sugestions for asetup

I am building a 470 gallon Front biotope. I will have a custom cliff 3-d back ground with 2 inch and 8 inch crags. Lighting will be blue spectrum, filtration can handel 200lb's of fish. How many Fronts can I fit in this setup and what Tanginikan fish occuring naturally at 50 meters can I put with them?

You have posted in this forum: Sat Feb 06, 2010 2:50 am Post subject:

Wow 470 gallons.
Would like to see some pics of that.
If you like to breed your fronts i would just get a big group and add nothing else.

What is a biotope 470 set up look like , does it have LxWxH?? does it have a cover or opened like a pond? And a filtration that can handle 200lbs of fish? never heard it put that way, it must be massive.

Depth is not an issue with frontosa the ones we get are adjusted to no water pressure as found in deep water. I would like very much like to see a picture of your endeavor, it sounds fantastic. Shocked

Sorry, can't beleive I did't put the surface area. The tank is 86" long, 36" tall, and 36" deep. The tank will have a lid to reduce evaporation. Even though I say the tank will be 470 gallons, with background the water volume will be closer to 350 gallons. It would be nice if the fish breed becouse it would means they are healthy, but I don't care about collecting babies. This will be a display tank, recreating the landscape of the lake at 50 meters.

As far as the filtration, im used to dealing with pounds of ammonia processed per hour. It will process enough high protein feed to grow out 200lbs of Tilapia to 1.25 lbs, though im definitely not putting 200lbs of frontosa in the tank. Its a unit of measure, as good as any other. Im building my house around 4 display tanks 1800 gallons total. Water processing plant will be a redundant system consisting of one solid waste setteling tank, two biological ammonia processing towers, two UV purifiers, two denitrification reactors, and a sand filter water scrubber. I'm sure I left out something, thats for future post

As far as pictures the tank is wrapped up in plastic to protect from cement dust. I'm cutting into my slab to run plumbing. Tuesday I get my 50 lbs of self hardening clay to mold out the background. Clay will be placed over wire frame, sculpted, hardened. A negative mold will be made, and a resin will be poured to make the back ground. Once the background is complete, I will unwrap the tank (take pictures), install the background (take more pictures), and post.

You have posted in this forum: Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:59 am Post subject:

Sounds like a HUGE project.

Just a hint,once your fish start breeding you might just end up with to much fry.
When you have to catch em it will be a ******** of a job.

Had some leleupi in my tank with my mikula.
They started breeding and soon the tank was more yellow then blue.
I had to take almost every rock out just to catch em.
Caught every juvi so i thought that would be the end of that.
Wrong guess,i didn't look for eggs.
Within a week they were back.

Hope you never have an experience like that with a tank with that many gallons.

You have posted in this forum: Sat Feb 06, 2010 12:40 pm Post subject:

Sounds amazing! I can't wait to see your progress.

Bruce

You have posted in this forum: Sun Feb 07, 2010 8:53 am Post subject:

I can't wait to see picture. It sounds amazing.

Yes, please provide pictures and good luck with your project.

You have posted in this forum: Mon Feb 08, 2010 2:17 pm Post subject:

Can't wait to see.

The tanks length is about 7 feet, thats the main number we are usually concerned with.

10-14 adult fish should be fine, though your filtration would exceed that number, its the territory size we are concerned with.

Other fish, Benthochromis tricotti would work well.
nice contrasting shape, will occupy the top of your tall tank, while the frontosa is closer to the bottom.
won't bother each other ONE bit.

There are many other fish that can be added, depending on what you want to sacrifice, but B. tricotti has the least amount of issues, tank mate wise.

The larger the tank, the more fish will get along with each other.
Rather, the less noticeable the fights will be.