Tall 30 gallon tank - is it good for any fish?

Wow, this is waaaay more that I ever thought to do. 'Course, it's not
nearly as complex as some of the other projects I've tackled. :P I'm
definitely interested in doing this. My boyfriend is an electrician
so maybe he can help me with some of the more techinical aspects of
this project. Drilling the 50" hole should be a problem since he has
a 6' bit he usually uses to drill through walls (you can pick one up
at home depot).

If the tank is acrylic (still haven't actually bought it), can I still
silicone a base plate to the bottom (I'm assuming that the base plate
is metal). Also, can I use silk plants from a craft store or should I
string together plants I can get at the aquarium store?

If I make little pockets, what should I fill the pockets in with?
Would 100% florite work as nourishment for the plants?

And, by all means, Netmax keep the suggestions coming!


"NetMax" wrote in message m...
I've been told that 'my you live in interesting times' is actually a
Chinese curse, and a 6 foot cylinder 14" in diameter would be something
of a curse to work on. I can only tell you what I would do, but my
sanity in regards to aquariums has been justifiably questioned many
times.

Buy a styrofoam dock billet (about 5' long, 24" by 24", about $50).
Standing on end, carve away material so that you are left with ...
something. Perhaps a winding cylindrical rockwork with caves and little
pockets for ferns and anubias.... perhaps make it look like the roots of
a tree... use your imagination. Structurally, you will need to drill a
hole through the structure down the centre (drilling a 50" hole will need
a special drill ;~), and install a threaded rod. The diameter of the
structure will be small enough that you need some extra 'backbone'
inside. At the top of the structure you have a large washer and a nut.
At the bottom of the structure is a mounting plate fastened to the same
threaded rod. With the aquarium empty, you silicone a base plate to the
glass bottom. The mounting plate on your structure 'snaps' into your
base plate by a 90 degree twist. Finish the exterior of your styrofoam
carving by brazing with a heat gun, two coats of latex paint, and several
coats of marine epoxy and fine sand. Ideally, the structure will weigh
(within 5 lbs) as much as the water it displaces. Your mounting plate
thickness can be used as sinker weight. Epoxy all exposed metal surfaces
which are not stainless steel.

Now if you really want to get fancy ;~) From the top of the structure,
have some silk plants running straight up to the tank's canopy. These
plants hide the wires to your heaters and your canister filter hoses.
Run your filter intake down the center of the structure, to exit (intake)
near the bottom (or drill the base for an intake). One heater should be
hidden near the bottom (heat rises) and a 2nd heater higher up (filter
flow is pushing water downwards). Filter return should have an air
intake venturi (boost your O2 a bit). Note that for the bottom heater,
you will need to change to a longer power cord, which means opening up a
submersible heater, which is a PITA to do, and voids any warranty.

For lighting, since conventional lighting would be inadequate, run some
wires (5Vdc) down inside the structure to power LEDs hidden in the back
of some of the structure's caves.

This was just half-baked ideas after only one coffee, and the more I
think about it, the more it sounds like 'interesting times' (the curse
;~).
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Sarah" wrote in message
om...
That does sound interesting. What could I use to build something like
that that would still be aquarium safe and not be in jeopardy of
falling apart? Some kind of trellis comes to mind, but is there
anything that won't leach into the water?


"NetMax" wrote in message
m...
"Sarah" wrote in message
om...
I was browsing Ebay today and someone is selling a tall 30 gal hex
tank. It looks really neat, but knowing that fish need surface
area -
are there any fish that could live comfortably in a tank like this.
Also, how does one feed the fish, clean the tank, etc. with a tank
so
tall?

The specs for the tank are as follows:

Hexaround Tower Aquarium
14" x 14" x 70 1/2"H
30 gal. style

The seller is also throwing in a fluval 204 canister filter.

Might look good layered with some Pygmy corys at the bottom, some
Neons
in the middle and Dwarf gouramis on top. Not sure if that would fill
all
6 feet of it though ;~). Maybe with a really neat structure about 4
feet
tall inside, you could have lots of little caves for a variety of
shrimp
to poke out of. Forget about gravel vacuuming, and getting light
that
deep for plants will be.. challenging. The more I think about it,
the
key is to drop in a structure with silk plants and caves. Your
cleaning
crew would be Otos, shrimp, Bushynose and maybe some Nerita snails.

To compensate for the lack of a surface area, you either go with a
very
low bio-load, or utilize remote surface area, such as with a wet/dry
sump
somewhere. Would definitely be an interesting challenge to stock and
operate though. Very frustrating as well.

"Sarah" wrote in message
om...
Wow, this is waaaay more that I ever thought to do. 'Course, it's not
nearly as complex as some of the other projects I've tackled. :P I'm
definitely interested in doing this. My boyfriend is an electrician
so maybe he can help me with some of the more techinical aspects of
this project. Drilling the 50" hole should be a problem since he has
a 6' bit he usually uses to drill through walls (you can pick one up
at home depot).

snip

Instead of drilling 50" deep, slice it into 5" - 10" sections, and drill
them seperately. Put some washers and nuts opn the end of the threaded rod
to hold the sections together. You're going to cut up the styrofoam to form
caves then seal it with epoxy anyways. After you do all that, you'll never
see the sections you cut earlier.

A 6' drill bit is good for drilling a 5" deep hole 5' away from you (like
down in a wall). If you try to drill a 50" long hole, think corkscrew. The
drill will walk all over the place.

Joe