Put a tank together using offcuts from a larger build with the dimensions in title. Likely turning it into a stream tank. If you had a tank with the above dimensions what would you do?
84x12x12
- Thread starter Lepisosteus
- Start date
I would keep a huge amount of small to medium-sized fish, including some very active species (so they can enjoy the 2.13m length of that tank). Small to medium-sized in this case meaning 20 cm or less, following the rule of thumb of tank width needing to be at least 1.5x the length of the largest fish.
Some of the specific species I would do if that was my tank: Roseline sharks, all loach species in my signature except clown loaches, Odessa barbs, and red tail/rainbow shark. Maybe also an XXL school of green neons or cardinals, or even blackline rasbora (never kept the latter but they are very active and colorful).
A lot of those (although not all) are suitable for a stream type tank.
There's also hillstream loaches. They're a classic stream tank choice, and since they stay small you could have a lot of them. Loaches Online has a good article on them if you want to know more: https://www.loaches.com/articles/hillstream-loaches-the-specialists-at-life-in-the-fast-lane
Hope this helps. I'm very interested in this thread because the tank dimensions are so unique.
Some of the specific species I would do if that was my tank: Roseline sharks, all loach species in my signature except clown loaches, Odessa barbs, and red tail/rainbow shark. Maybe also an XXL school of green neons or cardinals, or even blackline rasbora (never kept the latter but they are very active and colorful).
A lot of those (although not all) are suitable for a stream type tank.
There's also hillstream loaches. They're a classic stream tank choice, and since they stay small you could have a lot of them. Loaches Online has a good article on them if you want to know more: https://www.loaches.com/articles/hillstream-loaches-the-specialists-at-life-in-the-fast-lane
Hope this helps. I'm very interested in this thread because the tank dimensions are so unique.
I'm going to watch this thread like a hawk, since I have most of the left-overs (glass, wood, etc.) to do exactly the same thing.
If I take the plunge, mine will be 96" long, 14" tall and likely 18" wide (possibly down to 15" wide). I will mount it above my plywood 360, and feed one end of it with a dedicated pump from my existing sump, have a unidirectional flow along the length and then have the water overflow into the 360. Plenty of rounded rocks, rounded-gravel substrate, bright lighting, likely no plants other than algae (but lots of that). It will be a pretty simple add-on to my existing tank, since the long one won't require its own filtration hardware, other than the pump and likely a wavemaker or two, all pointing the same way.
There is a thread on here about a similar set-up, where the member has 3 or 4 such tanks, stacked on a rack, breeding lots of hillstream loaches. I would likely put my Panda Garras in it as well, as they spend a great deal of time adhered to rockwork directly in the outflow of the two wavemakers in the main tank and I think they would benefit from the current in this new one. I think that smaller Danios would also add life to a strong-current set-up.
I wouldn't put anything larger than a couple inches into my tank (or yours), regardless of whatever the accepted formulae say. Fast-swimming fish, IMHO, need much more than a mere 1.5x width to look and behave naturally. I'm not saying that they need more space for their own health, although I could easily be convinced that is true. However, at the end of the day, I need to be comfortable with the idea that I am providing proper conditions, and the idea of looking at an 8-inch fish zipping back and forth in a 12-inch wide tank simply doesn't sit right with me. Even with tiny fish, your tank has a volume of just over 50 gallons, so you have space for a couple of good-sized schools of small fish, but certainly not "huge" numbers.
I think that a tank like this could produce a healthy growth of hair algae, which can look surprisingly lovely if kept under control and with a good current blowing it sideways. My tanks have a bunch of hair-algae-eaters, so I would have a ready market for the stuff as it developed. Your 12-inch depth will likely cause a riot of algae if you have decent lighting, so having at least some fish that will eat it would be beneficial.
Another approach which I think could be very attractive would be a much slower-flowing tank, heavily planted with Java Moss and perhaps some grass-like plant like dwarf Sagittaria, plenty of leaf litter on the bottom and a nice colony of freshwater shrimp. This could easily be filtered with just a couple of sponge filters (i.e. not a stream tank), and without predators on hand the shrimp will breed like gangbusters.
Good luck, and keep us posted with your decision!
If I take the plunge, mine will be 96" long, 14" tall and likely 18" wide (possibly down to 15" wide). I will mount it above my plywood 360, and feed one end of it with a dedicated pump from my existing sump, have a unidirectional flow along the length and then have the water overflow into the 360. Plenty of rounded rocks, rounded-gravel substrate, bright lighting, likely no plants other than algae (but lots of that). It will be a pretty simple add-on to my existing tank, since the long one won't require its own filtration hardware, other than the pump and likely a wavemaker or two, all pointing the same way.
There is a thread on here about a similar set-up, where the member has 3 or 4 such tanks, stacked on a rack, breeding lots of hillstream loaches. I would likely put my Panda Garras in it as well, as they spend a great deal of time adhered to rockwork directly in the outflow of the two wavemakers in the main tank and I think they would benefit from the current in this new one. I think that smaller Danios would also add life to a strong-current set-up.
I wouldn't put anything larger than a couple inches into my tank (or yours), regardless of whatever the accepted formulae say. Fast-swimming fish, IMHO, need much more than a mere 1.5x width to look and behave naturally. I'm not saying that they need more space for their own health, although I could easily be convinced that is true. However, at the end of the day, I need to be comfortable with the idea that I am providing proper conditions, and the idea of looking at an 8-inch fish zipping back and forth in a 12-inch wide tank simply doesn't sit right with me. Even with tiny fish, your tank has a volume of just over 50 gallons, so you have space for a couple of good-sized schools of small fish, but certainly not "huge" numbers.
I think that a tank like this could produce a healthy growth of hair algae, which can look surprisingly lovely if kept under control and with a good current blowing it sideways. My tanks have a bunch of hair-algae-eaters, so I would have a ready market for the stuff as it developed. Your 12-inch depth will likely cause a riot of algae if you have decent lighting, so having at least some fish that will eat it would be beneficial.
Another approach which I think could be very attractive would be a much slower-flowing tank, heavily planted with Java Moss and perhaps some grass-like plant like dwarf Sagittaria, plenty of leaf litter on the bottom and a nice colony of freshwater shrimp. This could easily be filtered with just a couple of sponge filters (i.e. not a stream tank), and without predators on hand the shrimp will breed like gangbusters.
Good luck, and keep us posted with your decision!
I would do a North American native stream tank.
Smaller pleco species for the tropical warmer temperatures, shrimp planted tank, huge schools of nano fish- the possibilities are endless but I love seeing US native tanks too- such as rainbow shiners, redbelly daces, darting back and forth like a stream height would be epic to see what you end up doing stock wise! And how filteration/pumps are going to be done
I would go for a big group of pictus catfish, it would be cool to watch them racing from end to end of such a long tank.
