New Lagoon Set up...

[GreenSpottedPuffer]

Time to set up the new tank. I was planning on having a new custom tank made (and still may at some point) but having a mortgage for the first time and owning a place has been WAY more expensive than I thought! I think living directly across the street from a new home depot is not helping either For anyone who knows Vancouver, its the new Home Depot on 8th and Cambie.

Anyways, the move was a disaster! It was probably the worst day I have ever had in my time keeping fish. I had moved so many times with tanks and never lost anything. This time I lost 3 fish, my huge leather coral and my display tank. It really could not have been worse. And I only moved 5 minutes from my old place...

I know people will ask, so...my hawkfish and blue damsel died in the truck on the way to the new place and I have no idea how. Everything seemed fine. My beautiful big sleeper goby jumped from his QT tank an hour after we moved in and I did not find him in time. My leather just never opened up after the move and basically melted a day later. And during the move, the bottom of my display cracked. Needless to say, it was a terrible experience.

My puffer both made it and although they hate the rubbermaid they are living in, are doing fine.

So I needed a new display tank and luckily a friend of mine had one that he sold to me for cheap. The crazy thing is that it is almost the exact same as the tank I had. Custom made by Sea Star in Victoria, 72"long,19"wide and 18" tall...so just 1"narrower and 2"shorter. Thinner glass though than my old tank which was 1/2". This one is 3/8".

There is one catch though...it originally was eurobraced but he removed the bracing about a month ago with the intention of using the tank for turtles with a small amount of water in it (no need for the bracing in that case). So the tank is rimless, which I LOVE but the glass really is too thin for no bracing. I spoke to a few builders and they thought it was close but wouldn't risk it. Except one guy who seemed to think it was more than enough but I disagree with him.

Originally the plan was to reattach the eurobrace and use the tank normally but I will not have a canopy and hate how the bracing looks, so I am trying to come up with another way of doing this. Since it will be a shallow water lagoon like the last tank I had, I am considering making the overflow shorter than it is now so that the water level in the tank is only 14". The hope here is that I can get away without bracing if the tanks water level is that low. The other reason I want to do this is so that I can have rock pillars breaking the surface of the water and maybe even the top of the tank, creating a unique look. Im still trying to figure out if this idea will allow me to use no bracing though, so if you have an opinion, please let me know!

The place we bought is a very industrial style loft with all exposed concrete floors, walls, exposed gas pipes, ect. and we have bought a lot of new mid century modern furniture, so the stand needed to match. Its basically 2 rectangular boxes, one that supports 2/3 of the tank and the other just the other end of the tank, leaving a gap between them. The tank is one a 1/2" sheet of plywood to bridge the gap. So a modular looking stand, only 20" tall, to keep a nice low profile because the tank is not against a wall but instead a very low divider between the kitchen and living space. Its primed now and will be painted a very high gloss black and white (think car paint). I will take pics soon.

If anyone has an idea of whether my lower water level and no bracing idea would work, please let me know. If 14" is still too high, please let me know what you think would be a better height. I can't go too much lower but there will not be many fish in the tank and nothing like tangs that need more water volume. We are thinking it will simply be the 2 puffers and a bunch of blue chromis to give it a bit more life. Maaaaybe another goby...but no more than that.

Thanks!