New fish tank (1 Viewer)

Ridgeway

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OK so I've kept, bred and cultured marine life for a few years, 29 to be precise. 2015 was a bit of a big year as we built our new aquarium in the house, this meant quite some building work and modifications to the house and overall a year long project, almost but not 100% completed as yet.....

You get some idea of what we did from the pics I created below, aquarium is on the left in the middle, under the stairs:

Screen%20Shot%202014-11-01%20at%2022.15.34.jpg


A supporting wall had to be removed and so the modifications began.....

IMG_1894_1.jpg


To put things into scale (weight) the entire system weighs around 5 tons so I engineered the base to handle 15 tons as a minimum. This meant a reinforced concrete base and then RSJ's with a precisely calculated deflection factor, 1mm is OK across 1.6m but not more...

IMG_0043.jpg


I know this is all a bit nerdy so I don't want to bore you all with the techy details but I know there's a few avid DIY'ers on here.

Next was to take delivery of 450kgs of 25mm glass

P1000235.jpg


And then to build an aquarium..... and of course someone had to test it out.


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OK role forwards about 6 months or so and it now has a diverse marine life that is flourishing



It's a long long way from becoming a mature and successful reef system but it's on the way.

Now I just need to finish those cabinet doors.....
 

Hollyberry

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Now that's a lot of work for a fish tank! But it is a stunningly beautiful fish tank.

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Gorse Hill

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Top job, have kept marine fish myself, a lot of work to get it right as you have(y)
 

kelv

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Great looking tank kept marine fish for years but had to give up do to being away a lot now selling it all
 
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Fantastic, thank you for posting it. Where's Nemo?;)

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Ridgeway

Ridgeway

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Thanks for the nice comments.

Luckily it's a hobby that fits in well with the camping car as we can go away little and often and also get back if we have to, it's still quite a commitment though.
 
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Ridgeway

Ridgeway

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Fantastic, thank you for posting it. Where's Nemo?;)

There's 2 pairs in there although they are not classic Nemos (Percula clownfish) ours live in the large carpet anemone and are Clarkii clownfish, less pretty than Nemo's but happy to live in the Anemone.

And watch out this summer as Finding Dory is about to hit the screens.....

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canopus

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Stunning fish/invert set up. You must be a wealthy man (y). How do the tangs and angel fish get on together? We used to have a flame angel and he owned all 50 gallons of our small aquarium. He was a very bossy fish.

We used to run WYMAG here in the UK about 20 years ago when marine fish keeping was very difficult and at the cutting edge. Reverse flow systems were the in thing and actinic lighting, protein skimmers and ozone generators were the must haves.
 
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Ridgeway

Ridgeway

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Stunning fish/invert set up. You must be a wealthy man (y). How do the tangs and angel fish get on together? We used to have a flame angel and he owned all 50 gallons of our small aquarium. He was a very bossy fish.

We used to run WYMAG here in the UK about 20 years ago when marine fish keeping was very difficult and at the cutting edge. Reverse flow systems were the in thing and actinic lighting, protein skimmers and ozone generators were the must haves.

Overall they get on pretty well. There are 10 tangs and the Black tang is the largest and in charge so to speak, the Powder Blue will likely take over within a couple of years. The dwarf angels are a pair, also Flames an so are very happy together, usually with some courtship once a week in the late evenings.

I remember WYMAG very well, that and Hockney aquariums, also from your area I think.

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canopus

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Yes indeed in fact we had a 5ft Hockney Reverse Flow tank made in Leeds. It cost an arm and a leg even in those days. Hubert the owner of Hockney was very good to WYMAG and loaned us a large reverse flow tank which we were able to use on our WYMAG stand at fish keeping shows in the north of England. It certainly drew the crowds in those days.
 
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If your going to all that trouble you could have at least done a better larger tank....... I hate you....:cool:








Ok..... I'm well jealous :D:D:cautious::cautious::notworthy::notworthy: (y)
 

Jim

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I had a great marine setup for a couple of years when I lived in Hong Kong, must be 30+ years ago. Fish were so cheap, an adult Lionfish costs just a few HK$ and Clown fish and Tangs were even less. We could get salts by the end of our stay, but we'd use sea water and change 25% a week with a lot of success, though we did have a few disasters..

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canopus

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We used to change 10% a fortnight using Instant Ocean - marketed in the UK by Dave Keeley (deceased) of Loughborough's Underworld. I remember going on a bus trip to Nancy Aquarium and having a look behind the scenes to see ho how they bred clown fish in captivity. Lots of people doing it now I believe but Nancy were one of the first in Europe I believe.
 
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Ridgeway

Ridgeway

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I had a great marine setup for a couple of years when I lived in Hong Kong, must be 30+ years ago. Fish were so cheap, an adult Lionfish costs just a few HK$ and Clown fish and Tangs were even less. We could get salts by the end of our stay, but we'd use sea water and change 25% a week with a lot of success, though we did have a few disasters..

That's great to hear Jim. Yes prices are still low in the Far East although the Japanese market is still commanding the highest prices for super rare fish. And NSW (natural see water) is always a good way to go, bit too far for me here though...
 
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Ridgeway

Ridgeway

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We used to change 10% a fortnight using Instant Ocean - marketed in the UK by Dave Keeley (deceased) of Loughborough's Underworld. I remember going on a bus trip to Nancy Aquarium and having a look behind the scenes to see ho how they bred clown fish in captivity. Lots of people doing it now I believe but Nancy were one of the first in Europe I believe.

I also do my water changes every 2wks. I bet that was a nice trip to go on in those days, must have been a real treat.

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Great job!!!!

Must be so relaxing to watch.
 

dabhand

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Fill it with lobsters and sell them at rally's, there a hell of a price you know!
 

sedge

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Beautiful !!

But - where's Pierre? - do you need him on the LH side? - or is attracting the fish for another reason?

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Ridgeway

Ridgeway

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Fill it with lobsters and sell them at rally's, there a hell of a price you know!

Not a bad idea, certainly a money maker although I guess as lobsters take ages to grow it may be a long term Investment...
 

Chris

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That's amazing(y)

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Aug 19, 2014
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Great project and fantastic tank.

Have kept marine and tropical tanks for years, but gave up the marines because I couldn't give them the time they need..

Lovely aquarium
 
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Could be my new screensaver ................... :)

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Bailey58

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Wonderful, never saw the original post and the build images are not showing for me, perhaps they disappear after a time as other images on other old threads seem to?
 
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Ridgeway

Ridgeway

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Yes it's a shame that the images are no longer viewable but I guess that's one of the limits of having to host them off server. These images linked from photobucket and are actually still there, often the issue is that people clean up their remote storage accounts and forget that they have forum links pointing to them
 

big map

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I've still got the photos.

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