bhcaaron

So I decided to drive by a part of a local road I normally don't use and noticed an animal hospital that I've never used before, its been there many years. Since there is only one place that I know of for aquariums here, I decided to stop thinking they may know of more. After a few minutes of questioning back and forth the younger of the two ladies said, "Wait! How big of a tank are you looking for?" So it turns out she's been selling this 145G tank for six months with no luck, so much so she had forgotten about it. She had a pic and it said $145. ITS NOW MINE! WOO HOO! Plus she has a 65G tank which would make a good refugium in addition to my two 10G and 5G that I was recently given! WOO HOO! I have MTS and am getting happy! (Granted their empty, but, that's just a technicality! lol)

The only thing I don't like is that it is 7ft long and only 1 1/2 ft wide. I would have preffered 6fr long, but, I can live with seven, however, I'm not sure about 1 1/2 wide. I would rather have AT LEAST 2 if not 3 ft wide. Will this be a problem for any fish? I can always re-sell and take the profit as a down payment on my dream tank, even though it IS an ever expanding dream lol.

(In case that wasn't enough good news, my boss called me earlier this morning to tell me a trouble maker quit, leaving her position open... guess who's applying for it? Go on, gues..... ME! Since my current boss, whom I get along with, is probably taking over that department, HE'LL CONTINUE TO BE MY BOSS! WOOT WOOT! I'm so excited at the possibility of making more money... that means I could have my fishies sooner!)

sgould

Cool!

bhcaaron

Will the tank not being as wide hinder anything with certain species?

Isabella

Well, I don't know anything about saltwater tanks and fish, but I'd personally think that long tanks are good since they give the fish the ability to swim faster for longer lengths. Unless you'll have really big fish, I don't think your tank's width should be a problem? Anyway, congrats on the tank! Already know what fish and what setup do you want? Will you have live corals? I love live corals!

bhcaaron

I do want do, little by little, make it a mini reef ecosystem. That process, I think, will probably take me a year to accomplish. I'm concerned, however, that with the corals and the rest of the fishies a foot and a half is not enough. I don't want big fish. I'm hoping the biggest will be no more than five inches. I just hate it when I get an image of what I want in my mind beacuse then, nothing else will do. Maybe I'll get it and resell it in ebay.

BTW! Can terrariums and aquariums be used interchangeably? The tank was used for an iguana.

MrWaxhead

Just make sure the glass is thick enough to support water based off its height. Some reptile tanks are made from glass that is to thin to support water.

Basically you are saying you grabbed a 145g tank that is 7 feet long and 1.5 feet wide that would make it 22 inches tall, so 2 inches under two feet, and if its glass it would need to be thick to support the water, and some reptile tanks are 1/4 inch glass to keep tanks large and cost down.

I can't remember standard tank thickness in glass at the moment but I would assume a tank that 7 feet long and 22 inches tall would be 1/2 glass maybe 3/8 but I am leaning to 1/2 inch. And if that tank is 1/4 its a reptile tank and not meant for water. Other then that, if its a true aquarium tank that housed reptiles, it should be fine with a good cleaning.

bhcaaron

WOW! Gotta love ya MRWaxHead! I also have some indoor plant questions for you, but, unfortunately I can't find the name of what I bought. (I remember reading that you have a green thumb)

MrWaxhead

Nah I have a red thumb being that I am half native indian, but I do like plants hehe.

bhcaaron

Hmmm... wrong person then lol ahahahaha Who's the one with the love of gardening?

MrWaxhead

Me, I was being sarcastic I guess hehe

bhcaaron

I didn't recognize you w/o the 50G tank signature

MrWaxhead

hehe , ya it doesn't always seem to show hehe

bhcaaron

I'm trying to find a pic of a house plant I bought so you can help me take care of it. I don't know what it is, i'm not good with plants. It was four inches when I purchased it (with no name tag ugh!) and now is closer to eight inches, fluffier and brighter green. I must be doing something right. The only thing that the one sticker says is "foliage". I want to put it in a bigger pot now, but, I want to know how to prepare the different layers of dirt. I remember that much from 7th grade science... or was that 5th grade? hmm

bhcaaron

Hey Mr. WaxHead, I bet you'll like this Idea. Maybe I'll keep this 145G tank as a planted freshie.

MrWaxhead

Now you are speaking my saltless language hehe. It would make a beauty of a planted tank. I love salt to, but I don't know enough about it yet to make the plunge. And I am so addicted to planted tanks, I don't have room for a salty atm.

I just got a nice score, my wife got back from garage sales today, and told me of a free 75g with stand, so I bolted up there and grabbed it, and the glass and silicone main seam beads are excellent, minus the top bracing, it needs a re silicone, but that is minor. Gonna go clean it up and silicone today so I can load test later in the week and get planting

bhcaaron

No fair! I don't like you very much right now JK

I guess I can understand about not being interested in what you don't know of much. I myself am not attracted at all to these freshwater (especially the planted) tanks. They don't seem to have that eye catching, out of the ordinary look to them, in my opinion, but, it is, of course, only MY opinion. However, I DID see this thread that had many links to vids. On the first one, part of the vid was of a planted freshie with what looked like hundreds of colorful little fishies. They were all in constant motion. Now THAT I could probably go for.

MrWaxhead

Don't get wrong, I find saltwater stunning, I mainly just being that I have a wife and kids, can't afford to go full tilt on the salt end, as its alot more expensive to achieve what I would basically want to achieve.

Freshwater is far more cost to results effective for me at this point in time. I will one day do a saltie, but not until, I can afford to do it well. Granted i will most likely start with a fairly small tank to learn.

bhcaaron

Have you seen that thread? What fishies were they? Guppies?

MrWaxhead

Not sure, but I don't think I have!!!!

purple_phoenix

Wowww... Big tanks! Now you're just making me jealous. Your smaller one's bigger than my biggest

And what happened to you plunging right in with a SW? Surely if you got the tank that cheap, the extra money you would've spent could go on all the rock and fish and whatnot.
Me and a planted aquarium wouldn't work. I can never seem to keep any plant alive. And I'd much rather use the space for fish

MrWaxhead

Actually plants tend to make more space for fish. Sounds odd but with lots of healthy plants you have healthy water that can hold more fish. And it creates areas to hide so the fish are less stressed.

bhcaaron

Thanks! And, I'm still going to plunge right into salty. I'm just not sure I want to with that tank. If I decide to keep it as a freshie, which for now I doubt, I'll do that later. Just a thought for now, but, as I said before, I'm not really digging the freshie and plant thing.

purple_phoenix

Yeah, that's a good point...
I was thinking of having my new tank as a planted one, but am totally confused over things like co2 diffuser / no co2 diffuser and the 'right' fertiliser etc. I've figured I really should read up on things BEFORE I do them.

It's surprising how much your plants grew after 15 days... Mine would either be brown or sucked up by the filter by then...

bhcaaron

bhcaaron

Ok, so now I'm thinking that if its going to take me over a year to have a mature enough tank to get the things I want, I PROBABLY should get a tank I'm REALLY going to like.... that leaves me with a 145G tank that I don't know what to do with. (I haven't gotten it yet, but, probably this weekend. Maybe eBay? Or shall I go for MTS?)

sgould

Sooo...what's wrong with the 145 that you don't want to use it?

bhcaaron

Its a long, not a tall. The tall ones always seem to be a bit wider too. The long is 7' and 1.5' wide. I don't particularly like that, it seems, to me, to narrow. Maybe not for the fish, but, for my taste. I would REALLY like a bowfront, that would be AWESOME. I figure since I'm going to have it a LONG time (since the stocking process will end up taking me over a year probably) I should get something I'm really going to like an not something that just happened to come along. Maybe I'll use the other one as a refugium.

bhcaaron

AAAARRRRHHHG! So when I went to try to pick up the tank the lady had already cleaned the tank of the sand it had on the bottom! This is when a crack on the bottom of the tank was brought to my attention. So I called around to see how much it would be to fix it. No one will. I'd have to buy the new plate of glass which is costing me as much as the tank itself. I'd rather get a new one since I've found places that will do glass tanks almost as cheap. So I call the lady back and their refusing me the money! TYPICAL AARON STORY! You know, its my own stupidity for getting into things like this! So now I'm going to have find out what legal action I can take. Can you imagine that, taking legal action for $150!!!! UGH! This is so typical of things that happen to me. Why can't I ever just find something that is actually like its meant to be!

purple_phoenix

I never knew she had your money too
If she never told you that it was broken in the first place, it's not exactly your fault... And, we took legal action over a £100 problem with a flute a couple of years ago. It was great - my mum's self-employed, so the other lady had to pay for her time off work even though she probably wouldn't have been working anyway, and travel expenses, plus the £100 from the flute in the first place, and court costs. We actually ended up better off.

Anywho... this other place sounds okay. You can get 3, 4, maybe 5 180 gallon tanks then ship a couple out to me, yeah? :P If you can make a weekend of it, there's no problems surely?

bhcaaron

I don't think that many would fit in the truck, however, sure, I don't mind doing that. But, have you thought of what freight charges would be for you!?!? lol. I really don't care for extra money. I already sent an email to get answers on a course of action to the City Attorney. The site says they can't provide advise, but, hopefully they can at least answer me who can. It is unfortunate, though, that they would have to end up paying for all those extra fees when they could have just paid me back. They sound so upset and offended that I'm even asking for it. Oh well, I'll just have to wait and hope this court can actually do something for me as opposed to the last court I walked into lol.