Question: Planning a new tank

[stitchpunk]

Now that we've moved house I'm starting to make plans to upgrade from my 2 foot tank to a 4 foot tank and get a companion for The Dude. My stepdaughter is raising a batch of leucistics and 1 is earmarked for me!

So - I thought once I have gotten the tank and cycled it I would install a temporary partition until the new axie is big enough to live with The Dude. But what's the best technique and materials for a temporary partition? Also would it need to be the full height of the tank? If so then I'm guessing it'd be best to run a filter at each end? That's the other big decision for me - I think my Fluval U1 is barely big enough for the current tank so I need to figure out whether to get another filter and run both, or upgrade to one that can do the whole tank.

I have no idea how I'm affording all this as yet so I have time to plan things out and hopefully make a really decent job of it.

 

[layna]

Now that we've moved house I'm starting to make plans to upgrade from my 2 foot tank to a 4 foot tank and get a companion for The Dude. My stepdaughter is raising a batch of leucistics and 1 is earmarked for me!

So - I thought once I have gotten the tank and cycled it I would install a temporary partition until the new axie is big enough to live with The Dude. But what's the best technique and materials for a temporary partition? Also would it need to be the full height of the tank? If so then I'm guessing it'd be best to run a filter at each end? That's the other big decision for me - I think my Fluval U1 is barely big enough for the current tank so I need to figure out whether to get another filter and run both, or upgrade to one that can do the whole tank.

I have no idea how I'm affording all this as yet so I have time to plan things out and hopefully make a really decent job of it.

I think fluval 1's are for little tanks so if your getting a 4 foot tank i think its best to invest in a bigger filter.
The other option is to add some sponge filters/another littler filter.
The best thing to help you work it out, is that your filter should turn over 4 times your tank water, every hour e.g if you have a 100L tank you want a filter that does 400L/ph!
Pothos roots in the water also help in reducing nitrates in a tank.

You can use mesh type material as its full of holes so the water flows through it, ive heard someone from america mention egg crate(?) before but ive never heard of it in the uk so i dont know if you have in NZ.
I think pyrex plastic is okay, just add some holes for water flow.
I have some corrugated plastic that is used for greenhouses as my tank lid and i believe thats okay in water but youd have to research hehe
Basically any food safe plastic will do, and just drill a few holes in it for water flow.
Yes it needs to be the full height as some axies like to jump out of water, so they could jump over the separator

 

[stitchpunk]

Awesome, thanks! :happy: I took the other half to the aquarium shop to show him the tank I want to get, but he's unconvinced - thinks it might be too intrusive in the lounge. I shall wear him down though and I saw that they sell suction cup mounts for tank dividers to slot into which is handy.