Tom Barr

PS.
James Cameron is going to go to the Amazon to do a film(He did the Abyss, The Terminator 1-2-3, The Alien series and Titantanic etc) after seeing this tank, I have been invited to do the botany portion. Heiko Blehr will do the Zoology. Hopefully I'll go and do more documentaries in other locations.
There's a lot of neat places I need to see:)
 

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PS.
James Cameron is going to go to the Amazon to do a film(He did the Abyss, The Terminator 1-2-3, The Alien series and Titantanic etc) after seeing this tank, I have been invited to do the botany portion. Heiko Blehr will do the Zoology. Hopefully I'll go and do more documentaries in other locations.
There's a lot of neat places I need to see:)

That sounds awesome! Congrats!
The tank is so great too!
 
PS.
James Cameron is going to go to the Amazon to do a film(He did the Abyss, The Terminator 1-2-3, The Alien series and Titantanic etc) after seeing this tank, I have been invited to do the botany portion. Heiko Blehr will do the Zoology. Hopefully I'll go and do more documentaries in other locations.
There's a lot of neat places I need to see:)

Lucky guy!
 

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