Decided to house a Peacock.

[Crawling68]

Well, since breaking down my 55g reef, i have plenty of rock, sand, a heater, and a powerhead. I have a standard 29g sitting in the garage, and an extra stand. So im gonna get one of the big boys. Im going to lay a sheet of 1/4 acrylic at the bottom and around the bottom edges. How high should i make the sides?

 

[Gonodactylus]

For really big O. s, I usually use a 4" strip around the bottom side wals.

Roy

 

[Crawling68]

Hmmmm...4" huh. Well with the bottom molding, and quite a bit of sand, i guess you would barely notice it. Do you seal it in to keep algae from forming in between?

 

[Gonodactylus]

No, but in my lab, we don't worry about algae. The more the better. I'm much more concerned with removing nitrate than I am aesthetics.

Roy

 

[Crawling68]

Good point. But unfortunaly i have a better half whom the aesthetics matter to. Maybe ill just wait and get an acrylic.

 

[Gonodactylus]

If you stayed under a 5 inch O. scyllarus, I think you would be fine with just the base and then only a couple of inch wide strip on the bottom. There is no need to worry about the center of the tank.IT is only in the 6-7 inch O. s that I have seen them break tanks.

Roy

 

[Crawling68]

If i got a fair sized one, there could be a chance it could get pretty big, i would hate to have to change tanks on him.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Growth in O. scyllarus slows considerably as they get larger. From my experience, it would take a couple of years for a 4 inch O. s. to grow to 5.5 inches. I'm not trying to talk you into something. I'm just trying to make the point that future growth is rarely a consideration in establishing a stomatopod tank since with moderate food, they do not grow that quickly and the bigger they are, the slower they grow.

Roy

 

[Crawling68]

Wow! I didnt know their growth slowed down that much.

 

[dantodd]

You could always build a 4" tall acrylic "tray" that is 1" smaller than the bottom of your tank. Then you'd have half an inch all around the tray walls for your sand to go. Then you'd never even see the acrylic as long as the sandbed is 4" or deeper.