# 200g rebuild - 3d background - species tank - TONS of pics



## scarecrow1f9 (Dec 8, 2011)

A few months back I lost almost my entire stock of Africans when the central air unit went out while I was out on vacation. Many of them were of uncommon size, and a few were VERY rare. I've finally gotten around to start rebuilding the tank. I took the lace-rock out and decided to go with a different theme this time.

Species tank - Africans / West Africans / Nicaraguans, because of their very similar water, food, and communal needs.

goals:

PH 7.8 / slightly hard water - requires removing the "cichlid sand" and aragonite mix I previously had in the tank, which buffers at a solid 8.4
rock background - difficult if not impossible to find in 96"
plants and driftwood - the nics and west africans won't be comfortable without more cover
New substrate - to match the new look, and the water parameters wanted. 
fanless water flow - sick of seeing the fans
better top water agitation, better circulation - will also need a few low circulation areas. 
automation - So I never have to worry about the same thing happening again
lighting upgrade - the T5VHO's I have are way too bright. the remaining Africans have "blackeye" from the burn-in of aggressive lighting. 
better filtration - PH buffer through filtration. 
Fish. only a few remaining of the old stock, need new stock. Will pickup locally available ones cheap, and order more rare specimen.

LIGHTS

For lighting I went with 10K Ebay LED's from Beamswork. These:










2 of these on Ebay were 179 shipped. The only complaint I could find from Reef users that these weren't bright enough for hard corals. Fine by me. 
I was disappointed though to see how little actinic lighting there really was. There are only a few blue bulbs, the light REALLY bleeds out the Africans colors. Some don't look colored at all under the light. The Jewel and spotted fish look great under the lights, strange enough. They would probably work VERY well for CA/SA.










It looks nice on everything else though. I put the lights in a V as the middle is going to be the low-current low light spot for the ones that need it.

Total Cost: $179 from Ebay - 3 days shipped

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BACKGROUND

I started out with ordering a rock background from Design by Nature. It was around $210 - and was supposed to be 78". From there I was going to use rocks on the outside to build up the "cove" look that I wanted.










unfortunately, Matt from Design by Nature remembered our conversation - that the tank was 96", and sent me two 48" pieces. They were impossible to piece together seemlessly. There was too much repeat in the pattern. He refunded my money, and I still have the backgrounds. (they are for sale on these forums)

Next I tried the basic Universal Rocks "Rocky" background that's in every LFS. I got two 72" ones, their longest, and decided to make the best of them. Unfortunately, no rock in nature matches these exactly. These are 100% harder to cut than you'd think btw. If you ever need to cut one, SOAK IT FIRST. I burned up 3 saw blades making the cuts.










I set it up to go around the side overflows and wrap into the corners. I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It looks fairly natural, but takes a LOT of room from the tank.










Total: $140 from Critter Co

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PLANTS AND DRIFTWOOD

For plants I picked up cheapo plants from the LFS. Tried to find the most desert looking plants possible. The whole point of these really is to cover up the split in the background.

For driftwood, I went with Manzanita. I tried to find especially curved pieces, again to create a look of depth in the center. Ordered from Manz Man.










Manz Driftwood

I was VERY happy with the driftwood, but a couple of words of warning - The Parcel Post shipping from Cali took two and a half weeks, and you WILL need to boil these. I boiled mine for hours, dumping out what looked like black tea every hour or so. Don't worry if you can't get the whole branch in there, just stick the stump part into the water. It drains out.

TOTAL $80

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SUBSTRATE

My old substrate buffered the PH too high, and didn't match with what I was wanting to do. I decided to try a couple of different routes. The first was the Marco Rocks sand from Marco Rocks .

It arrived the very next day, and was beautiful. Extra white, and felt like powder. Unfortunately, it was kinda powder. I tested it in a 10 gallon tank first, my sick tank. It took 3 days for the water to clear completely, and that was with rinsing. It also stirs up VERY easy if anything messes with it. I have a cichlid called the Malawi sand diver. Just didn't seem like a good idea.










This stuff would be EXCELLENT for a tank without critters that insist on digging everything up. It buffered the PH to a solid 8.0 - which would have meant constant slight PH-down treatments.

The second option was pool sand from the local pool supply store, Leslies. $10 A bag for the silicate based sand.










The sand is kind of unnatural looking, and very obviously not as high quality as the Marco sand. It also is very dirty for filter sand, which is normally clean right out of the bag. However, it is PH neutral and does OK with the color of the background.










Kinda orangish. 3 bags to cover the bottom thinly

TOTAL $35 bucks at Leslies Pool Supply
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FILTRATION

This is where stuff starts looking REALLY ghetto. But it's just as effective.

I was already running a wet/dry setup with 30 gallons of scrubby pads in a plastic tub, to a 20 gallon long return sump. To establish a PH buffer and get filtration to the now deadflow areas (behind the wall), I ordered some live rock rubble, and dry rock from Marco Rocks. I was able to split the cost of this with a friend who needed more rock for his marine tank.

The rock came in the next day - awesome service from Marco (if that's his name.) The rock also looks awesome, and 50lbs of the stuff is a TON. I was really shocked how lite and porous the stuff was. I stuffed some of it in my sump, and the rubble behind my background in the corners. I also filled the overflow boxes with it, as debris was building up at the bottom of them.

I found the end PH buffer to be about 7.8 - .1 shy of what I was originally shooting for, but it'll do fine.

Sock to scrubby pads (through plastic pegboard)









Then through the dry rock in the sump (with the heater)









Dry rock rubble behind the background and in the overflow chambers









TOTAL $50
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## scarecrow1f9 (Dec 8, 2011)

WATER FLOW and CIRCULATION

I wanted to remove the fans from the tank. I thought it'd be best to circulate the water from behind the background wall on each side, to eliminate stagnant buildup.

I wound up purchasing two cheapo ECO 396 water pumps from That Pet Place. I also purchased 10' of 1/2" tubing and a couple of sections of loctite "hoses."










I drilled holes through the background on each side and forced the loctite sections into the holes. The result is actually a very strong flow of water up top. I blew them out and to the middle, again to leave the center most part slow-flow for the fish that need it.

Front view:


















TOTAL $50 - 6 days shipping
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AUTOMATION

Apparently what actually killed my fish when the central air went out wasn't the 100 degree water, but the 100 degree water's inability to maintain a healthy oxygen level. There really was no cheap way I could think of to be safe here, so I went ahead and purchased an automation system.

Those who know ReefKeepers know what they're capable of. It now monitors my temperature, and the different settings allow me to make a travel mode that keeps all pumps and air valves going full blast while I'm not there - just in case.










I also went ahead and purchased another Eheim Jager 300w heater to put in the sump just incase the first one ever fails.

The reefkeeper also makes water changes a breeze, no more fooling with plugins.

TOTAL $150 - 6 days shipping ThatPetPlace.com, 3 days shipping BulkReefSupply.com
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FISH

Unfortunately I only had around 5 fish left after the previous failure of my tanks. All of the large fish died. With existing stock and donations, I had:

Frontosa 10"
spilonotus 6.5"
Dimidiochromis 6"
Venestus 5"
C. Moorri 5"
Intermedius 4"
sulphur head 4"
Rusty 3"
Yellow Benga 3"
Yellow Lab 2.5"

I then purchased:

Taiwan Reef 6.5"
Malawi trout 6.5"
Sand diver 4"
Blue regal peacock 4"
buccochromis 4"
VC-10 4"
From Daves Rare Fish for $170 - 1 day shipping

Apache (hybrid) 3"
Yellow Benga 3"
2X O.B. (hybrid) 2.5"
electric blue 2.5"
Azureus 2.5"
and From Live Fish Direct for $120

Today I ordered the last 5 from Tangled Up in Cichlids - I'll post pics when they arrive. 
Polleni
Macaw
Green Chromide
Vieja (regani)
and a multipsinosa rainbow.

TOTAL $350


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## scarecrow1f9 (Dec 8, 2011)

STILL TO DO

The lighting sucks for Africans. It really bleeds their colors out, it's just too white. I'm going to try supplementing it with some cheap actinic lights. the LAST thing I want is a blue tank, but right now everything is just tinged white.

There are still some clamps holding drift wood in place

The frontosa is obviously unhappy with my decorating, and destroys the right side of the tank every night. I need to make him a hideout he's happy with

Need the rest of the stock!

PICS and VIDEO

My camera SUCKS! Phone camera. But you can get an idea of what it's looking like. SUGGESTIONS ARE VERY WELCOME. I'm still not sure how I feel about the tank - there's a lot going on there. This is the first tank I've ever done in anything but black and white.

VIDEO





































































More updates coming!


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## ParadoX19 (Sep 22, 2011)

beautiful tank... the work was well worth it, seriously i wish i could build a setup like this.
nice fish selection also, i see what you mean with the lighting, perhaps if you could raise the lights up higher they wouldnt have a spotty/bright white effect you know?
the drift wood looks really good, really natural as so does the rest of the tank, the only thing i could suggest would be a few big rocks on the right side.
good job!!


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## clhinds78 (Jul 27, 2012)

Amazing tank! I never thought of putting haps and peacocks with frontosa, but you seem to make it work. Someday I would love to setup an 8" front tank and just might try this.


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Nice job of sharing your rebuild with us and your tank turned out beautiful. I like the way you rolled with the punches so to speak while making your decisions on your rebuild. Gorgeous fish and very natural looking habitat. I agree that possibly some rocks or a cave on the right would just add to the beauty of the tank (and possibly make your frontosa happy).


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## scarecrow1f9 (Dec 8, 2011)

Thanks for the comments guys, I appreciate it. I think you're right about the right side of the tank, I'm going to work with it a little this weekend and figure something out. The Nicaraguans came in today and are beautiful! I'll take pics later.


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## ParadoX19 (Sep 22, 2011)

just a thought id share with you about lighting, you said you want to add some actinic effects..

i have a 55gallon, 4 foot long tank 21" high, mbuna setup with a 48" 24 watt stunner led 12K white/445nm blue and im impressed with it and maybe you should look into it. http://www.ecoxotic.com/stunner-led-strips-24-watt.html

not too too expensive but effective...


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## scarecrow1f9 (Dec 8, 2011)

Do you have any pics of your tank with the lights? I really don't want to turn everything blue, but something like that would be super easy for me to utilize if the colors look right. Thanks for the tip!


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## eutimio (Aug 22, 2012)

sorry for hijacking the thread but really i need some advice on lighting too my tank is 30" tall and i already have 1 24 inch marineland LED fixture which is the same as your beamswork and some member suggested to add a 4ft long one on top of the one i have now.What could be the best way to show the fish colors without bleaching out with too much white?maybe keep the 4ft long one with the white and blue ON and the smaller 24 inch one with just the blue actinics on?suggestions?


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## ParadoX19 (Sep 22, 2011)

i understood your concerns for not wanting a blue tank, thats why i suggested this to you and i think it is what youre looking for..

this first picture just shows the top of my tank with my lighting and you can see how i have the led strip hanging there..








as you can see the image quality isnt so great, iam also planning for a black background, i know people spray the outside of the glass with black paint but i think its too late for that now with fish in there...








now you can see here how some colors tend to pop out more than others, blue green yellow and orange really show that *** noticed.

















my favorite, mdoka zebra.. 


















and eutimio, if youre concerned about too much white, id suggest a 6k white/445nm blue combo led fixture or something along those lines. and if you can have one marineland fixture with white on and the other with blue on you could also get away with that as well..
hope this helped


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## scarecrow1f9 (Dec 8, 2011)

That looks like it works pretty well - I know it's intended to go under the lip at the rear of the tank, but wouldn't it be more effective underneath the front lip - so the light illuminated the side of the fish you see?


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## scarecrow1f9 (Dec 8, 2011)

nice job with the wiring and hanging of that by the way.... pretty sweet job...


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## ParadoX19 (Sep 22, 2011)

thanks, that is the only issue i have with the lighting, the placment i chose.
the reason why i chose to hang it there was because you dont want the led strip near a heat sorce, it will damage the led's.
if i were to hang it in the front of my flourecent light fixture it would block me from opening the lid for feeding.

yes you are right, if it were placed under the front lip it would work better, and there is no glass betweeen the light and water that way, it is waterproof but just the thought of a light there doesnt suit well with me.
but over all i like it and highly recommend it :thumb:


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## cherokee2871 (Jun 1, 2007)

Just an idea but you can get LED driver that can control the brightness of the LED's you can turn them up or down to find the exact brightness that you most prefer I don't know what brands you can get them for but its worth a shot if you are washing out the color on your fish.


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## tomkbruce (Nov 16, 2012)

I like the Beamswork reef bright LED quite a bit. Do you have any thoughts on the Marineland Single Bright LED Lighting System?


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