I am looking to upgrade my bichirs from their current 120g and 150g homes into an 8'x12' footprint. I was looking at some quotes from places like customaquariums, but it didn't make sense to me to pay $10,000+ USD for an aquarium, when I've just replaced the windows in my entire home for $12,000.
I've been looking into plywood and fiberglass aquariums for quite awhile, but am looking to pull the trigger on something. If I were to build a wooden aquarium, I would likely follow the design seen in some of AquariumDomain's videos, where he uses stacked and interlocking 2x4s as the walls of the tank. I am a huge fan of things being bulletproof and lasting forever. Building a wooden aquarium is no problem, and I really like the idea that it would be totally customizable. The only drawback is my current fish room is temporary while I work on building out my garage into a permanent fish room. This project will likely take at least a year longer given the scope of the job.
So the large aquarium I build now needs to be easily movable, and fiberglass aquariums fit the bill perfectly for that. Not to mention that given my habit of overbuilding, a fiberglass and wooden aquarium come up to about the same cost all in.
I have been looking at the FT523W2 from Pentair, which looks perfect. I saw a video by Cowturtle where he had some gars and rays, and I'm sold on the set up and the cost. My only question is how people are tackling lids for these aquariums? I've seen a few of them set up, but no one shows the lid!
I've currently got a rubbermaid 150g pond housing an ornate bichir, and I am using corrugated polycarbonate greenhouse paneling as a lid, held down by bungie cords so the bichir cannot just knock the lid off. It's functional, but very ugly and a huge pain to feed, light, etc.
Does anyone have any ideas, or better yet, does anyone have fish in these tanks with a lid for large, jumping fish? My current thinking is to drill in some acrylic or plastic blocks around the inner rim, and be able to set those polycarbonate panels in slightly recessed, so they sit flush with the lip of the aquarium.
I've been looking into plywood and fiberglass aquariums for quite awhile, but am looking to pull the trigger on something. If I were to build a wooden aquarium, I would likely follow the design seen in some of AquariumDomain's videos, where he uses stacked and interlocking 2x4s as the walls of the tank. I am a huge fan of things being bulletproof and lasting forever. Building a wooden aquarium is no problem, and I really like the idea that it would be totally customizable. The only drawback is my current fish room is temporary while I work on building out my garage into a permanent fish room. This project will likely take at least a year longer given the scope of the job.
So the large aquarium I build now needs to be easily movable, and fiberglass aquariums fit the bill perfectly for that. Not to mention that given my habit of overbuilding, a fiberglass and wooden aquarium come up to about the same cost all in.
I have been looking at the FT523W2 from Pentair, which looks perfect. I saw a video by Cowturtle where he had some gars and rays, and I'm sold on the set up and the cost. My only question is how people are tackling lids for these aquariums? I've seen a few of them set up, but no one shows the lid!
I've currently got a rubbermaid 150g pond housing an ornate bichir, and I am using corrugated polycarbonate greenhouse paneling as a lid, held down by bungie cords so the bichir cannot just knock the lid off. It's functional, but very ugly and a huge pain to feed, light, etc.
Does anyone have any ideas, or better yet, does anyone have fish in these tanks with a lid for large, jumping fish? My current thinking is to drill in some acrylic or plastic blocks around the inner rim, and be able to set those polycarbonate panels in slightly recessed, so they sit flush with the lip of the aquarium.
