which is "best"

ITHURTZ

ITHURTZ

BIG BOSS
Apr 19, 2007
765
0
16
40
Lake County IL (north of cook)
Now I have always been a fan of the "never ending" fishtank. As in the fish can swim round and round and round and round and never hit a "wall" But what is really best for a fish? My biggest fish will eventually be the pangasius catfish, so 24-36" hopefully.

Now the top tank is a 6'x6'x4' tank and the long one is 10'x4'x4' so 1077gallons vs 1196gallon. Now I am aware that the square tank can limit the turn around of a 3' fish specially when there is a 1' center peice for the intake of the filtration leaving 2.5' to turn around the entire tank but to me the swim length is more than double the longer tank

So square
-2.5' turn around, but 24 foot "length" or to me unlimited as u can just keep going if you dont turn around



Long tank
- 4' turn around 10' length

fishtanksfe5.png



What is everyones opinion and please give me your reason of why
 
Perhaps the 1' thick column in the middle could be narrowed slightly, to provide more swim room and turning space if you are concerned about the size of your fish? Maybe make it a 6" thick column? (I'm not an engineer, nor do I have a degree in physics, so there may be a fundamental flaw with that plan)
 
I personally would not put a center column in because it takes up too much floor space for large fish. I think the in the corner(s) would be better. I know it takes away from the never ending tank idea but unless you have to see in from all sides I think it makes more sense to me.
 
I think any right angles at all will be detremental to the "endless" tank you are wanting to create. I've seen plenty of cylindrical tanks that create this effect nicely. But, of course, they are made out of acrylic.

If you don't want to use acrylic(understandable) and therefore can't do a cylindrical tank, I'd say don't put in that center column. It will just take away from swiming space without creating the desired effect. The right angle walls on the outside will prevent it. I'd go with number two, making the footprint as large as possible.
 
I saw a river-tank once with a similar design...though I can't remember where I saw it posted. The guy took the DIY 3D Concrete background idea, and made a center wall from it. Included in the wall were PVC Pipe-caves and powerheads for current. The idea was that water would flow around the tank in a circle.

He also used a large-diameter pipe (or maybe it was a 5-gal bucket cut into quarters) siliconed into the outside corners to get the desired rounded effect. It was quite an interesting tank, but would require placement in the center of the room. I'm guessing the best way to hide the filter pipes and heaters would be to build them into the center wall piece as well.

Anyways, if you want to try and find it, it may have been on loaches.com or loachesonline.com or something like that...the guy built it primarily for his Clown Loaches iirc.
 
jmhart said:
I think any right angles at all will be detremental to the "endless" tank you are wanting to create. I've seen plenty of cylindrical tanks that create this effect nicely. But, of course, they are made out of acrylic.

If you don't want to use acrylic(understandable) and therefore can't do a cylindrical tank, I'd say don't put in that center column. It will just take away from swiming space without creating the desired effect. The right angle walls on the outside will prevent it. I'd go with number two, making the footprint as large as possible.
Click to expand...

Na the plans are with acrylic. Ya I would love for it to be a cylinder but how I would go about bending a sheet of that size would be beyond my own help. And to get one made would cost what 10k!

I mean I could get "fancy" And block off the corners with a piece of acrylic (2 45 degree cuts) would be round but wouldnt be a corner, stick some bubbles and led lights in there and have a display:)
 
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