PlanetCatfish.com

Hey folks, so tomorrow morning after work...umm alomost 24 hours from how, I'm going tank shopping! I'm going to be setting up a river tank, that I have been planning for several months. I'm planning on going with at least a 55 gallon. What size suggestions does everyone have for me?

I will be building the stand myself starting this week I hope. Will take LOTS of pics

Hi!
Well it will highly depend on what type of fish you are planning to house.
55 galons is interesting volume if you are planning to keep rather small or midsize species but will not be enough if you are plannig to keep big species!
Cheers
Yann

I don't think I'll be going with anythig too big. It's going to be a cooler water tank. Keeping cold water loaches like weather loaches and as many different types of hillstreams as I can get my hands on. Going to keep my rubbernoses in there too, as they seem happiest in that type of environment, and I want to figure out a breeding methode for them. Will be sticking with mostly cool water bottom feeders, maybe a school of white clouds.

Anyone have other suggestions for cold water "river" type fish?

Ben,

55 gals are convenient because they are readiy available and not too expensive for the size. Their down side is that they are narrow -- not a lot of depth -- and therefore don't have a lot of base area (LxD), which is more important to your catfish than the tank volume (LxHxD). You may be better off with a 40 breeder, which actually has a larger base area than a 55 gal (660 vs. 615 in2). Or if you can, go with a 70 gal, which is about 6" deeper than a 55 (base area = 929 in2).

Dinyar

Get a used tank!! I just bought a used Tenecor 100 Gallon Simplicity plus with stand and cabinet, and extras for 400 us. There are better deals out there. I missed out on a Truvu 90 gallon with hood and stand for 200us. Anyways if you are going to be building your own stand... look around on e-bay, or in the classifieds/garage sales for a used tank. Save bundles and you can get a much larger tank

BTW the Tenecor I got is one of those phantom 100 gallons.. 60X20X18 = 93 US gallons..

minus the builtin wet dry and pump.. takes about 3 inches from width...

= 60X20X15= approx 78 gallons of water.

SH

Dinyar, thanks for the advice, I'll probably end up going with 70 or 75 gallon. Do a little price comarison and see what gives me more bang for my buck

SirHelm, I've been looking for used tanks, and have always gotten used tanks in the past, however there isn't much in the way of fish keepers where I live, and good sized used tanks for a good price are a rare commodoty Im afraid . I'm sure if I kept my eye out for a while, I would eventually see something, but I have the money now, and if I don't get it now, I'll just end up using the money on something else. I'll be getting the tank in about 6 hours , then taking exact measurements, and buying the lumber for the stand.

I got my tank over my days off. I ended up with a 4 foot 90 gallon tank The next big step is to build the stand. I have the plans all drwan up, now I just have to find the time to do it! Once that's done, I 'll be fitting the tubing for undergravel water return to set it up as a river tank.

I don't know if I'll fill it then or not. The problem being that I'm building my house in the spring, should be done early summer. Currently I live in a 3rd floor attic appartement, and I'm not sure how much I look forward to tearing it down, moving it, and setting it up again. At the same time I REALLY want to set it up! *sigh*