terrors r us

that sounds good...could you P.M. me with a number or place I could meet them? Thanks, Ivan I don't have any pictures, as this will be an original design.....

Thanks for the input, everyone!! I am ordering a very large tank from " tenecor aquariums" , 10ft x 4ft x 30inches high...... I will have a certain number of breeding cichlids that I want to raise and I would like to hand design some large caves for them.(like 2ft x 2ft caves) say four of them or so... Instead of clay pots I would have something that looks like mountains or a blend of a wolf head with a mountain that the fish swim thru.... you get the picture....

Hi there.... Does anyone know of a place in Edmonton,AB, that I could go to to make large caves for my tanks????? I was thinking of using clay and then kiln drying them... thanks

very nice!!!! what is the footprint of the tank??? What kind of fish will you keep???? :thumbs:

Hi there, I was here a while back discussing plans to get a monster tank built in the basement. Well the tank builders say that it would be to difficult to build a tank ( 10ftx6ftx4ft) in the basement. It would have to be built at their shop but then it would be to big to get into the house. So I,ve decided to build three tanks instead; Tank 1 = 700 gal.. Tank 2 = 500 gal..Tank 3 = 240gal I had the concrete slab redone...it is now 11ftx7ft ......12inches deep....two rows of 5/8 rebar.... tamped and 30 mpa concrete....(Very Strong!!!!) Here are some pic's of the new foundation..: http://s124.photobucket.com/albums/p21/ter...nt=SANY0002.jpg SANY0002.jpg Foundation phase A image by terrors_r_us http://s124.photobucket.com/albums/p21/ter...nt=SANY0003.jpg Next step ....the metal stand....I'LL keep you posted.....................................

Acrylic tanks vary in price...depending on size.... check this out, click the tank section and then rectangular tanks....for extra large tanks click ultra tanks; http://www.iadempet.com/dealers.htm phone: 780 487-0493 add: 14020-141St, Edmonton,Alta

I would p.m. you but not sure how..... here is the info you requested;;; http://www.iadempet.com/dealers.htm You will see the Tenecor & living color logos...scroll down for locations in alberta....

I have an even better one about a guy that insisted that a 450 be delivered to the middle of his upstairs living room...where he set it up....it decided it wanted to be in his basement more.... Toiirtis LOL the way you said that is hillaries.......but seriously its pretty sad...... mine is already in the basement so that one less thing I have to worry about....

Hey Shai......yup its a large project but I consider it my hobby..... I had extra drains installed when the house was built, the plumber was confused at first until I explained to him why the drains were in these locations....... Furnace, well it's on the ground in the next room... it's a high efficency type with all the controls up high and an empty chamber down below...... can't think of everything....plus it has a drain right in front of it....... I hope it never gets to that.......

Hello Slerd..........What length, width and height is the tank???? First of all requarding your stand...........I would put a piece of plywood 3/4inch thick (same size as your tank) on top of the stand.... then get a blue piece of blue insulated pad(like you were talking about) on top of that and finally another piece of plywood on top of the insulated pad.... before you place your tank on top.....(Note the thickness of the plywood could be reduced to 1/2 inch, IMO) Secondly, if the stand you have has feet then I would use some 2x6 studs underneath the entire length of the stand (front and back or side to side) also I would get some 4x4 metal squares (about1/4inch thick) and place them between the feet and the 2x6 studs. Now it is VERY IMPORTANT to place the tank against a wall with a concrete footing below or near the center support beam of the house. The 2x6 studs that run under the feet of the tank have to be placed the opposite direction of your house trusses(the 2x8 studs holding up your house) example; if your house trusses are running north & south then run your 2x6 studs east and west....This gives it alot more strength ............the weight of the tank will be distributed over more studs..... I had a 240 gal tank (6ftx2ftx3ft) set up in this manner in a town house and it was fine... But I am not a structural engineer so I would look in the yellow pages and get their advise......always better safe than sorry....also the safety issues..... exploding tanks could kill........... I had all my tanks insured for property damage and it was not expensive.... I would just tell them the exact facts and you will have one less worry.... good luck .................

That would be great!!!!!! But it's going to take till next year to complete... I try and do as much research as possible before proceeding to the next step...also I'm not rich ........ so I do it in steps..... But when its done I'll Def throw a party for all members!!!!!!!!! If you need some money for your project, figure out the automation system on a setup that large and sell it to me. I'm doing basically the same thing as you are in my shop, but I'm housing each species in a separate tank...likely around eight tanks 225 to 300 gallons. I'm in Edmonton at Aquarium Illusions tomorrow to start figuring out how its going to work. We had it figured out for a fishroom in my house, but then I decided to go a little bigger in my shop. The DIY forum on MFK has several drip setups that I just can't sem to get my head around. If you figure them out let me know. Water changes on that sort of gallonage need to be automated. Also, consider how you are going to heat that much water for the drip system. Some guys using electric hot water tanks have rather shocking electric bills monthly. Oh and also, be very careful building your smaller, thicker pad on clay. I can see you having severe shifting problems if you can't tie that into the rest of the basement. I can't make it to illusions(next time)...let me get this going first.... when the house was constructed I had them install an extra large hot water tank ..........costs...... I know.... I might have to quite smoking!!!!!!! might have to open up a business for tax write offs...... we'll see... the automation (in detail) is my next step......your ahead of me..... I still belive(for large cichlids) that two very large rectangular(canister) filters(two pumps) are the way to go(with optional high pressure reverse flow into the drain for cleaning) I need to do more research on filtration........... Reguarding the pad shifting............. the contractor is starting work on Wed.(this week) I'll talk to him about that......also after talking to you, I am increasing the pad dimension so the pad will be wider and longer than the tank itself......I thank you all very much... I will check out MFK again...... Later...

Ya it will be sweet if it all works to plan....there are so many things that can go wrong .....the main thing is to try and prepare yourself for all unforseen problems..... the tank will be more or less in the middle of the basement with wall on each side... on the other side of one wall is a washroom and on the other side is a laundry room with sinks.... all the mechanical is 5 ft behind the tank.... did you know that tenecor/living color makes acrylic tanks with a background (on the back pane of the glass) that lets you change the look of it just by punching in stuff on your computer(I was afraid to ask how much that would cost!!!!!) So one day your background could be a tropical rain forest and the next day a fast flowing river bed etc etc etc........... he said they manufactor this membrain in between the pieces of arcrylic(whats next????) anyway this is not happening overnight....wish me luck... thanks

Hi again, First of all I've checked both sites "Tenecor" & "Living Color",, I found out that Tenecor is also connected to some plastics company in the states(that is how they have mastered bonding acrylic), second Tenecor has sudsituary companys all over and Living Color is one of them (it says so on Living colors web site) another thing is that Living Color says their tanks have a lifetime warranty (I'LL make sure I get official paper work on that!!!) I also thought that an acrylic tank would have to be built at their shop but I had the Living Color rep. here at my home and he says they can built it on site(in the basement). So ,"Albertan" am I correct in assuming that Tenecor would be the way to go???? I'll still keep up my research and thanks to everone for your input!!!!!! Very much appreciated!!!!

I have read alot of articles on the bloat issues.. some say it is because of over crowding, too much aggression weakens their amune system, others say too much protien food, others say not enough water changes etc etc Some of these factors definitley attrbute to the cause but I found one article that said after years of fish dying from bloat the only thing that made a world of difference was a uv sterilizer added to the tank...this was for electric blue dempseys but it should work for all,IMO....... It's not expensive so why not try????? Just my 2 cents..................

That would be great!!!!!! But it's going to take till next year to complete... I try and do as much research as possible before proceeding to the next step...also I'm not rich ........ so I do it in steps..... But when its done I'll Def throw a party for all members!!!!!!!!!

unless the tank is quite large and you have no breeding pairs then it might be O.K. The festae and red devils will be the most aggressive....IMO

Yes it can get quite complicated but this is part of the industry I work in so I am looking forward to the challenge....I enjoy the construction of the set up almost as much as the fish themselves.. I will post pics as I progress.......

I totally agree, that is why we are cutting out a section of that slab and starting from scratch..

Thanks for the replies; I punched in the numbers and it does not recommend an acrylic tank of that height.... I seen the pic's of the tank that let go....... that must of been heart breaking.... you have me really concerned now..... I was thinking of going with "living color", have you ever heard of them??? are they part of " tenecor" aquariums?????? I will def do more research.........thank you very much!!!!!!

I am trying to make this tank completly automated (thats my goal anyway) I am a electrican by trade and i found a good site on google "Automated controls for aquariums" which sell all the instuments I need to fully automate the tank including computer tie in and the computer will call my cell phone if there is a problem with the tank. Water changes will be on timers and solenoid vales will automatically open and close the valves..... automated feeders (optional) Lights on timers etc, etc.... I realize at times I will have to put on my wet suite and dive in the tank... Regarding vacuming the gravel , I was thinking if I had eight 2in holes piped in the bottom of the tank(all connected to one main valve which piped into the drain of the house) then a solenoid would open the drain, the pressure and flow rate would be so great that it should suck the debries thru the gravel, then the solenoid would close and the water changer system would top off the tank with fresh water,, I still have more research to do but I think you get the idea. FISH>>>>> At first I thought about trying to breed asian aro's, but after much research it would not be easy and most likley would not work... I have raised large aggressive cichilds in the past and I still very much enjoy them. So here is the list;(of course I know as they get bigger I can not keep them all); Red terrors , midas, labiatus, carpintis, cuban, red managuense, jaguar, bifaciatus, odo's, buterkofrie, fenustrus.............I am hoping that ,when full grown I can keep at least half of these and sell the rest......

Thank you all for your responses.......First of all this is only the foundation(slab)on top of clay... after that I will have three sections of 4inx1/4in thick steel square tubing as the stand with no legs(the square tubing will be layed horizontally , to spread out the weight as much as possible) the reason for three sections is so we can carry them into the basement. I am in a newer built home and the slab is only 3in thick with a little bit of sand underneath it (no rebar) so we are cutting out a 10ftx6ft piece and digging deeper,compacting, then add rebar and one foot of 30mpa concrete flush with existing concrete in the basement but it will be floating and independent from the existing slab. The final step will be the tank building people to construct the tank on site...Entirely of acrylic.. I have already talked with them and they say it can be done...... I agree that the foundation is over kill but the two main teleposts of the house are close by so I would rather be safe than sorry..... The only thing I didn't consider is what you said, the base should be bigger than the base of the tank.......If my stand distributes the weight evenly thru the entire pad, do you think this would still be a problem(reason being is that I am running out of room)..... I will check out MFK......thanks

HI, I am slowly starting my dream tank!!!! It's going to be 10FT long x 6FT wide x 4FT high.... My calculations tell me that it would be 1800US gal which is 15,000lbs(water only) so after adding the stand,acrylic,etc,etc.... I would be looking at 20,000 ibs which includes a safety margin...... The cement pad that is being built for it is 10ftx6ftx1ft thick with two rows of 5/8 rebar and extra strong cement.... Do you thing this will hold 20,000lbs?????????

Hi, I am in the process of getting a large custom built tank. I know of two reputable builders (Living colors or Aquarium Illusions) One builds acrylic tanks and the other builds glass tanks. I know the pro's and con's of each and my preference is acrylic but if it's going to be impossible to keep it from getting all scratch up then glass might be the way to go?????? I heard that scratches on the inside of the tank are not very visible due to the water. I am not worried about the outside of the tank being scratched because I will be the only person doing maintenance on it. My big question is; will the large aggressive cichlids scratch the hell of the inside of the tank or should it be O.K.????????? Anybody ever had a acrylic tank with ciclids???????????

Try " Living Colors " , they have reps in edmonton and calgary. (Acrylic tanks)

hi there... years ago I needed some large pieces of black slate but found that it cost too much at your LPS........... so I went to a store that sells pool(snooker) tables,,, they had many large broken pieces that they just throw out so they gave me more than enough pieces for free...........