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My future 'dreams' (fishkeeping)


Chris.L

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I got bored and started yaking to my parents about my future in fishkeeping and this is what I would like for my discus:

3 * 4ft x 2ft x 2ft tanks

1 * tank divided into a 30gal breeder

Rest of the tank and 2 other tanks used for fry from the breeding pair or

1 * tank for quarantine.

1 * Breeding pair (not x's, maybe Marlboro Red or something similar).

What are your future fishkeeping 'dreams'?

Chris-

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for those who have seen "about a boy",

a large tank separating the kitchen from the lounge would be great.

an eight foot dutch tank would be quite cool, although I don't think I could leave it as a dutch tank, probably end up as a community display or maybe a snapper display tank.

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Chris said...

> I must say Killies and beautiful! Wish I could get some ...

You sometimes see Aphyosemion australe 'gold' for sale at

either the Mt. Eden Jansens or Hollywood, there's a local guy

who breeds them.

The gold form of Aplocheilus lineatus has also been imported

recently, apparently. Other species are available very

occasionally.

The best source of killies is the NZKA and its members.

Andrew.

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Chris said...

> ... Would they go with what I have though ?

Something like Aplocheilus panchax (or the occasionally

available Aplo. dayi) would most likely be fine. Aplo. lineatus

might try to eat the guppies and/or neons. Even male

Aphyosemion scheeli or Aphyo. australe might be worth a

go, or perhaps Fundulpanchax gardneri although they tend

to be a bit more, er, robust...

The main problem is getting the fish. Keep an eye on your

LFS, you never know what'll turn up.

I'm always keen to hear when people see killies in shops.

Andrew.

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Initial dream would be space to have more tanks.

As for what tanks I would like (other than more, more, more...) would be a 6' reef tank (that would definitely have a pair of Mandarin fish) and a 6' native tank - Charles' description of a lowland Puriri forest tank really struck a chord with me (a kokopu or three, school of inanga, bullies lurking on/under rocks, perhaps some freshwater shrimp and crayfish, don't know if the biolumeniscent freshwater limpets would last though).

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Hmmm, I'd think you could get it way below $1K/month without much trouble. Think of it as about an average indoor swimming pool or pond with some changes and they're FAR from $1K/month.

Let's see...about a 1KW pump would probably turn that over once an hour, put it in more of a glasshouse to get natural light to cut down on heating and lighting costs so you can just use say 3-4 250 watt metal halides. Insulate really well around it and rig up a (retractable)plastic cover out of the stuff plastic greenhouses are made of to keep the heat in and cut down on evaporation hopefully not cutting out too much light. Heating could be aided by some coils going up onto a black roof in black tubing to be heated by the sun along with just keeping the room fairly warm.

So,

1kw pump=24 kw/hr/day

1kw lighting=12 kw/hr/day

1kw heating(Guess)=24kw/hr/day

That's 60 KW/hrs per day at about $.10 per kw/h makes it about $6 per day. That's only $180 a month. May be dim on cloudy days and a bit cool most of the time, but doable. Unless I'm massively underestimating some things.:)

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This is how it worked out:

4kW Pumps 24/7 = $374

4.8kW Lighting 12 hours a day = $224

8kW Heating @40% = $299

Total = $897/month based on a unit cost of $0.13 including GST.

I didn't check comercial power rates as you'd need 3 phase to get the efficiency out of the pumps so there may be some saving.

We are talking about a fairly decent sized tank after all. My 1200L tank costs about $40.00 a month. Based off that a 32000L tank (at 26.667 times bigger) would cost approx $1066.

It would of course have to be a planted Discus tank with 300+ discus in it and 5000+ cardinals...

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I think most of that would be far more than you'd need though. You could cut down on the pumping by quite a bit, especially if you cut down on the fish some and you wouldn't need nearly that much light, even over a tank that big that's a LOT of light. Cut down to 2 kw and you'd still have enough light for low light plants if you want the tank planted. A lot less if you don't have it planted much. You could have a heap of lights just sitting turned off for if you want it nice and bright to show it off, but settle for dimmer most of the time. But you'd get a lot of free light if you've got it set up kinda like a greenhouse like I suggested. Running the tank a little cooler would help too.

I suppose the only way to say for sure is to build it. But since it's a dream, might as well aim for best of everything.:) No snorkel when you could use scuba gear.:)

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by my calculations if you invest your 17.1 million at 5% p.a. you are looking at a further $850000. minus your power off that and you are still making a profit on the interest. I'm sure most people could live quite comfortably on $200000 a year, so your surplus should be enough to start up another fish tank. (provided you are willing to invest your money straight away once you have won it.)by the way I think if you plan on donating some to charity those of us in the fishroom could all do with a newer larger tank.

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