Re: Upgrading the tank - what to do
- From: Elaine T <eetmail-fish@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 01 Nov 2005 04:57:48 GMT
Gill Passman wrote:
Ok,,Yippee....it's a done deal that I can upgrade my 47.5 community tank in the conservatory...as long as I sell my car which I have to do anyway as we seem to have a surplus of vehicles at the moment....so the budget will be around £1000 all told (but less if I can get away with it)....oh , and a surplus 4 ft 47.5UK gall tank but I might hang on to it or put it into the office as hubbie suggests.
In terms of filters I already possess a fluval 404, 304 and Fluval 4 plus that I can put in the tank - if I go for setting up the office tank the 304 would be used....but I can always buy something if we go down that line....I'm reluctant to spend out on buying anything much more filter wise if I can use what I've got, but if necessary and within budget I will do so....I'm not keen on UGF from what I've read on this newsgroup so that is probably out.
The options at the moment are:-
A Rena Aqualife Classic 150x50 which would give me 132UK galls and be around 5 foot in length.....The deal on this is the tank, cabinet, four lights, 2 300 watt heaters, a rena xp3 external filter (of which I have no knowledge) and £100 worth of fish (not sure I want them but hey, ho). The cabinet isn't the most asthetic thing in the world but is liveable with.
The next option is the same deal, probably without the fish but I'm good at blagging which is a Rena Aqualife 200x50 which is 176 UK gall for around the budget price, which is around 6 foot and still manageable.
The next option is to get something built custom, which would be the bare tank but I can use existing kit plus some additons. Cost would be the much the same but of course I'm using what I've got rather than it being a roll in deal....and of course from experience I can opt to get discount on what I don't want from the bundled deals....certainly the cabinets are far more sexier than the all in one tanks and I would get more say on the exact specs....
Any thoughts as to what anyone else would do
BTW I think I might be in for yet again a larger LCD screen for all this - might be a fair trade off - the price we fish lovers have to pay - sigh....
Gill
Lucky you! Are you going to plant it? You may want to check out the cost of metal halide lighting and a CO2 system before you blow your whole budget on a six foot tank. Metal halides are great for plants and give the tank that sunlit rippled effect. If you're going to keep African cichlids, you might consider a wet/dry filter rather than a canister. It's less cleaning and will handle a heavier fish load.
Given a large tank with someone else's fish and a larger tank that's empty, I'd take the larger, empty tank every time. For all of my FW setups, the fish have been a relatively small part of the expense. You also add fish gradually, and you can often trade spare plants for fish. If you have a good stand of hygrophila and C02, you can harvest cuttings every few weeks. If you're doing cichlids, they'll make more fish for you!
You'll have to keep us posted, and I'm curious as to what you're thinking about doing with the tank.
-- Elaine T __ http://eethomp.com/fish.html <'__>< rec.aquaria.* FAQ http://faq.thekrib.com .
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