The Behemoth Tank

[tetraman]

Yeah, your running your own #@$%ing public aquarium. Start selling tickets!

 

[plantbrain]

It's not my tank, I'm paid to take care and set it up and make sure things go right.


Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[PaulEbs]

Hey plantbrain,

Hows the tank going? Got anymore photos we can all drool over?

 

[CBBP]

mm.. if I had a tank that big.. 170 goldfish!! haha maybe..

but I would be forced to have a tropical that big as well haha! with clown loaches!

 

[plantbrain]

There's a local store in Sacramento that has a 1000 gallon 8x4x4ft tank, they have a few 20 year old Clown loaches, about 12-14" long.
No plants and nice scape though

Seems a waste to have a nice big tank etc, without a nice fish load and a nice scape.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[tetraman]

Being completely serious, you should invest in scuba gear for catching fish and doing maintainence, and a sump pump for water changes. I'm not kidding.

 

[plantbrain]

The tank has a hard plumbed water changer already, 2"x 2" PVC pie drains it in 20 minutes.
700 Gallon RO tank and tap hard plumbed refills it in about 45 minutes or so.

Not one bucket is ever used.

We lower the tank down to about 12-18" and get inside when a big job is needed and sit/stand on wood or a rock. Then with 24" tweezers, I go to work.

I'll have more pics coming up here after this coming weekend.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[George Farmer]

I'll have more pics coming up here after this coming weekend.

Look forward to them.

 

[tetraman]

What about when a fish dies, you drop something in, etc.?

 

[plantbrain]

You use a pair of tools, 60cm tweezers etc.

Most work is done when the tank gets a water change, roughly 60% weekly.
Then it's only 40-50cm deep.

Regards,
Tom Barr

 

[tetraman]

Good point. I wanted a pic of you scuba diving in your own tank!

 

[plantbrain]

Here's some newer pics

The tank is getting more Erios and dowoni, some Lobelia will replace other parts.
Pearling is intense after this rework.

The owner has keep messing with it but I think and hope he'll leave it be, the clarity is his big thing and each time it is messed with and rearranged, he mucks it up and does not get the CO2 going again right.

It's less scaping and more fixing

Eventually and I think it'll happen in the next few weeks/months, the tank will really take off.
Only one algae issue due to no CO2, 24 hours of max lighting for several days, no time for the client to tend it caused issues.

One thing about the tank, you need to see a very large pic, not these dinky web ones, you cannot see the scale and detail because this tank is so massive.

I'll post a few more and you can match them to the rocks etc.

I'll likely rescape one more part in the tank and add some different rocks.

I like the left side, I want to find a nice piece for the right side and have a good idea what would go best there.

Regards,
Tom Barr


The plants are freshly planted and scape was redone, so they will grow out better now.
In about 1 month, things will look much different and fuller and nicer.

 

[Graeme Edwards]

I imagin that trying to let the customer have his play even though its doing more harm than good is difficult to deal with!
I prosume that you charge for all the tinkering and tweeking of the tank after set-up?

Looks great, love to see it in the flesh!

 

[plantbrain]

I do not work 20 hours on a tank per day for free
I'm not cheap either. I deliver a nice tank and fix things few, if any, can.

Here's a prespective on the scale:
She's 4 ft away from the tank

 

[Graeme Edwards]

Moddist

Looks great!