Building New Fry Tanks

Just to let you know that I'm not waiting around for the big tank, but getting on with the fry tanks now. The pictures below show the new filler tank, which will be ideal for fry, along with the now redundant test tank, which has been reallocated to fry as well.

I will get the lighting canopy finished over the top tomorrow and they will blend into the whole setup very well, I think. Just gonna have to move the phones now!

 

so are you selling that house any time soon? or would you consider hopping the pond and building something like that for me? I'm sure it could be a tax write-off somehow if you donated the time and materials.

Seriously, though, how do you ensure that the stands are strong enough for all that weight?

 

busy busy busy!!!..... WOW and coming along so nicely too! I read your post when you added the raised top tank and what you went thru with that! man... you are serious and dedicated! ;D

 

so are you selling that house any time soon? or would you consider hopping the pond and building something like that for me? I'm sure it could be a tax write-off somehow if you donated the time and materials.

Seriously, though, how do you ensure that the stands are strong enough for all that weight?

No chance of selling I'm afraid, and the other half nor my boss would give me time off to come and see you! As for whether it's strong enough, I used timber capable of supporting more than enough weight, although I did have one scare, when a joint gave way under the added stain of the top tank, but that was my own fault for not making the joint strong enough. you learn by mistakes in DIY!

Unfortunately, there is no model to work from, and the whole thing has been designed from the ground up in my own head. Everything was built specially for the job, including the tanks themselves. The only exceptions to this was the two original tanks which I already had and have now incorporated into the build.

busy busy busy!!!..... WOW and coming along so nicely too! I read your post when you added the raised top tank and what you went thru with that! man... you are serious and dedicated! ;D

Thank you for the compliment. It gives me something to do in my spare time, and I'm lucky that I can also incorporate it into my working day as well! I also don't like to be beaten! Lol

 

That is amazing.

 

yes truly, truly amazing.
Carol

 

Your work is amazing.. I wish I were good with that kind of stuff to be able to try it, but i'm afraid with my level of skill that I would just save myself time if I stopped up the bathtub and let the water run for a day or 2.

 

I changed the design today, and now have 4 fry tanks in the same space. The problem with acrylic is that silicon doesn't bind to it very well, so the weight of water running to 16 inches was too much. It failed the leak test miserably. What I did was to divide the tanks in half horizontally, making two 7" deep tanks on top of each other. Following the same plan, the other tank has also been divided the same way, giving me 4 small fry tanks.

The water is arranged to flow through them all in a circular motion, being pumped through a powerhead filter in the lowest tank to the highest. I tested the water flow earlier and it works well. The overflows from tank to tank are in 22mm tubing, which enables me to put a filter in the form of some tights over each tube to stop the fry from moving from one to another. When I have them all tested and set up, I'll post some more pictures.

Yes, I tend to make use of all available space for our fish. They are a very importrant part of our lives! (Not without a mention, should be able to bring back some of the money invested soon too!)

I'm hoping that the fry tanks will be up and running before molly takes it into her head to lay again. However, this said, she has been re-arranging the live plants today and now has a lot of them floating in the end of her tank. This should be the end of this week, if she runs on a four week cycle. As for Eve, the swordtail, I have no idea when she will give birth to hers, as she has not bred before.

We now have three pairs of angels from the six we bought, and they too are looking rather intently at the slate in their tank, so I have a feeling they are going to be busy soon too. It's all happening now!

The Fry/breeder tanks have now been finished, installed and running with an old filter media. The design has been refined and improved, to remove the need for conecting piping, easy to clean filters, (the tights are gone!), improved flow and lower currents, to make breeding as easy as possible, with little or no substrate, suspended plastic mops, which are dense enough for the adults not to be able to get into, but the fry will have no problem, easy water changing and cleaning of the tanks and filters, and very cheap!

Almost all of the construction has ended up being made from polycarbonate, with acrylic fronts. The cost of a setup like this is about £35, including filter and heater! That's 4 breeder tanks at £7.50 each. I don't think you could make them any cheaper! here's how the costing works:

A full sheet of polycarbonate will cost about £30 and will make 3 of these setups.
Glass fronts cost about £5 (7"x36"x2)
A tube of silicon is around £3.00
Powerhead cost £12.00
100W heater cost £13.00



Perhaps I should post this as a separate topic for tank construction, as the methods used are very simple and the materials are cheap to acquire.

Below are some pics of the design and finished system.

 

Excellent job! It looks great!

 

thanks for that. I was talking to a friend yesterday who thought this would be a perfect setup for bettas! At 2 gallons each and filytered by a single filter, it makes so much sense if you want to keep males separate without having lots of little tanks to maintain. Fancy giving it a try?

 

I'd love to, but we're now officially out of room and are actually heading in the direction of the betta sp. mahachaI and breeding these unique bettas, then saltwater perhaps. I'd still be interested in reading the details of how you accomplished this very innovative setup if you're doing a new thread on it's construction.