New Vivarium Project - ex Tropical Fish Cube

[garysumpter]

Hi all.

Well its about 9 months since I started my first tank which is seriously overgrown now, but its too heavy to lift.

That's a bugger considering I have moved into my girfriends place (along with all my reptiles!)

SO, I am starting a new tank!

My dad gave me his old tropical fishtank, which is a cube with lighting and fan built into the hood.



I have spent the morning ripping out all the self contained filtration area etc to give me more room inside. The pic shows the progress.

I am now going to scrape off the silicone.

I will be fitting T5 lighting into the hood also.

So you see my blank canvass. In this tank I want to have a water feature and idealy a deep pool.

Can any of you suggest any small inhabitants for the pool? Small fish or similar?

Also any general suggestions for the overall design? I am holding off starting the false base etc until I have it clear in my mind how it needs to look.

I want it to house some Azureus.

Thanks guys, I look forward to your comments!

Gary

[markpulawski]

Some type of air breather would probably work best, Brian's Tropicals (one of the sponsers of this board) has some really cool wild type bettas on his site and some neat shrimp too. You may want to check with him to see if any of them would work.
Mark

[garysumpter]

Also, the dimensions are:

Height - 44cm
Width - 46cm
Depth - 48cm

Is is Acryllic

Gary

[nitsuj]

I say get a betta, with having a water feature you get so many excess flies in the water, although you might want to consider having a shrimp aswell to eat the fishes poop and keep everthing algae free.


Justin

[garysumpter]

Great idea guys! Sorry for the lack of replies, for some reason I didnt get an email notification!

False base done as well as the area at the back right that houses a water pump.



Water is in to test the pump flow and to make sure there are no leaks!

I still need to put something to cover the water flow-through in the pump area.

Overall its looking ok, though the lack of land area is a little concerning so I think a piece of wood connecting the water area to the land area will be necessary to give more floor space.

Any thought so far?

I know the water is pretty deep, but there will be plenty of escape routes and id LIKE to have something else in the water, any suggestions? fish? newts? salamanders? anything?

Many Thanks

Gary

[Quaz]

I never thought of using foam in mine. They're so small. But I think that looks good so far. I used the filter compartment in the back as a pump area. Check out this thread of my 24gal Nano Cube.
Can wait to see your progress. There are a couple more board members that've made simular vivariums aswell.

[alifer]

I've also used a 24G Nano-Cube for the last year to house my Vents and it's working great.
The false back makes a great place to hide pumps & fans.
Just click on my sig for a link to my NC24 Viv build.

Rick