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Thoughts ideas wanted


Duke3d

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Hi. Really just wanting people to share their thoughts. Ive had so many ideas with this new tank - but photo shows what path its taken thus far......

What next?

What would you do next?

What would you change?

What fish can you see in there?

I intend on planting - but by all means share your thoughts on that too.

Tank - 2.35m long - 800l

Filter will be fx6

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I love that lengthy tank!

Anyway, You've sorta got a river/stream theme happening and it is looking pretty nice, maybe get some big rocks in there, and some riccia on the driftwood and rocks.

Another Idea is Go Native!

Build some hiding places and get a couple of Koura, Bullies or something or get some shrimp and a few native fish! It would look awesome, if you want to plant it maybe plant in and fertilise it a couple of weeks before hand to get the plants established so the koura don't eat it and root it up.

Or you could go tropical but I don't have any experience with tropical so you'll have to ask someone else.

You could get axolotls or make it a half land half water tank for fire bellied newts...

Just spinning out ideas :P

Good luck! and can't wait to see what you think up! :bounce:

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Brilliant - thank you for thoughts.

I should have said my thought was tropical tank.

Originally was going to do discus, now thinking ghost knife fish and...............

Far from decided tho - the single goldfish looks good in it - so definitely need some colour

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Looked up fire or tire eel - pretty cool. Read one guy had a bgk with one - but yes have never owned or thought about eel. He may like a tank like this.

As for polypterus - again they look suited to a long tank - very cool idea.

Any thoughts on landscape. What do I do to back of tank - all ive done is hang some different coloured sheets to see what looks good. Would there be a lamintae pic that would look authentic enough?

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That long and narrow I'd probably try putting the filter intakes on one end and outlets on the other. Get a good current going for a river tank. Might need to set up a closed loop pump too, though, I'm not sure an FX-6 has enough flow to get a good stream going.

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I would tend to go two filters rather than one. I don't know about the FX6 but a single Fx5 wouldn't be enough. You can always paint the outside back of the tank - if you can get in behind it now. How high is it - discus prefer higher as they like a lot of water over their heads :)

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Yes time will tell on that one. Fx6 has the specs - but what flow will be felt 2m along I dont know. Certainly hoping its enough for the job.

Let's see...Specs are 3500 LPH, call it 3000 full of media and once it's been running a little while. That's only about 3.75X turnover per hour. Pretty low. And used to make a stream type tank that would give you a current of about 8.8 meters per hour or .002 meters per second.

So to get a good current you'd probably need Hmmm...100 FX6s, that should get you about .2 meters per second average. And that would cost about $714,000. Assuming no bulk discount.

I think maybe that's looking a bit impractical.

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Great suggestion. Yes I had thought about a powerful internal cannister - but think the powerhead could be a good way to go.

I dont want to replicate huka falls, I had hoped fx6 was better than made out here. I owned the fx5 on a 500l tank - felt it did a good job.

Googling powerheads now

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Tank is 45cm high - so yes might not suit discus as much?

That wp40 definitely is a good pick!! Im toyed now - strength of powerhead will dictate type of fish and vice versa or?

But if the water cant circulate length of tank my hand will be forced anyway I guess.

Thanks people - enjoying the different approaches.

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Tank is 45cm high - so yes might not suit discus as much?

That wp40 definitely is a good pick!! Im toyed now - strength of powerhead will dictate type of fish and vice versa or?

But if the water cant circulate length of tank my hand will be forced anyway I guess.

Thanks people - enjoying the different approaches.

The water will circulate, if you put the out and inlet on opposite ends. Unless you have two filters that's what you'll definitely want to do anyway. Just you're going to need a LOT more flow than an FX5 provides to create a noticable tankwide current.

Hmmm, wonder if a couple WP40s or similar would work if you added a partition to one end of the tank, have the WP40s outlets poking through so they're drawing from the partitioned off area into the main tank. Then big hoses from the far side of the tank recirculating water back to the partition. Hope that makes sense without a diagram. :)

That way you have a handful of really high flow, low power draw powerheads providing the movement. But the water is circulating the whole way through the tank rather than simply swirling around at one end like if you used them normally.

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Yes I think I follow.

Draw from one end - feed pipes to other end of the tank then feed back in? When going back into tank its going in free I take it? (Not into another partition or?)

So could use an inline pump type - just use hose?

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So could use an inline pump type - just use hose?

Yeah, that's the way closed loops are usually done, but the pumps for them are more high pressure low flow pumps vs most powerheads are low pressure, high flow pumps. If you use some BIG hoses, like say two 100mm hoses you might be able to keep the head they'd be working against almost nothing. In this situation the head they'd be working against is the difference in height from the source partition and the main tank.

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I would stick a wp40 on each end Fx6 intake in the middle, . Should do the job. Water and crud from the ends will be pushed towards the middle intake, it won't really matter too much where the filter outlet goes, but I guess at one end would work.

Wp's have different modes for different flow so that gives you options too. They make awesome waves too!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Progress :- Tonight I have opened the Fluval FX6, Wavemaker Wp40. I am removing the oh so pretty gravel and replacing with river sand tomorrow.

Went to Auckland Thursday - most impressed with Hollywood Fish Farm in Mt Roskill in regards to selection and price. Their Albany store I believe to be bigger and better.

Polypterus, Knife, Bosemani Rainbow, Clown loach, gold negget plec (or such like)

As far as I have got so far.

If anyone is trimming their plants PLEASE PM me as I have a large area to plant up!!!!

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