# A lucky strike, with too many options to deal with.



## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Hey everybody, its been a while since i posted, I'm looking for ideas for a new tank I've come into. The problem im having is that the aquarium itself is a display tank built by CASCO Group, it is a 1 section of an industrial 3 tier unit, seperated into 3 sections. If this sounds complicated, its not.. Its a display aquarium out of a pet store, I have 1 section of the aquariums that they stack 3 high, that has 3 sections within it.

This leads to many options, however it will also provide many problems also. The water is circulated throughout all 3 of the sections, this is the typical situation you see at any petstore, all tanks share the same water. For this reason, if I decided to keep very different species, they would still require the same water chemistry.

The GOOD news is that because this was an industrial unit, its filtration is behemoth for the 80 gallons of water, and it doesnt produce a white water rapid from massive pumps as its running off of sponge filtration. The system has 3 sponge filters which measure 20" tall with a radii of approx 3". I do also have the mecha air pump for these, however it will need to be replaced as its designed to feed NINE of these filters, not 3, and the noise is disasterous.

If I keep the filtration, I will need a new large air pump, I am perfectly OK with this. However the thought occured to me that I may wish to ditch off these sponge filters and design a single large sponge filter powered by a 1000GPH powerhead fed through a network of plumbing to conquor the dividers in the tank. Bear in mind that although the tank is divided, there is still flow between sections (just minimal).

I would appreciate any and all ideas as to how you would perhaps manage the filtration in this beast, or perhaps you could suggest an idea with what to stock it with. I've considered breeding FW species, I even considered using this as a frag grow-out tank, however I've commited to freshwater, as the chemicals used during this aquariums time in petshops would be disasterous to marine invertebrates.

Let me know your ideas!

Thanks


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## mec102778 (Feb 17, 2011)

Picture? Don't know why but I'm having trouble getting the lay out of the tank in my mind.


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## snail (Aug 6, 2010)

What kind of fish are you interested in keeping?


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## susankat (Nov 15, 2008)

Sounds kind of like the setup I had gotten from an old walmart. Only my tanks are individual. Even with one tank with dividers like they are using these days, there is usually a hole drilled in each section which is used for filtration. I use a linear pump that is big enough to run 100 tanks and run sponge filters in each of mine.


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## slurik (Dec 19, 2010)

Theres some photos, I hope they can help get an idea of how its layed out. I was thinking about doing something that you generally couldnt do. Barbs in one, Tetras in another, I was thinking maybe angels in the middle but I'm not sure if it would be a decent size long term. Perhaps plants on the left and right sections with a species in the middle section which would otherwise destroy plants.

Theres no holes drilled in it for the water to move between the sections, though there is the gap at the bottom of each of the dividers but its only about 1cm.


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## Tailfin (Oct 17, 2010)

An easy way to divide them is put a layer of aquarium silicone to seal the dividers up


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