My 300 gallon lobster tank

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aesopsfables

AC Members
May 4, 2007
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Mid New York State
I just want to mention, a bunch of the thread is going to be a copy over from my introduction thread. I just feel it's a better more comfortable forum for me to keep adding info, so please bear with the repeat if you've seen this info before:

300 gallon glass lobster tank (or that is what i was told it once was). the tank must be almost inch thick glass with strong glass corner inserts in each corner and a two by two foot glass pannel in the middle, i assume for support, though this tank I'm certain could make it through a bombing. the dimensions are 8ft by 2ft wide by 30 inches deep. and thats my wife next to the tank for reference.

Filtration is taken care of mainly by the new fluval fx5, supplemented with periodic diatom cleaning and continuous uv filtration.

In the tank:
1 painted turtle, 5"
2 diamond back terrapins, 6" each
1 Blue Jack Dempsey, 6+"
1 redtail black shark, 4"
2 Bala sharks, 4"
2 Clown Loaches, 3+"
3 Plecostimus, 7"
1 (new) albino tiger oscar, 2"
1 (new) red finned pacu, 2"

I decorated the tank with a forest of cypress driftwood knees held down by a slate roof tile floor. There are a number of tunnels under my main drift castle and a valley of plants and gravel on the other side of tunnel bay.

Eventually the central 2 by 2 glass support will become a turtle basking platform, they spend i
d say 85% of their time under water, sometimes even sleep there, but they love a good basking spot. The two diamondbacks are also acting like they want to mate and a basking platform with four inches of sand is necessary for them to bury their eggs.

every new fish addition has met with fear from pet store people, but I honestly feel the turtles allow me to keep pretty aggressive fish together with more docile ones, since the turtles keep everyone on their toes.

The turtles force me to be on top of my ammonia scene and solid waste control, the fx5 does a sick job at filtering the massive tank and keeping ammonia at bay.

Moving from a 65 gallon (all except the oscar and pacu whom are new), I still feel like id really like a good sized school of silvery or shiny fish, maybe redtail silver barbs, and a few more colorful trophy fish like parrots. More than anything I'd really like a bichir and eel. It honestly feels pretty empty in there and though I know the reason was to give everyone the room they need to grow, I still feel I have the opportunity to do more.

The Jack is the biggest fish in the tank, but my smallest turtle keeps him preoccupied with a never ending ballet of chasing which never gets violent, since the jack can't mess with the turtle and the turtle can't catch the jack. I think the turtles make Jack a wuss, When I put in that tiny oscar, i literally stared down the jack with my finger pointed at him through the glass the first few times he tried to investigate the oscar and he backed off.

Honestly the most aggressive fish in the tank is the redtail black shark, he never hurts anyone, but he loves to chase, push and boss everyone around.

I think it needs some color and a little fish volume, maybe a medium sized school and some red, yellow or orange big guys.
Moving from a 65 gallon (all except the oscar and pacu whom are new), I still feel like id really like a good sized school of silvery or shiny fish, maybe redtail silver barbs, and a few more colorful trophy fish like parrots. More than anything I'd really like a bichir and eel. It honestly feels pretty empty in there and I still feel I have the opportunity to do more. The oscar has brought in a little white and orange as well as the pacu's red fins. I think i want to up the number of clown loaches, they are true entertainers in the tank. Also increase the bala's to take care of a school, or redtail silver barbs, maybe a small herd to start off as feeders until some get big enough to live? I'd love to find a school that would fulfill my color need. Maybe as well a few more big guys, I thought a few parrot ciclids might brighten it.

One thing I am definitely in the market for is a bichir, or two. I had an albino up until a few weeks before I switched over to the big tank, he gored opened his belly on something in the tank (which I never found) and died. He was growing so well and such a social happy guy, again it was only the redtail shark that messed with him and I honestly think he was completely blind. He was so cool and a great swimmer. the tunnel system I designed into the tank under the drift castle was really for him.

I also wanted to mention that the backing to my tank is mylar, a reflective material used in greenhouses. It is pretty cool in that aside from being almost a perfect mirror, it is durable and it reflects back the slight tinting in the glass itself, so there is a slight blue cast to it.

of course I still am adding to it, I am going to hide the side of the tunnels under the castle with some more gravel, and although the slate roof shingles I used to fasten down the cypress knees look kind of like the scales on a serpent, I think I would like a little more dimension to the ground. I am planning on adding some medium sized smooth black oval rocks across the bottom, not to completely cover, just to create another level to the ground. the turtles are always swimming around the bottom, trying to get into things, although I tried really hard with this tank to fasten everything so the turtles wouldn't destroy my setup (which they try hard to do, believe me), I think they want some rocks to move around and wrestle with, so I am going to add that for them as well.

I really would appreciate suggestions, as I really am at a loss as to what I should add to it.




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aesopsfables

AC Members
May 4, 2007
5
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50
Mid New York State
Continued...

SO, I've been trying to make a plan to fill out my tank a bit. So here is goes, I just picked up two baby parrots for the tank, they are cute little weird shaped kids, still grey and stripey, before their big color change! You know I don't understand Why people don't buy thier parrots at this stage more often. I mean, I know you have no clue what yellow/orange/red hue you'll end up with, but they are one-fifth the price of one that is what, maybe a month older with color already. Plus I get to look forward to watching them change and grow! I guess some people just don't know that they're the same fish.

I wanted to put in a few pictures to show the glass reinforcement of the top. That platform with all the foods on top of it is actually a 2 by 2 glass panel and will be the base of my basking platform eventually.

I have been talking to kyohti about adopting a 7" bichir which i almost had to pass up because of a freebie, but the little guy is safely in another tank so we.re going to try again to ship this bichir, hopefully it'll work and he wont eat my clown loaches.

I feel pretty decided that I'm going to put in a school of 18 assorted tiger barbs (green, albino and regular) to fulfill my school desire, unless anyone has advice to give me otherwise.

Thanks for looking.

 

wolf13

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Mar 13, 2007
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I love the cypress knees and driftwood, that is a very unique tank!
 

Aaron89

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Dec 2, 2006
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one huge tank with some interesting and amazing stock, espically the turtles
 

beblondie

grand high exhalted poobah
Mar 25, 2005
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Guess it might as well be me who says it the tanks full to overstocked,While it looks empty now consider the adult sizes of the fish you have already before adding anything more.Btw tiger barbs will make a tasty snack for some of the occupants you have -Anne
 

Rbishop

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Dec 30, 2005
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Very unique!
 
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