I am 6 months away from a Red Seal Carpenter (journeyman). Your tank is spreading the (not particularly significant) weight along 6'. If your floor can't support that and a sump then the building should be condemned! Don't worry about that weight, it is not significant as long as you place it properly. A tanks' length should always be perpendicular to the direction the floor joists run so that the tank sits over as many joists as possible instead of just running the length of one. Know what I mean?
Really, save yourself the trouble and get the tank drilled now with a sump. You should find a 30 gallon sump to have enough room for a skimmer and return chamber. The sump will only be half full anyway, so you're only adding about 150 lbs to the total. That is only about 10% of the weight of the display tank. The weight of a small sump is not significant.
You can buy a good quality in-sump skimmer for less money than you can buy an ok quality HOB skimmer.
My 2 cents.
Quote:
Originally Posted by randy123
Stock lightly and do frequent water changes for a year? I don't know about you, but I don't have that much discipline  |
I moved my tank's contents from BC to SK (and got a bigger tank in the process of course). That was last May, and my tank is
still lightly stocked (fish-wise anyway lol), and it gets weekly water changes like clockwork. I have a big @$$ skimmer on it too. Hehehe...I
despise nutrients.