170 Gallon Tall

Here are some early pictures of a 170G (48"x24"x34") Glass Cages tank I recently set up for a client. I will post follow up pictures as the tank matures.

Getting the tank to the client's house was half of the battle as the client lives in a remote location in the Colorado Rockies at 9000 feet elevation. Here is the view from the balcony outside of his aquarium room.



I used the full ADA substrate system: Powersand Special L, Tourmaline BC, Clear Super, Bacter 100, Aquasoil Malaya, and Aquasoil Malaya Powder. The substrate is rougly 6-7" deep at the back to provide a base deep enough to hold down the large stem plants that were used.



A Current Outer Orbit Pro Series (2x250w 10000K MH, 2x39w T-5 Giesemann 6000K Midday, 2x39w T-5 Giesemann True Actinic) light was used because it provided a lot of wattage in a package small enough to fit inside the canopy and still allow ample air circulation to move the heat away from the metal halides. The 250 watt halides were chosen to provide good light penentration for the foreground plants, even at almost three feet of water depth. Here you can see Major, the client's bull mastiff, inspecting our light mounting in the canopy.



A shot of the client next to the tank to give a sense of scale.

 

Although the tank is large at 170 gallons, it is the smallest tank in the house. It resides in the aquarium display room with a 600 gallon and a 500 gallon reef tank.

600G Reef:



500G Reef:



A shot showing the 170G in relation to the reef tanks:



Working with a tank this tall was an interesting challenge, especially planting the foreground. I'm anxious to see how the plants develop with this much growing room (almost three feet of vertical space). This is a rough shot of the tank immediately after planting. I will post further pictures as the tank progresses.