Tall tank considerations

[Rod Bacon]

G'day. I am considering purchasing a 5ft tall octagonal tank.
Apparently, it comes with all necessary accessories (including cleaning
equipment) but I was wondering just how one would maintain such a
beast.

Obviously, it'd be near impossible to net a fish, remove debris from
the floor of the tank, etc. etc.

Does anyone have any advice (other than "don't do it!") to offer?

[Jim Anderson]

In article . com>,
says...
> G'day. I am considering purchasing a 5ft tall octagonal tank.
> Apparently, it comes with all necessary accessories (including cleaning
> equipment) but I was wondering just how one would maintain such a
> beast.
>
> Obviously, it'd be near impossible to net a fish, remove debris from
> the floor of the tank, etc. etc.
>
> Does anyone have any advice (other than "don't do it!") to offer?
>
>

Big Al's sells vac tubes of 72 inches, long handled brushes and scrapers
etc.

--
Jim Anderson
( 8(|) To eMail me, just pull "my_finger"

[Dr.]

"Rod Bacon" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> G'day. I am considering purchasing a 5ft tall octagonal tank.
> Apparently, it comes with all necessary accessories (including cleaning
> equipment) but I was wondering just how one would maintain such a
> beast.
>
> Obviously, it'd be near impossible to net a fish, remove debris from
> the floor of the tank, etc. etc.
>
> Does anyone have any advice (other than "don't do it!") to offer?
>

Scuba gear? ;-)

That would be awesome to have a tank that big. Go for it!

Gary

[NetMax]

"Rod Bacon" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> G'day. I am considering purchasing a 5ft tall octagonal tank.
> Apparently, it comes with all necessary accessories (including cleaning
> equipment) but I was wondering just how one would maintain such a
> beast.
>
> Obviously, it'd be near impossible to net a fish, remove debris from
> the floor of the tank, etc. etc.
>
> Does anyone have any advice (other than "don't do it!") to offer?


How tall is the glass portion? My best experience with tanks of poor
access has been to under populate them, layering small fish with a
diverse ground crew (Otos, Corys, shrimps), and use slow growing plants
at the bottom (Anubius) and lilypad-type plants (Pennywort, Tiger lotus
etc), with tall thin driftwood/slate.

Rock & gravel color is a conundrum though, as the darker it is, the more
algae-proof and detritus-hiding it is, however lighter coloured
rockwork/substrate makes a tremendous difference in the brightness of the
tank (which is an issue with deep tanks), so ymmv. For dim lighting,
white substrate is not too bad, as the algae stays higher up the tank,
but direct some water flow to the bottom to prevent blue-green algae
(cynobacteria) and detritus build-up). If brightly lit, then multi-tone
beige-grey-brown-red might work well. Stay away from solid colors.
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Dr Engelbert Buxbaum]

Rod Bacon wrote:

> G'day. I am considering purchasing a 5ft tall octagonal tank.
> Apparently, it comes with all necessary accessories (including cleaning
> equipment) but I was wondering just how one would maintain such a
> beast.
>
> Obviously, it'd be near impossible to net a fish, remove debris from
> the floor of the tank, etc. etc.

How big is the thing? If space permits it could be maintained by a
diver. I have done that once in a 8 m (26 ft) deep show aquarium (3 sand
tiger sharks, 1 napoleon, several goupers, 2 hawksbill turtles, a green
murray eel and a lot of smaller fish), and it's good fun, especially
feeding them. Amazing how tame a murray can get. The guy who fed the
nurse sharks in a different tank (with various small shark and ray
species) had to use a full-face mask, because the critters would swim
between his shoulder and air hose, a normal mouth piece he would have
lost constantly.

There were plenty of volunteers from the local diving community, they
came with their own kit, all the tank owner had to supply was the air
and lead weights.

[James Evans]

Is the tank itself 5ft deep?!? or do you mean 5ft tall on-stand?

I've seen various vendors that sell gravel vacs up to 6ft. in length, so
that's not really a problem... but suction might be. I've got a magnum 350
canister filter that came with a gravel vac and an adapter to connect the
vac directly to the filter. Something like this might be useful if there
isn't enough "fall" outside the tank to get good suction with a normal vac.

"Rod Bacon" > wrote in message
oups.com...
> G'day. I am considering purchasing a 5ft tall octagonal tank.
> Apparently, it comes with all necessary accessories (including cleaning
> equipment) but I was wondering just how one would maintain such a
> beast.
>
> Obviously, it'd be near impossible to net a fish, remove debris from
> the floor of the tank, etc. etc.
>
> Does anyone have any advice (other than "don't do it!") to offer?
>

[Dan Abel]

In article >,
Dr Engelbert Buxbaum > wrote:


> > G'day. I am considering purchasing a 5ft tall octagonal tank.
> > Apparently, it comes with all necessary accessories (including cleaning
> > equipment) but I was wondering just how one would maintain such a
> > beast.

> How big is the thing? If space permits it could be maintained by a
> diver. I have done that once in a 8 m (26 ft) deep show aquarium (3 sand
> tiger sharks, 1 napoleon, several goupers, 2 hawksbill turtles, a green
> murray eel and a lot of smaller fish)


For those of you who are ever in Northern California, I highly recommend
the Monterrey Bay Aquarium. It's worth a special trip. They have a
whole tank devoted to kelp. That's right, kelp. These are not small
plants. The tank is three stories tall. How do they light it? The top
is open to the air. Go up on the roof and you can see the top. Kelp
requires constant wave action. There's a dingus on the roof that
plunges in and out and makes the waves. There are huge plexiglass
windows on all three floors so you can see in the tank. There is often
a diver in there cleaning the windows. They need a lot of cleaning
since they pump in unfiltered water from the bay. It's a regular kelp
forest, so they have lots of fish and filter feeders that need that kind
of water.

Last time we were there they had put in the *big* tank. One million
gallons. Whole schools of tuna. The sunfish impressed me the most.
They are shaped like a coin, thin and very round. Thin is relative,
though. I would guess two feet. These things are 12 feet in diameter!

--
Dan Abel

Petaluma, California, USA