magpie
Member
Dear all
My new tank has arrived at TGM.... picking it up tomorrow. 'Exciting' doesn't begin to describe it... (how sad am I?)
anyway, I still have some planning time left, because brother-in-law is making the cabinet a) because he made the rest of our furniture and it'll fit in with it and b) because he's convinced that the cabinets at TGM are so flimsy they'll break under the half tonne weight. I doubt that, but I'm not going to argue.
However - it means I have to decide about lighting - and about the interesting problem of evaporation. Tank dimensions are: 3'0" x 2'6" x 18" that is 90cm side to side, 75 cm front to back and 45 cm tall.(roughly 65 gallons US or 250ish litres)
which means huge evaporative surface area - apart from the obvious problems of water loss, this'll mean chucking bucketfulls of water into the atmosphere of our living room. I have visions of water running down the walls which won't go down well at all.
so I need to do something about it. TGM do a glass lid that rests on 8 metallic clips that clip onto the rim of the tank - but whereas I'm sure that works well with a foot cube nano tank, I don't want to wrestle with a 3' x 2'6" piece of glass every time I want to do a water change - or even feed the fish.
I'm not sure what the other options are:
justin could make me a lid - but it'd have to be fairly waterproof and presumably if we varnished it with any kind of waterproof varnish, the VOCs will kill the fish for the next decade or so. We could line the lid with plastic? (how?) or we could think of something else. I wondered if a flat acryclic sheet might work - set on top of the tank with an inch tolerance all the way round - I could slide it back when I need minimal access and lift it off - but I'm not sure what the refractive index is of acrylic and whether it would let the light through - does anyone know?
and that brings us to lights: I had considered the Arcadia I-Bars which hold 2 x 24W bulbs but a) they look ghastly and b) I'm not sure they'd give enough light - even two of them would only be 96 watts which is only 1.5 wpg which is fine if I go lo-tech, but not good if I want to go up. I could fit them into a lid (see problems of waterproofing above) or rest them under an acrylic balance-on sheet.
Arcadia lights are a second option - might be allowed to fit up a pendant light system - or rest them on the rim (if not going the acrylic route)
or LEDs - TGM have a LED frame which looks neat but is horribly expensive -- makes the substrates look cheap.
I'm going up tomorrow and can talk to them, but wondered if anyone had any ideas... those of you who're inside and at the computer on a day when it's 27C outside... Hell, I hate deadlines...
My new tank has arrived at TGM.... picking it up tomorrow. 'Exciting' doesn't begin to describe it... (how sad am I?)
anyway, I still have some planning time left, because brother-in-law is making the cabinet a) because he made the rest of our furniture and it'll fit in with it and b) because he's convinced that the cabinets at TGM are so flimsy they'll break under the half tonne weight. I doubt that, but I'm not going to argue.
However - it means I have to decide about lighting - and about the interesting problem of evaporation. Tank dimensions are: 3'0" x 2'6" x 18" that is 90cm side to side, 75 cm front to back and 45 cm tall.(roughly 65 gallons US or 250ish litres)
which means huge evaporative surface area - apart from the obvious problems of water loss, this'll mean chucking bucketfulls of water into the atmosphere of our living room. I have visions of water running down the walls which won't go down well at all.
so I need to do something about it. TGM do a glass lid that rests on 8 metallic clips that clip onto the rim of the tank - but whereas I'm sure that works well with a foot cube nano tank, I don't want to wrestle with a 3' x 2'6" piece of glass every time I want to do a water change - or even feed the fish.
I'm not sure what the other options are:
justin could make me a lid - but it'd have to be fairly waterproof and presumably if we varnished it with any kind of waterproof varnish, the VOCs will kill the fish for the next decade or so. We could line the lid with plastic? (how?) or we could think of something else. I wondered if a flat acryclic sheet might work - set on top of the tank with an inch tolerance all the way round - I could slide it back when I need minimal access and lift it off - but I'm not sure what the refractive index is of acrylic and whether it would let the light through - does anyone know?
and that brings us to lights: I had considered the Arcadia I-Bars which hold 2 x 24W bulbs but a) they look ghastly and b) I'm not sure they'd give enough light - even two of them would only be 96 watts which is only 1.5 wpg which is fine if I go lo-tech, but not good if I want to go up. I could fit them into a lid (see problems of waterproofing above) or rest them under an acrylic balance-on sheet.
Arcadia lights are a second option - might be allowed to fit up a pendant light system - or rest them on the rim (if not going the acrylic route)
or LEDs - TGM have a LED frame which looks neat but is horribly expensive -- makes the substrates look cheap.
I'm going up tomorrow and can talk to them, but wondered if anyone had any ideas... those of you who're inside and at the computer on a day when it's 27C outside... Hell, I hate deadlines...
