Amnagrla

Wow.....


lol This guy has a cool one outside...



here is his profile on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Fishfreedom

sirdarksol

Our DIY guy (I think it's Tom) saw this and ended up trying to figure out how to make one. If you look in the DIY section, you can see what ends up being a blog of his creation of a tank like this. They're pretty cool.

jsalemi

Talk about overstocked, though -- that tank in the bottom video has WAY to many fish in it! I've seen less fish in the tanks at the LFS.

susitna-flower

He may not have so many now! Tim has found the water column a good breeding environment for several fish, I think this is what started his whole fish house need, all the fry that were hatching out! Difference is Tim & Karen really care about taking the very best care they can of their fish......

Tom

Not me. I think it was timg(the old one, don't know his new one).
Tom

gremlin

Actually, I went to the youtube site and he has another video of it in the daytime. The two lighted 'tanks' look like they are actually extensions of an outdoor pond with a waterfall. It looks pretty cool. The fish are probably drawn to the light at night hoping for food! Because they have access to the whole pond, I don't think it is as overstocked as it may look...

Sabi

Great wonder how he did it!
But talk about being overstocked.

Amnagrla

lol okay, I've been researching it. It's being called the "Romaurie Effect"... there are some videos on youtube on how to do it.. a little bit anyways. Basically it works on a suction or something.

And as far as being overstocked, that isn't the case. Under those tanks there are ponds with lots of room for the fish to swim, just for some reason the fish are up in the tanks, probably as someone said, because they are attracted to the lights.. but they definitely chose to be in there..

Sabi

Thats an idea! I must show my Dad!

Allie

My cats would enjoy that. lol Cool tho.

Chief_waterchanger

That would be an awesome display to have in a tropical fish store... I may look into that more in a couple of years.

Amnagrla

oohhh forshadowing.... hahaha

TheEssigs

I think the opening would allow for alot of contamination... such as dust, hair (pet or other) and household cleaners... ... and I dont think it would work if you had pets or toddlers... or in a store where people could toss in change or whatever... cool concept if the situation allows tho!!!

jsalemi

Interesting about those bottom tanks being 'windows' into a pond. It's not obvious from the nighttime photos.

COBettaCouple

yea, i thought of timandkaren's tank when i saw the first vid and "could he cram more fish in" when i saw the 2nd. i'm glad they have access to more water than that and i wonder if he fed them just before the video or if they're about to be fed.

Azahara

I get it, they work like those special dog bowls that have the water tub on top. I might have to build one of these for my piranha . . . .

gremlin

I think there must be something about being able to look out that the fish like. Every once in a while, I'll take a big plastic jar (empty peanut butter jar or pickle jar) outside and hold it in the water. The fish will come and swim up inside it and look around. It kind of cool to watch them. I think fish are just curious and want to investigate something new, and a permanent tank like that gives them a "window" into our world.

zigmeister

All these people with lots and lots of tanks... when do you find the time to do all those waterchanges?? and where do you keep all that water to do the changing with??

Dino

Our water is used to water both the inside and outside plants.

CWC, myself and 3 other people do the water changes here on our 110 tanks.

zigmeister

I water my plants with my used tank water as well. But where do you keep the clean water that has to sit for many hours to come up to room and temp and let the "bad stuff" get out before you put it in your tank? And what do you keep it in? I am using 2 five gallon horse buckets currently (no, they were never used for the horses, just got a really good price on them at an auction) The prospect of adding a bigger tank leaves me with the dilema of not being able to "cure" enough clean water to do a 20% water change.

zigmeister

110 tanks do you have a fish store?

sirdarksol

No need to let the water sit if you have hot and cold faucets. Just run water and temp it so that it comes up the right temperature.
Also, if by "cure" you mean leaving the water out to get rid of the stuff that cities add to make it safe to drink, most of us can't do that. It used to be that cities would add chlorine to municipal water, and chlorine evaporates from the water. Now, though, they use chloramine, which does not evaporate from the water, which means we have to add a water treatment that "kills" chlorine/chloramine (technically just binds it up in a non-harmful form). Some of these conditioners (such as Prime and Ultimate) also bind up heavy metals, and add stuff to the water to make it healthier for the fish.

Zigmeister, what is your water supply?

Edit: Yes, Dino and CWC have a fish house from which they sell (at least on the internet) the stuff that they have bred. If you ever have the need to find fish, inverts, or plants, give Dino a PM and ask what's available, or look for the thread that says what's available. They don't ship during the winter, so you'd have to wait till spring, though. They are the best sellers I have come across. Dino added shrimp to my order at no cost to virtually guarantee at least one mated pair of each kind I ordered, and everything came alive.

Dino

We have a well.
I have ben using this same water source for almost 30 years.

We hope to be opening a retail store in 2011 or 2012.

Currently, we are mainly working with guppies, other livebearers, plecos, CA cichlids and a few oddballs.

We also grow aquatic plants and are working with several species of freshwater shrimp.

zigmeister

I have city water and I do add Prime. So what you are telling me is that I don't need to let the water sit for hours. I can use it right away if I use a water conditioner such as Prime? I had been told not to use any hot water to adjust the temp because of the heavy metals in my hot water heater. So, I guess I let it sit for hours to adjust to room temp as well.

Dino, sounds awesome!!! I will definitely keep you in mind when getting plants for the new tank.

COBettaCouple

we use prime to treat our water and use the hot & cold water to get water about 78F. we use it right away if we need it, but we can keep some in gallon jugs for later.

sirdarksol

Unless there is a problem with your water heater (which you might want to think about looking at, if this is the case, as heavy metals are harmful to humans as well as fish), there shouldn't be an excess of heavy metals in it. If Prime is about the same as the stuff that I use (the souped-up version of AmQuel), it should bind the heavy metals up and render them mostly non-toxic to the fish.