Ideal Tank demension-Will it fit fine in my house?

[maran]

Hello all,

I am putting this thread to weed out few bugs before i buy my next tank. At the moment I have a 100cm by 30 by 50 tank ( also have couple others, but this is my favorite).

Now i am planning to move to Wellington in couple of months and I want to get a bigger tank. I am looking at 500-1000L tank. Now my query is what demension is the best in terms of moving it between houses ( I am likely to move atleast once within Wellington in the next 2 years), Putting in a place in the house without tank running across a door or judding through a door etc.

Initally i thought of getting a 300cm by 50cm height by 50-100cm depth. But 300cm is fairly long and I might struggle to find a free enough strech of wall in the house to put it.

When moving it inside the house, I might be impossible to move through a corridor or a entrance with surrounding walls ( as typically found with some townhouses.

Other issue is if the tank is too fat, if I could say it that way(i mean the depth is too much), it might not fit through the door to start with.

Next thing is transporting it. In my brothers 8 seater, I could put a tank 180cm long. Ofcourse I could find a bigger vehicle, but another thing to consider.

My initial conclusion is the the tank may need to be shorter, may be 2.4m and depth of 70cm (door frames are usually 75cm in my present house) and a height of 60cm or so.

What are your experiences on tank demensions and ease of transporting it, moving it, and placing it in the house? Any bugs you came through, what did you do to get around it etc?

Looking forward to your advices.

Maran

[IOU1]

Ok, I thought I would have my view.

1. The width must always be able to fit through a standard door way, unsure of measurements.

2. If the tank is too high it wcan be difficuilt to service and grasp things, I have no idea on the height of this and your handspan etc, but a book I read thought 60cm max.

3. So, if you want the volume you describe, length might need to be worked out allowing these guidelines.

Anyway, I have no clue :lol: , just thought I would sound useful , I don't need to change house for a while so my tanks are fine, but my biggest is only 250L.

Hope this helps a little, it probably won't :oops: :roll:

[meesheelly]

Also another thing to keep in mind is that down here lots of places are accessed by stairs. It hasnt been fun getting my tanks up 50 odd steps that have a wonderful kink in the middle. You might just have to be extremely picky about houses. My bf says that we arent allowed to move now coz he doesnt wanna move the tanks again. :lol:

[SpidersWeb]

1500x600x600

5ft x 2ft x 2ft

540L and in any house situation, you can normally find a 5ft wall. 2ft wide/tall tanks have no problems with doorways. Its a standard size, so no room for confusion when its being made,

"5 by 2 by 2 plz k thx cu"

If they can't get that right you may want to have them admitted.

600 is ideal for doorways.

Anything much over 600 high is wasted by most fish.

Depends where you're going to live down here, if you're looking at inner city apartments then a taller tank is better than a longer one, however most of the time extra height in a tank is wasted, and its really base area you want rather than literage.

If you're looking at a house, then a 5ft tank wont be a problem. When I was about 15, my parents owned this tiny house, and by doing some 3 point turns in to the bathroom, we got a 5 footer in their 8)

Train system is good here, so working in the CBD doesn't mean you *have* to pay heaps for a house or live in an apartment. My fiance trains in from Upper Hutt.

ooo and dont forget, 3 clubs,

Kapi-Mana (big club, friendly people)

Upper Hutt (smaller club, friendly people, Im a comittee member woo!)

Wellington (dont know much about this club, but I only hear good things too )

[maran]

Thank you all for your good advice. I am most likely to take your advise and get a 500-540 L tank.

IOU1-any advise is taken and thanks.

I have not thought about stairs all this time. I will note that ( Yes I have a note book where I am writing down all the points and issues)

MyticVampire-I understand it is far better to get a tank after knowning which house Im going to but.

But the issue is, I want to move most of my fish gradually from Gizzy to wellington. So if I can establish a tank first in wellington/Hutt, Then I can move the fishies bit by bit (My fiance is going to be in gisborne longer, so I can leave the fish behind and move them little by little.)

I am looking forward to joining one of the clubs, most probably the upper Hutt one. On a funnier note, my fiance already calls me a "fish geek" for joining the FNZAS forum; wonder what she will call me when I join a club :bounce:

BTW if the Wellingtonians want to know more about myself, I am only a year into fish keeping. Started as somebody gave me a free tank, got hooked and now I have 2 130L tanks and 1 hexagon 80L tank.

I rather like community tanks with many plants. At the moment I have Kribs, Platies, Bristle nose, Tiger barbs, neons and guppies (in a seperate tank). Kribs have done well and there on their 3rd batch of babies ( having to give away some of the fish as they grow since no room .

I really have no idea on what else to add. Probably not many more.

Thank you again for all the advice and if others have a different or new view, keep posting.

[maran]

BTW how much does a 500L tank made of 10mm glass weigh?

[Warren]

It will weigh approx 87kg if made from 10mm glass and has bracing round it's top edge.

[fishy_t]

Well it sounds like you are well on your way to deciding on what size you want but just to warn you - if you like to have nicely planted tanks make sure you don't have your tanks any higher (depth of water I mean) than about 60cm. If you do it becomes allot more expensive to light it enough for the plants on the bottom for the tank - I made this mistake and won't again!! See you in Wellington soon!