As some of you know I have several tanks but I do not at the moment have any goldfish. The reason I joined this forum is because I have been planning on doing a goldfish tank build.  I am not the type to just get a tank and set it up. I did that for many years but I now plan and put a lot of fore thought into my builds.

The idea for a goldfish tank started when my girlfriend saw a Fluval Chi with some fancies at the lfs. She liked it but I had to informed her that a Chi was too small for that. So I started thinking, "what can I build that will be big enough for goldies, preserve the look and feel of the Chi and fit in our small condo?"

Here's the answer...
60 gallon Marineland cube with a custom built stand, light and filtration system.
tank measures 24"x24"x24"
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The tank will be filtered by a 500 gph canister filter. water will pass through the gravel and into a chamber behind a 6" wide wall in the center of the back of the tank. After being passed through the canister it will return back to the tank in another chamber behind the insert. The water will travel up the chamber passing bio balls with air injected through bubble stones (reverse wet/dry) and then flow gently out the top of the chamber to the sides. This will allow for plenty of bacterial growth and oxygenate the water without causing a strong current or too much disturbance to the surface of the water. Bubbles will not be visible as they will be behind the acrylic wall (I'm thinking about white).
The gravel on the bottom will be larger sized black pebbles to allow fish waste to pass through them and into the filter. It will also give a "Zen" feel to the tank. In the center of the tank rising out of the gravel will be a square pot with a water lily planted in it.
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The top of the tank will be open, it will have an acrylic rim of about two inches that goes around the top of the tank, but otherwise open. Light will be provided by a high output LED spotlight hanging over the tank. The goal is for the lily to grow up and out of the tank where it will flower.
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The tank will rest on a custom made stand. The stand will line up perfectly with the edge of the bottom rim, no overhang or over lapping. The sides of the stand will be smooth and flat, no fancy trim. Door will close smoothly with the facing and be barely noticeable. Stand will be varnished in black with a semi gloss finish and have a 2" strip of frosted glass running around it.
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Step one... buy the tank. lol
Be warned, my cichlid tank took me a year to set up. But it was well worth it.

No particular question really. Just sharing and open to input.


You guys don't discuss your builds as you do them? It's a rather common thing to do on aquarium forums. You never know when someone might catch something that you forgot or they may add something that you didn't think of.

Well, on this one the tank will be purchased pre-built. It is a Marineland tank.
I am ordering some glass today for a 9x9x9 3 gallon nano cube that I will be building, but I wouldn't even think of trying to do a 60 gallon cube. That is just too much pressure to trust my skills (or lack there of) with.

The stand, filter insert, pot, acrylic rim and so on will have to be all custom made.

I wanted to go with a rimless tank originally but they cost twice what this tank will cost, and this tank is already overpriced and hard to find.

I don't trust myself to build the tank itself, but the stand is no problem. We have an acrylic fabrication shop nearby that I will contract to make the rim/lid and insert. He cut the inserts for my big tank that hide the filter intakes and heaters.
If you look at the back corners you will see black walls on each side of the tank.
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This is what is behind them.
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End result is that all the pipes and heaters are hidden.

I'll make sure to post pictures on the 3 gallon nano in the betta section when I get it done. I picked up the glass for it today.  

I've never used cork, but I have seen it done.

I also had a tank once with a big drop in background made out a hard resin. It looked like rocks and tree roots. Hid all the stuff behind it. It was nice.

There is plenty of DIY background info out there. Very time consuming to do it but very nice when it's done.

Yeah, that's why I decided against it for my 150.

Looks like building it from scratch won't be needed. A buddy emailed me last night offering me his 60 gallon cube for $75. 

Yep, fancies. Girlfriend doesn't like the exposed brain look of orandas so I guess it will be more ryukin or regular veiltails. Once the tank is set up we will go pick out fish. We have an actual Ornamental Pond Fish farm about an hours drive from our home and we plan to go there to pick out our fish. They have more goldfish than you could imagine. Our aquarium club has meetings there sometimes.
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As for anything other than goldfish... maybe a Dojo at some point or a bristlenose pleco or a couple of snails... not sure.

I have always wanted a long fin albino bristle nose and it would a good place to have one.

We have albino cory cats in our community tank And I have seen a few bristlenoses with the same type of color too, very nice indeed I think having light fish would work nicely with a darker colored gravel... or how were you planning to decorate it?

Strange that your girlfriend is so intolerant to them somehow Most of my relatives that didn't see my orandas said the same, but once they actually saw them and how lovely they were acting, they were sold! Everyone has different taste of course

I wish I could go to that fish farm too! D8

That all sounds amazing!!
I'd love a little big redcap oranda, they looked so lovely on those pictures I looked at at their homepage

It'll be so exciting the see the final setup!

Mudbugs sweet!!

Well.... here we go. Step one taken care of.
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It's actually a perfect cube. It measures 2'x2'x2'. The angle, stand and trim make it look like it is taller than wide. Total volume is 60 gallons (227.12 Litres)

Yay I'm looking forward to seeing how you decorate it all!

Good luck with that... They're really hard to get off sometimes.. D: