The Wreck Suite

[jgentry]

It really is that easy. Go look at the ones out side in the front of aquatic critter and you will see. Just build a sturdy wood frame out of posts of something cheap to what ever size you want and put a flexible liner in it. Depending upon how many fish and the size of the pond you can figure out what type of filtration you need. It could be as easy as a box filter or you could get a pressurized drum filter. Or, you could build your own filter really cheaply.

Just something to think about. If you want more tanks and more of the same type fish then that is one thing. But at the end of the day in 2 years are you still going to want to clean 50 tanks every week. Or would you possibly enjoy the pond more which would be much easier to upkeep and would give you lots of fish options that you will not have with any tank. Just something to consider before you get going on the project.

[angel]

We'd be at odds over African or South American though. Have to decide which. Most New Worlds get giant but we have a few Africans that are going to need more space in a while. Cleaning the tanks is fun but sometimes there's not a minute to spare when it's all done then it's back to working or watching grandkids and that's keeping it at around 30. How easy is a pond to keep clean?

[jgentry]

If you get a good pressurized drum filter it is extremely easy. Most have a back fluch so that you can hook up a seperate hose. You turn on the back flush and the water reverses direction in the filter and goes out the backflush valve to a sink or your yard. It also blows most of the detritus out of the filter at the same time. Essentially doing a water change while cleaning the filter. If you don't have it packed with fish you can do a 20% once a week or ever 2 weeks and be done. You will need to vacuum the bottom every now and again but that's pretty much it.

I am biased on the subject, but ponds will work better for the SA/CA fish. They get bigger and need more territory then africans. Then you could use your 125g for africans so it all really evens out. If you build the pond big enough you could pretty much have any SA/CA fish that you want as long as you match aggression levels. If you want to do stingrays down the road you could, want a peacock bass, you could have it (as long as the other residents can't fit in it's mouth). Just lots of options with these things that you don't get with a glass box. Not as easy to see the fish, but fish sure do seem to love being in ponds.

[angel]

The not as easy to see the fish thing is one of the two drawbacks. The other is stingrays and kids. We have small grandsons who are into everything. And both of them LOVE stingrays. I can imagine one getting in there. But Dennis wants a stingray.
I saw someone on CL that has a peacock bass they're trying to rehome. Got it without knowing what they were getting into . And they had it in a tank with a yellow lab!

[jgentry]

There's a lot of mistreaded SA catfish, peacock bass and arowana's in the business. Really #@@#'s me off. All fish that I am passionate about. They all have special needs and generally none of them are met.

If you want more africans you would be best suited with more tanks. Just throwing some other options out there. Don't want you guys to get burnt out.

[jon carman]

A 300g rubbermaid would work great too, and no work involved other than moving. You can use the same pond filter on it.

[angel]

We were at a guy's house in Unionville that had taken the livestock tanks they use to store water in with the metal cages and cut the tops off, put them on skids, and filled them with water. He connected two of them and had a filter system running both. It ran into one, down into the next, out and back to the filter. Along with some sponges. It was neat.