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Barracks Idea


Celeste84

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It's an excellent idea. Sounds like it would be very time consuming to make the baskets tho... will you sew them? Is the flywire mesh large enough to let waste fall out? Maybe those baskets they sell as cutlery drainers might work as well if you can find some affordable ones. A chinese import store probably has them cheapest... or The Warehouse.

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Celeste, if I may offer my opinion, why not try some commercially made small plastic containers, or clear square plastic jars, instead of the wire baskets? The reason I suggest this, is I have some of the mesh you are talking about dividing some of my juvies, and it is a real bugger to keep clean. the poo gets stuck in it and it drives me nuts. :) I have lots of square plastic jars at home here that have used in a setup similar to what you are thinking. I just drilled lots and lots of tiny holes in each, in the bottoms and up the sides to allow the water flow through, and the poo to drop out the bottom into the container. The square plastic containers had a small lip on the top so I could just rest them on wire hangers, like you have. I even filed some grooves into a couple so they would rest on the hangers easily. In addition, I could also hang some plastic files in between to act as a barrier between fish. How does that sound? Might save you a lot of trouble!

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thanks for the imput guys :) stefan, this is really only for my breeding males, not my juvies and such - so i really want them to be comfortable, and i've noticed the fins on the HM boys starting to get bent in places, making me think i should give them more room :) bren, yeah i'll sew them :) my mum's gonna help me with that, so it won't take too long. leela, i'm getting the larger (non wire) mesh and i'm also gonna have a snail in every single basket (maybe two if one can't keep it clean). i already have jars with holes drilled in them in that current setup, and i found it's not working as well as i want it to. plus there's the issue of wanting the boys to have more room :) i've also found that since going into the jars the rays on my ct boys are curling - so i'm going to have them closest to the filters in the hope that the currents will help straighten out their rays :)

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I like it! the only things i could think of is: 1) would be a tad hard to see the fish in the middle? i did something similar with gutter guard previously and (well, i like to "magnify" my boyz when i watch them), that becomes a tad hard. 2) gunk cleaning - it does get stuck from time to time 3) water flow - depending on the flow close to the heater, the water on the furthest corner (from heateR) would be real slow. i have done this experiment with my batch of 90 day fry . subdivided into 4 fry savers the furthest two dont get most flow at all. BUT if you gonna keep the breeders in there i think yer gonna be fine!! Good luck on the project!!!

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i was planing on hand washing the nets once every few weeks in addition to the snails and filters :) also i'm gonna have one filter (waterfall one - sucks up water from the bottom) at one end, and the uv filter (spits out water along the surface) at the other end :) gonna go get the mesh tomorrow and should have it set up by friday at the latest :)

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ok so i made a quick change to this idea. i increased the cage size so that only 8 will fit. also they're a bit big for the tub BUT i have some reasons for that. 1. i want to up grade the size of the tub for better water quality (depth mainly) 2. i have a 3ft tank that has 3 dividers in one half and is open the other end for juvies. i wanted to be able to use dowling to float up to 6 of these cages in the open half so i can seperate more aggressive juvies, or if i have to, for space for extra males. photobucket is down so i'll add the photos later :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

ok so i gave up on this idea. the shadecloth just kept stretching, and the walls kept flopping over or curling even when supported, which meant the boys were having a field day getting into each others cages.

i went out and bought breeding nets and stuck them in there instead :P 4 large ones for the HM/RT boys, a pair of smaller ones for the PK/SD boys, and i have another two large ones and a small one in the 3ft tank, one is holding the 1/2G and the other two are empty until i get the 2 boys outta the breeding tubs. i also have one boy recouping in a 10L tank :-/ no idea where to put him after he heals. he'll prolly just stay in there LOL

edit: should add that i DID get the UV filter installed, so all the boys except the breeders and the recouping one have access to uv cleaned water. ALSO the waterfall filter and UV filter are doing a great job of cleaning the water and moving the heat evenly through the tank.

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What about plastic canvas? You should be able to get it from craft stores. It's got holes a little bit wider than fly screen, but it's stiff. People use it for cross stitch and certain tapestries. I don't know how much it costs, but it's frequently recommended as a cheap way to make a tank divider, so try that maybe? It would be easier to sew together too, even someone who can't sew could do it.

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i may get some of that if i ever wanted to divide the larger breeding nets so i could have 10 males instead of 6 in there :) but ATM this works for my breeding males - i never keep my juvies in barracks unless i'm gonna keep them or they're rather big :)

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