OK, the reason why I bought the new tank was because my puffers were growing rather rapidly and my old three foot tank was starting to look mighty crowded. I wanted a larger tank for my beloved puffers. I decided on a five foot tank. The tank is five foot in length, two foot deep and two foot high. I had ordered a two and a half foot deep tank but the manufacturers stuffed it up. Our mistake was we didn't ask for a receipt for the tank when we ordered it. You see, we ordered the tank from one of our local fish stores... a family run business. We knew the owners fairly well so we trusted them (BIG mistake).
Unfortunately, the guy we ordered the tank from quit the business a few
days after we ordered the tank and he stuffed up the dimensions. His brother
was rather apologetic about everything but seeing we didn't have a receipt,
nothing could be proven. We paid a rather large deposit for the tank and we
didn't want to forfeit it. Well, I paid less for the tank than what I had
budgetted for but it doens't look as nice as what I had pictured it to be.
As a consolation I have decided that this is not going to be THE tank but
merely a stepping stone for my eight foot one 
.
OK... the first problem that we had (aside from the cost) was deciding on the dimensions. I knew that I wanted a five foot tank (minimum) as I wanted my puffers to flourish. Then, I couldn't decided on the width or the height. Our local fish stores sell this fibreglass backing which cost a bomb. It replicates a tree trunk and I have to admit that I am glad that I bought it. The backing really makes a difference. Unfortunatley, because it is not flat, it eats up a lot of space in the tank, about 6 inches. When I finally decided to buy it, deciding on the width of the tank wasn't difficult... 2.5 feet (to compensate for the space the backing took). Then it was all a matter of saving up the money.
The water pressure in a five foot tank is rather immense thus the glass had to be think. I wanted the best and the safest option so I went with 12mm glass (the pricing difference between a 10mm and 12mm piece of glass is quite remarkable). I couldn't afford a cabinet so I went with a metal stand.
Then, filtration was a problem. I was told that an overflow system would do the trick so I went for it. I saw wonderful, compact over flow systems in certain shops. In one particular shop, the over flow system was neatly built into the hood and that was what I wanted. The shop I eventually bought my tank from said that they could duplicate it and I trusted them (big mistake). The over flow system currently does sit in the hood but the hood is 11 inches high making the tank look HUGE!! I didn't like it one bit but there was and is nothing I can do about it.
Then we realized that amount of water that the overflow system could handle wasn't enough and thus we had to buy an additional over flow system which sits infront of the current one. Our lighting isn't optimal either i.e. it would be best if we had a four foot lighting system... instead, we have a three foot one seeing that the shop didn't stock four foot systems.
Why didn't we return the tank you might ask... well, it was a mistake that we both made when we didn't ask for a receipt. We placed too much trust in the shop keeper. Then, we took pity on the store because the owners aren't very rich... and they incurred a loss when they had to redo the cover of my tank (they made a mistake the first time). Plus, the owners are rather nice and they sell relatively cheap stuff. The silver lining on this cloud is that I have learnt a VERY important lesson and I know now what to do when I order my next tank (no, it is not going to be from that same shop). I was deeply disappointed but then, hey, my fish love their new tank.
I currently have two figure eight puffers in that tank and 15 spotted ones. All of them are flourishing like you wouldn't believe. Their appetites are increased, they are growing rather rapidly, they are so active etc. It is a joy to watch them in that tank so much so I can't wait to get my larger one... this time it is going to be done right!! You can bet on that!
