Our house is an old one... Its on wooden piles with a wooden floor with carpet on top. I want a tank that could hold some sort of a bichir and maybe another large type fish. I was hoping for it to be a largish tank but I don't want it falling through the floor... What kind of capacity could a tank be within safe limits for my kind of floor?? My father would reinforce the area with more piles though...

Thanks!

It's impossible to say what your floor can hold without actually taking a look at it or even better go under the house and look at the structure beneath the floor.

But an average 4 foot tank, which is a good size for a bichir, should be no problem for any house.

If you are worried it's always good to get a proffessional to check.

http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/prod ... .php?id=18

what about this tank? Is this sort of tank ok for a bichir? And a datnoid?

the tank would be perfect, wish I had one that size.

Definitely perfect for the bichir, never actually heard of a datnoid, going to look them up now.

Look at the shape of the tank and compare it to the shape of the bichir. Its a good tank for angel fish, not for bichirs.

You could keep a senegal, palmas, or delhezi in a 4'x18"x18" for life, they all max out at around 12-14", and usually grow slowly after around 10", could probably keep several of any of those species in a tank that size, just make sure it has good filtration and regular water changed because of all the meaty food.

As for the dat, you'll need something bigger, they get to 18"+ eventually, I've had mine 2.5yrs and its gone from 2" to 8", currently in a 4'x20"x20", but I'm shopping for something bigger. much, much bigger.... 8)

*edit* Oh, and as for the floor, try get under the house to see what the piles/joists are like. Design the stand to spread the weight evenly and you'll be fine. I had a 550L tank on a wooden floor for 2 years, no problems.

Remember that Bichirs need to surface, 700mm deep may be too much for them, something like 300mm of water with a good air gap would be better, go for length and width over height.

If you go 1200 x 450 x 450mm a Bichir would be just as happy, and you would be looking at roughly 80kg less weight, as you don't fill it right up to the top.

Remember that Bichirs need to surface, 700mm deep may be too much for them, something like 300mm of water with a good air gap would be better, go for length and width over height.

I doubt it would be too deep, and you probably could keep a one of the smaller species in that tank. However, if you're spending that sorta money, why not get it custom made to be 700 wide and 460 high instead of the other way round. 300mm deep might in fact be too shallow for a full grown bichir, might encourage their tendency to escape.

http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/prod ... .php?id=17

what about this one?

What do you think? Its the same height as the first one but not as wide. Do you want to keep polypterus or angelfish? :roll:

Go into Hollywood and tell them you want a custom 4'x18"x18" (Or even better 4'x2'wx18"h) tank and stand made up.

If you want a custom tank talk to Greg from tanks2U. He had the best prices when I had mine made. And I had my steel stands made by Tomo Ventures.

I'd also recomend Greg, he recently made the 4'x2'x2' tank for our beardie, and I'll definately be getting a quote from him in the near future for a bigger tank.

I actually don't want a custom tank to be honest. I think they're too much hastle. If i went for the regal 100 could i have 1 senegal bichir, 1 butterfly fish and 3 silver dollars? (and maybe some other fish)??

Hassle? Its not like you have to assemble it yourself or anything. You tell the shop/tank maker what you want and they make it.

IMO that tank isn't big enough (volume is OK, dimentions suck) for the fish you listed. If you had a 4'x18x18" you could happily keep a senegal, butterfly, and a school of 4-6 Spotted Metynnis (Metynnis macilatus) which grow smaller than the common silver dollars. HFF list both 4'x18x18 and 4'x20x20 here so I imagine they should be able to get you one pretty quickly (if they don't already have them in stock) along with a nice looking stand in any finish you like.

What the guys are saying is that most off the shelf tanks are taller than they are wide. Main reason, because the tank looks bigger when you are sitting in front of it. OK, some fish need a fairly deep tank, angels and discus for example. Other fish aren't worried about the water depth, Arros for example swim in the top 30cm of the tank. Plecos swim in the bottom 30cm. So for either of those fish a shallower but wider tank is better, it appears bigger to THEM.

As for getting a tank custom built, no big problem. In fact a shallower/wider tank can use thinner glass (as long as it's braced properly), so may cost less than what you are looking at anyway.

Cheers

Ian

To answer your original question, most domestic dwellings have a design floor load of 2 kPa or will take a fish tank of 200mm high (weight of water only) if the weight is evenly distributed. Since most fish tanks are a lot taller than that it is important to make sure that the weight is well distributed and not all coming down through four very skinny legs. It should also be situated over as much of the supporting sub floor structure as possible.