Hello everyone! Thanks for the interest, and I hope to make this a fun journey for all of us.
First, since I'm new to this forum let me provide a little back story The desire to keep and maintain an Aquarium has been with me most of my life. Grew up in a fishing family, been fishing all my life basically. Been lucky enough to even make a living off of it. Always had smaller tanks, 20-40 gal. that I kept happy, and clean, grew some big fish, would bring in "rescues" and get them back in shape. Enjoyed the challenge and enjoy seeing some of my handy work years later in proper tanks and living happy. Severums, Cats, Plecos of all types, and gouromies have all come and gone to new homes. Some weirdos like elephant noses, and once, even an arowana that still had its egg sack attached, have come through my tanks. Sometimes, I would have 10 tanks, doing different things. Put them in the right conditions, feed them the right foods, give them the right treatment, and find them a new home. Well, after a while I stopped, just having a 29gal in the house, and a 10 gal "hospital" tank set up and going. I kept very few fish, a featherfin cat, and two australian rainbows, and a group of 4 red and blue tetras that no one wanted. It was just the cat and tetras for years, before I added the rainbows last summer.
Then I found Mack.
The clown knife was wedged behind a heater with a large wound behind his gill plate, infection had set in, and he was obviously not in good shape. I came home and started searching the interweb for anything I could find about these fish, as I never had one. I was never interested in knives, or ran across one like this in bad shape. Guess what forum gave me, first off, the correct species and information about him, second, gave me the knowledge to be able to help him. BINGO! TFF
I paid $15.00us and brought him home, originally thinking if he made it, he'd like my brothers 150 as a new home.
Then I fell in love. He healed up nice, is frisky as ever, and now I have to upgrade to keep him.
So back to TFF.
So many questions, as I'm the type that has just as much fun planning, as the actual doing. What do I need to set up a LARGE tank? Any different then the small eco-systems I'm used to? You bettcha, and oh so many options to boot!!
Thanks TFF!!!
Since I had a delema on what to do, I decided to drag you all along with me. That stupid sized 1000 gal home away from home thread and the DIY200+ plywood tank sent me into a tissy of activity and measuring. Heck, at one point I had drawn out a two-tier, hand laid river rock, trout pond, with a connecting stream and wooded bridge. Something you could almost fly fish out of. The misses stopped me as I was heading towards the rose garden with a shovel. The DIY thread had me really going, as I have the skills and tools, to do the carpentry and fiberglass work. Most of the frame material I already have too.
So here we go, 200+ gallon DIY plywood freshwater tank. Design it and go........
Common sense then finnally kicked in.....
Never had anything bigger then a 40, so as a stepping stone, I'm setteling on a 100 gallon tank. Everyone in my existing tank will be happy. Picked up a couple clown loaches already, to go in it when ready. Other then more loaches, as time goes by, and a pleco thats all that I'm stocking in it. The 29 will turn into a small fish tank, and be re-scaped from the bottom up. When I do finnaly get the DIY tank done I'll have two large tanks and I can start over with the 100gal if I want to.
In fact, leaving here in a couple hours to go pick up a used 100gal that I'm getting for $80.
If you looking for quick satisfaction and a tank thats going to be done in days, this is not the thread for you, as I hope to have the 100 gallon build go right into the BIG DIY tank build, and if the misses turns her back for a weekend the trout pond/stream build.
I'll post pics of the "new to me" tank when I get it home.
First, since I'm new to this forum let me provide a little back story The desire to keep and maintain an Aquarium has been with me most of my life. Grew up in a fishing family, been fishing all my life basically. Been lucky enough to even make a living off of it. Always had smaller tanks, 20-40 gal. that I kept happy, and clean, grew some big fish, would bring in "rescues" and get them back in shape. Enjoyed the challenge and enjoy seeing some of my handy work years later in proper tanks and living happy. Severums, Cats, Plecos of all types, and gouromies have all come and gone to new homes. Some weirdos like elephant noses, and once, even an arowana that still had its egg sack attached, have come through my tanks. Sometimes, I would have 10 tanks, doing different things. Put them in the right conditions, feed them the right foods, give them the right treatment, and find them a new home. Well, after a while I stopped, just having a 29gal in the house, and a 10 gal "hospital" tank set up and going. I kept very few fish, a featherfin cat, and two australian rainbows, and a group of 4 red and blue tetras that no one wanted. It was just the cat and tetras for years, before I added the rainbows last summer.
Then I found Mack.
The clown knife was wedged behind a heater with a large wound behind his gill plate, infection had set in, and he was obviously not in good shape. I came home and started searching the interweb for anything I could find about these fish, as I never had one. I was never interested in knives, or ran across one like this in bad shape. Guess what forum gave me, first off, the correct species and information about him, second, gave me the knowledge to be able to help him. BINGO! TFF
I paid $15.00us and brought him home, originally thinking if he made it, he'd like my brothers 150 as a new home.
Then I fell in love. He healed up nice, is frisky as ever, and now I have to upgrade to keep him.
So back to TFF.
So many questions, as I'm the type that has just as much fun planning, as the actual doing. What do I need to set up a LARGE tank? Any different then the small eco-systems I'm used to? You bettcha, and oh so many options to boot!!
Since I had a delema on what to do, I decided to drag you all along with me. That stupid sized 1000 gal home away from home thread and the DIY200+ plywood tank sent me into a tissy of activity and measuring. Heck, at one point I had drawn out a two-tier, hand laid river rock, trout pond, with a connecting stream and wooded bridge. Something you could almost fly fish out of. The misses stopped me as I was heading towards the rose garden with a shovel. The DIY thread had me really going, as I have the skills and tools, to do the carpentry and fiberglass work. Most of the frame material I already have too.
So here we go, 200+ gallon DIY plywood freshwater tank. Design it and go........
Common sense then finnally kicked in.....
Never had anything bigger then a 40, so as a stepping stone, I'm setteling on a 100 gallon tank. Everyone in my existing tank will be happy. Picked up a couple clown loaches already, to go in it when ready. Other then more loaches, as time goes by, and a pleco thats all that I'm stocking in it. The 29 will turn into a small fish tank, and be re-scaped from the bottom up. When I do finnaly get the DIY tank done I'll have two large tanks and I can start over with the 100gal if I want to.
In fact, leaving here in a couple hours to go pick up a used 100gal that I'm getting for $80.
If you looking for quick satisfaction and a tank thats going to be done in days, this is not the thread for you, as I hope to have the 100 gallon build go right into the BIG DIY tank build, and if the misses turns her back for a weekend the trout pond/stream build.
I'll post pics of the "new to me" tank when I get it home.