CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

Hey all!!! I've been gone for almost 5 years but I'm baaaack w/some questions.
I still have my 46gl bowfront that I did back then and everythings been aok groovy so there wasn't a need for me to be here clogging up the boards. (well, and I got two dobermans since then and have been a little tied up w/them. They are now 3 1/2 and 1 1/2 so it's time for me to get back into fishies.
My new project is going to be awesome. Let me explain and then I'd looove to hear suggestions from all of you on...well...everything.
Here goes:
I have a huge family room and an equally huge kitchen there is a half wall between them and I want to put a large rectangular tank between them to divide the rooms and so you can see thru it and view from either room. How cool!
Anyway I figured that a 180 (72x24x24) would be just the right size. I'm going to have my brother take the half wall out and build custom cabinetry to sit this beast on.
So far this is all I know...well other than I want this to be an African Cichlid tank.
Please help....info info info....filtration, lighting, decor, substrate...down to what kind of Africans to put together. In a 180gl I'm guessing I have a pretty decent chance of peaceful living. I hope.
My other tank was always just Oscars and JDs. Just lost my 8yr old Oscar...boo hoo. The Jack is sad.
Not the subject...back to 180 and the fact that I need lots of help.
Thanks sooo much all!
Dor476

HI and welcome back.

I have a couple questions, on your tank, however the idea seems to be an awsome one. I am setting up a similar sized tank, and did think about useing it as a room divider, but I have changed my plans due to some concerns about tank weight. (24x18x72).

Are you building the tank yourself ( I built mine BTW), or store bought?

If you are building it, acrylic, or glass, or a glass/wood combination?

I am not African expert, but I tend to look to Lake Mawli myself, but that could be just because I have limited knowledge of other africans.

Hey...go to customaquatic.com and the tank I'm looking at is AQ-TV180LCL.
What were your concerns about tank weight? Tell me everything good and bad!
And I'm interested in the same africans that you are.

Welcome back
Well, not sure what I'd recommend, I'm no African expert, but I'm a fan of Tilapia buttikoferi, maybe wouldn't be a good tankmate for what you have in mind though

Not a bad price for the tank itself, curious how much shipping an insurance would be.

Ok back to weight, most house's constructed are built to hold a live load weight of 40lbs per sq foot. Some, mostly custom type homes will be built to hold 50lbs per square foot, of live load.
Live load is considered anything other than the weight of the building materials.
So given a total of 12 sqft for your tank, the live load weight is 480 pounds, @ 40psqft. The tank weights 300 lbs, dry. and about 2100 lbs wet.
Based on these calculation, a floor deflection of about 3/4 of an inch would be the expected result, if the tank runs parallel to the floor joist. If the tank is run perpendicular, then the deflection would be around 3/8 ths of an inch. Still a large deflection, and one that should be looked at. Again I have no knowledge of your own homes construction, however it was adding the additional support members to my own home that helped me decide not to place my tank as a room divider.

Oh Sh!t...didn't think about that.
My Uncle is a home inspector so I'm guessing he could tell me what the deal is w/all that crap.
My home was built 5 years ago and is rather large so I'm going to have to guess I'm safe..but I will definitely look into....thanks.

As far as you're choice for africans goes...
You can do just about anything you want in the way of Mbuna (Lake Malawi rock dwelling fish-when most people think fairly small [3-8 inches] really active really colorful african cichlids, they are talking about mbuna). You could also do Tilapia, or Haps, or any other kind of African in that size of tank, but you should go with one type-Haps, Mbuna, Victorian, or Tanganikan. If you don't you'll run into behaviour and aggression problems.

I would advise you to choose mbuna-they are my favorite, and are really ideally suited for that size of tank. Your choices are basically limitless with mbuna-you'll be able to get any color and size that you want. Try this page for a really good photo listing of mbuna, and when you get a better idea of which species you want, post back in the cichlid forum, and I'll be sure to read it. I just don't always read everything in the Hardware forum, as I don't know that much about alot of it.

You will see fighting between mbuna even in a tank that size, because fighting is in the nature of mbuna. That is why you want to overstock a tank (especially one of that size-it can make for quite the impressive display). The idea is that if you overstock mbuna, a dominant male emerges, and he is the only heavily aggressive fish in his group. All the others are fairly docile, at least with fish that are members of the established group. Doing this, I am able to keep 7 mbuna (with MASSIVE water changes) in a 29 gallon tank, and they even breed. 7 really pushes this limit, but the ones I keep are some of the more peaceful mbuna (Yellow Labs and Exasperatus). Mbuna are not average cichlids, and if you go into this tank thinking you'll have africans (or Mbuna at least) that live in peace and harmony, you're in for a surprise.

Good luck with your tank. I hope you don't run into too much trouble with it's weight.

I hope I've helped you in some way.

As far as your filtration goes I think you have no choice but a canister or a sump system. HOB's wouldn't look good in a divider tank. A sump might be the way to go that way you can hide your heaters and such in the sump tank. It would make for a better looking display tank. You would only have the inlet and the outtlet in the tank up top and those are easy enough to hide. BUT... a sump for a tank that big is going to half to be pretty big and that's going to add to your weight problem. Canisters are also good but I find them to be a bit overpriced (IMO) Well I hope that gives you a couple of different ideas anyway. Welcome back!

I really really appreciates everyones input so far and hope it keeps coming.
I just sent an email to my uncle (home inspector) regarding the weight issue. I'll let you know. Keep your fingers crossed for me, I really want to do this!
I agree that the sump would prob be my best option but I have no experience w/them as the 46gln bow front I have now has a canister. So I need to do some serious reading on that subject (if this all works).
I also agree w/you, Deepseafisher, on your choice of fish...mbuna are also my favs. I've only owned american cichlids so far (oscars, jacks, devils, terrors...etc...) but have always admired the africans. Gonna have to say that Oscars will prob always be my fav as they are soo much like dogs w/amazing personalities but for this beast of a tank I want a whole lot of pretty fish. It's going to be more of an art piece than a home for beloved pets (although I can't say I'm not going to be all retarded and name them all and be crushed when they die)

No retardation = good thing.
Thats a little known theorem there...

Regarding the sump, it shouldn't be too tough. I don't know much about them, but a little research ought to get you far. The only experience I've got is that the longer the sump, the better off you'll be. A question for the rest of you tech gurus out there, could you get a tank like SHE needs "Reef Ready"? That would make installing a sump a lot easier, otherwise you'll have to deal with drilling glass or dealing with some kind of system to keep everything from overflowing. I had a genius idea about how to run a sump off of a container hanging off of the side of the tank, but I won't bore you with the details if you can get a Reef Ready tank in that size.

I'm cracking up right now...I'm a SHE...not a HE!!!
Deepseafisher you said something about can "he"get the tank he needs reef ready...or whatever you said and I haven't even yet taken your whole reply into thought yet because no one has ever reffered to me as a HE!! Holy Crap...that's too damn funny.
Just had to let you know that!
Oh and by the way you musta really thought "what a wuss" if HE is naming HIS fish and getting all upset when they die!! Isn't that a girly thing?!?!?
Oh too funny!
My screen name is dor476 which is a short version of my email address but my name is actually Jen.
Just a little fyi.

Originally posted by dor476
I'm cracking up right now...I'm a SHE...not a HE!!!
.....Oh and by the way you musta really thought "what a wuss" if HE is naming HIS fish and getting all upset when they die!! Isn't that a girly thing?!?!?

A girlie thing? Actually you should've seen some of the guys on here crying and moaning over their dead fish, made even their spouses jealous
j/k, i think

Hey, I'm a guy and I think I'd be really upset if my oscars died. They're like dogs. I don't name them though. I just call them bad names all the time when they piss me off.

How come no one ever gets Tanganikan? I think they look cool. Are Calvus from Lake Tanganika? Frontosas are too right? I might be mistaken. Don't know too much about africans.

Ok, Ok...I didn't mean to offend any of you girly-men that cry over your dead fish. Haha...I'm only kidding, I know it's sad to lose any kind of pet, but seriously from those posts any of you that thought I was a HE would have had to have thought I was a little..um shall I say swishy?! When my 8yr old Oscar died 2 weeks ago my husband came downstairs as I was leaning over the tank and He said "oh ****...is he dead?" I was like "oh man, I'm sad". Next thing I know the fish is in a hugeass ziplock bag in the garage freezer. I said "what the hell are you doing to my poor fish" He said I knew you'd get pissed if I threw him over the fence into the woods. The ground is too frozen to burry him". That's about as far as my husband will go w/going soft over a fish.
Ok ok, enough fun...talk to me people...tell me stuff...info!!!

Yeah, Calvus are from Tanganiyka, as are Frontosas. Sorry for the mistake. *appologetically edits and retracts previous statements*
LOL
There is definetly something to be said for obvious names. Mine would be deepseafisherMAN, but its too long...alas. Hope you're not too ofended. Yeah, I've seen a lot of guys cry over fish. The Reef Central web site has a lot of Reef Keepers, and when a system crashes, you're not only loosing a beloved pet, you get to flush a load of cash down the drain.

I'd agree with tug about you needing to get a sump. Good luck with setting it up. If you need anymore species help (the part thats a bit more up my alley), feel free to ask.