New 6ft Setup; progress w/pics

[mace990]

Hi all,

Well I have just purchased another tank, this one a 6x2x2, and also got a 3d background. I am going to shift the fish from my 5ft into this tank and add more while im at it.

It will be set up as a mbuna display tank, i will have males and females of each species so expect to see a bit of spawning in there also, as is the current case in my 5ft. I plan on ending up with about 40-50 fish.

here is a quick spec sheet.

Tank 6x2x2

Filters one aqua one 1050 SII (existing)

One Odyssea CFS 11i with UV sterilizer (new and about to be set up on 5ft to seed for a few weeks)

3d latex background

Coral sand substrate with mostly strat type rock

No planting fake or live

2x white LED dimmable strips

1x Blue LED dimmable

Custom white poly cabinet and hood (still being built)

With this tank I have decided to have the base of the glass about 1200mm off the ground as I reckon my existing 5ft, at about 785mm, is too low for a display tank.

I have never tried the CFS filters before, but it has heaps of room for media (noodles, clay and maybe also matrix) and plenty of flow at about 2800l/hr. I will top it off with media from a second existing 1050. I have also never used LED lighting for a display tank so it will be interesting to see how it goes.

Is anyone else using/used the Odyssea CFS filters? Id be interested to hear your thoughts on this and also the use of the UV sterilizer.

This is my current 5ft stocklist which I will be adding to;

3x Sciaenochromis Fryeri (1M, 2F)

1x C.Afra Cobwe (1M)

3x Labidochromis Caeruleus (1M, 2F)

3x Labidochromis sp. 'Mbamba Bay' (2M, 1F)

3x Melanochromis Johanni 'Interruptus' (1M, 2F)

8x Metriaclima Zebra 'Red Top) (2M, 6F)

2x Metriaclima Pulpican (1M, 2F - the female can easily be moved into colony tank if needed)

3x Pseudotropheus Acei 'yellow tail' (1M, 2F)

I will definitely be adding some Ps Polit (hopefully I have a source now) and would like to source some of the following;

Ps Flavus

Met sp 'Zebra Gold'

Other than that I really don't have any more ideas...your thought's would be welcome!

I will be adding more pics and progress reports as they happen.

Cheers,

Scott

[Crebo]

sounds exciting mate .... will be looking forward to some update pics .... good luck with it all

[justcichlids]

Awesome keep the details and pics coming!

Where did u get the tank and how much?

[Sloory]

Love that background mate!

[mace990]

Yea h im pretty happy with the background, it is pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

The tank was $640 and the background $400 - all from a (good) local fish shop. I toyed with the idea of making my own tank but it was going to cost $300 for the glass, plus other materials and the stuffing around with black silicone, bracing etc....it was an easy decision in the end.

I personally like the black silicone joins without external trims, the black hides the yellowing of the silicone and green bacteria in the corners.

[justcichlids]

How thick is the glass? Is the background attached and if so did you do it or the store?

1200 off the floor seems high, that means the top of the tank will be 1800mm off the ground. you must have high ceilings and water changes and maintenance will be a little awkward.

[mace990]

Hey there guys,

Im pretty sure the glass is 10mm.

The background was purchased separately and was scribed into the tank and siliconed earlier tonight - progress pics and report to follow...! FUN NOT

Weekly water changes and clean will be a b#4tch i agree. But... when are they ever fun? Already I have to stuff around and reach in to get my glass clean....I dont want to deal in halves anymore, my 4WD is so high i need gorilla platforms to clean it, why not go the extra half a k and do the same to get a proper result with the tank haha

It's all good, i have put a bit of thunk into this and pretty sure that the extra bit of effort will be outweighed by the extra height and better "display".

cheers!

[justcichlids]

I agree totally about not doing things by halves, but i have had tanks at that height and it is a pain at times especially vacuuming and aquascaping with big rocks. But.... They are good to look at when standing...

I'm looking at doing a very similar set up tank size, hence the 20 questions.

I'm not familiar with the canister filter your using where did u get it and ho much was it....

What is your budget forthe overall set up including stand and hood?

[firthy13]

i agree, if your going to do something, do it right from the beginning. The ~2 hours a week you spend cleaning it will be forgotten about in the other 166 hours in the week you could potentially be watching it.

love the background and the black silicone. looks amazing. looking forward to seeing it wet. what brand of tank is it?

[mace990]

@Justcichlids, mate the canister was recommended by my usual LFS, cost me $270 I think (bought it along with heaps of other stuff so ended up discounted), I can give you more details if you pm me. As for the budget, well I can honestly say that I don't have a set budget, if i can safely cut corners I will, but like I said I won't do this by half. I'm guessing the cabinet will be fairly expensive as it is going to be integrated into a part of a feature wall, have a look on my next post at pics of where 5ft'er is...

@Eartheater, cheers mate, the brand is Absolute.

*Correction: $170 for filter*

[mace990]

latest update;

Well I cut away a fair bit of the foam sponge in the canister. In my opinion it was space that is better spent on media (pic below shows amount of foam I cut out) and loaded up the media, ended up going for some matrix to top it off.

Topped up with water and gave a good rinse/flush for about 1/2 hour to remove particles and contaminents. This was a bit of a slow process as my tap water could not keep up with pump, absolutely silent running, very happy with that.

Drained the water completely, laced with prime, squeezed in some bacteria (from top layers of existing canisters) then topped up again and set up onto the 5ft tank. This will now run on that tank for the next couple of weeks.

Scribed the background into the tank , I used a laser to help out here. Tried different methods of cutting the background...DO NOT use an angle grinder! The acrid fumes and airborne crap that came off it took about 2 years off my life i reckon. Eventually just worked away with the stanley knife haha.

Identified high points to apply silicone (I just used all purpose) turned over the tank and glued...weighed it down for the night with whatever was handy.

Work checked today, all good.

Other than that two more fish spawned in the 5ft and one more in the colony tank...plus moved fry from two tumblers into fry tanks phew... now beer time

[justcichlids]

Great pics mace, cant wait to see the cabinet are you just using a local joinery to make it?

[mace990]

Yeah mate, the joinery bloke I use is absolutely tip top.

He is the Chuck Norris of joinery.

He has built heaps for me now, all of it has exceeded my pretty high expectations (I used to be a site mgr for a construction company) so yeah, my man crush aside, I cant wait for this cabinet, I will take legit pics of before (now) and after of the whole room and let u guys be the judges of how the aquarium has been integrated into the room.

Have had problems with weight of the setup because it is upstairs (on timber joists) so have had to involve builder, truss co and then finally their structural engineer to confirm that the structure will support the weight (I have est between 700-750kg in total). A bit of work.

Cheers

[justcichlids]

any updates?

[mace990]

Well i have had big re-think about the background (BG) in the tank. What started this was a trip today to the local hardware where I discovered a better silicone than the one I had used purely by accident - this one actually said it was suitable for aquariums. Selleys "Glass".
So that got me thinking, mainly about possible poisoned fish coz although I did research silicone initially I had this bad gut feeling which I have learnt to trust.
I was about to post some more pics of the gap filling process (the BG is about 10mm short in length), including blending it to the side of the tank with coral sand and then matching paint to make the whole thing look seamless, from end to end, but new plan....

So that got me thinking further about the background (BG), if I was going to rip it back out, why not allow for and add another already available ext canister filter behind the BG (intake only) to improve water flow behind the BG and prevent any detrius buildup there. So as of right now:

The BG has been removed and in the process of completely removing all old silicone.
The tank will also be completely cleaned of all old silicone.
I have purchased some 20x10mm foam which will be attached to back of BG and used to fill the shortfall of the BG to the ends of the tank and which will be blended into BG to look natural (future posts will demonstrate this).
I have also bought new vents which I will cut into the BG and will allow flow of water to the filter positioned behind.
I have some new paint to blend the gap foam into the glass better (pics to follow).
Upon testing the LEDs last night I am very happy that they will do the job.
I have designed a new filtration/flow system (pic below) and would really appreciate any input or thoughts.

[Sloory]

What was the silicon you used first mate?

[mace990]

Hey Darren, it was "Parfix all purpose", available at Bunnings. Now using "Selley's Glass" available there too.

http://www.selleys.com.au/sealants/silicone/glass/

here is a link ^^^

[mace990]

here is a link to the crap I first used;

http://www.parfix.com.au/products/live/114/9.asp

Have a read of that.... "Do not use on aquariums or structural glazing".......This is precisely why I would not trust Bunnings to build me a dog kennell....I love my dog too much.

I hope anybody who reads this post now and in future learns from my mistakes

[mace990]

I forgot to mention, there is NO WARNING on the actual packaging (tube) that this is unsuitable for aquariums. Only the product website mentions it.

[Sloory]

Glad you got onto it before it was too late mate!

[Ged]

Great setup Scott.

Cant wait to see this one take shape and develop.

[mace990]

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates at the moment, but not much has really happened....

I have spent about four hours so far trying to remove any trace of the old silicone from the 3d background, ran another water/leak check and have been busy with work. Other than that looking forward to re-installing the background and continuing to wait for my joinery install.

The CFS filter has been running for about 2 weeks now on my existing 5ft tank and is starting to look really good, some very nice bacteria building up in all areas.

Will be posting more pics and updates when things get interesting again.

Cheers

[mace990]

Well finally I have a fantastic 6x2x2 display tank installed and going well!

This will be a pretty big post with lots of pics, hope you enjoy!

Well the joinery was booked in for Saturday at 7am, so I realised that I was going to have to get up pretty early to remove rocks, catch fish, drain water, remove sand and remove tank and cabinet. So it was a 4:30am start to get everything ready, I could have done all of this the night before but I did not have a spare tank for my 24 fish and did not want them spending an extra 6-10 hours in a plastic container.

So to take a step back, I reckon the wrong silicone has cost me about 8hrs, but finally the dry tank was ready and I was happy, I actually moved it upstairs on the Friday arvo with the help of a big cousin, not a fun job. The new filter was looking fantastic and ready for action for a new bio-load and still running stealthily, WOW this filter is SILENT and really cranks....extremely happy with it. In the last few weeks I had the chance to reflect on the design of the tank and have to say that I was really happy with it. Definitely happy with running a filter pickup behind the BG and having vents on the opposite side of the tank for the inlet flow....the only thing I have changed now is the addition of a heater behind the BG.

Despite the early start I was still catching fish when Dave (the legend joiner) arrived. Bugger. This was going to be a long day

From here I will let the pics and captions do the talking but I will say that; the rock formations have not been finalised; the fish are very healthy; the pics of the finished product are sh@tty ones (I will upload better ones soon, and maybe also a YouTube vid); happy with LED lighting; Dave my joiner is on the verge of being raped by me, absolute legend that has the rare quality of really caring about the attention to detail; very happy with finished tank!!

[mace990]

Inlet vents installed. Need a good tight fit here. Dont worry about looks for now. Also foam filler has been siliconed onto the background, ready for finishing.

Silicone and coral sand applied, work quick before the silicone develops a 'skin'.

finished foam, used acrylic paint (sample pots) to blend into BG. Used a black colour in this corner to try and hide the filter pickup, ouitlet and heater that will be placed in this corner of the tank.

Other end, more paint blending....once installed the foam 'bends' into the glass sides to form a solid-ish background, no fry could ever get to the back, and with clever paint you don't even notice the join.

Just on sunrise, getting rid of the old tank

Sunrise, the new tank ready to go and some of the joinery layed out

The fish in a plastic tub with heater, air (to agitate surface) and towel to darken and reduce stress.

The new filter looking healthy

Overview (comparison shot) the OLD tank

Joinery begins

Joinery nearly complete, lid is up, water is on. Pics do not show the addition of Seachem Prime, Aquasonic "rift lake" and "carbonate hardness" water conditioners, plus numerous tests of all parameters.

A crap pic, a bit tired, but really shows the difference to the old tank. Looks great, blends into the rest of the house.

[Ged]

A lot of thought went into this setup and I really like the filter intake.

The background and aquascaping looks fantastic.