# New to Me 90 gal , w. some photos



## somefish (Sep 2, 2012)

I wasn't sure which forum to post this , as it has elements of Decoration , Tank Set Up , Equipment , and DIY , so here it is for better or worse :~)
First of all , my apologies for the poor photos - I'll try for better in the future .
Also this is just a trial water fill - Hopefully it will look a little better when it's clear .

This is all pretty low budget - The tank is used , from CL , an AGA 90 corner overflow , formerly a reef tank , and a real mess to clean .Only couple scratches ;~)
There was one problem with the tank , that was easily fixed - The PO had a metal halide light over the center brace , which melted it pretty bad .
I cut the remains out , leaving stubs about 1 1/2" long , and made a new one from a 1/4" acrylic strip , bolted to the stubs with SS machine screws . 
No shadows now , and easy to remove for decorating - An improvement , I think! They should make tanks like this to begin with ;~)

After cleaning it up , I painted the outside back glass with Rustoleum "satin black" rattle can spray paint - I usually do this as a matter of course for all my tanks .
The tank just has the standard black rim - I've make these wood "trim rings" for many tanks over the years . I think they dress them up a little .

The unseen:
The filtration is a homemade trickle filter/sump , and a large canister . 
The overflow feeds a large square-shaped bucket , filled with limestone chips , topped with bio balls and bonded pad . Probably about 3/4 cu ft of media total .
The bucket is contained in a large (30 gal ?) Rubbermade tub (the sump), drained by a 1" bulkhead fitting . The tub also contains the heaters .
Before leaving the tub , the flow passes through another plastic box containing about 2L of Seachem Matrix .
Recirculation is from an old Blueline Aqua mag drive external pump - 800gph . I have to throttle it back a little ;~)

The canister is a very large old OTTO - purchased very cheap on close-out , when they stopped selling them . 
I don't know the actual capacity , but just one of the trays used up another 2L of Matrix . Also don't know the flow , but it appears to be PLENTY .

Now for some visuals :~)

I started out to make a foam background , but didn't really like the way it was turning out , so I went back to basic ROCKS .
The rocks are large sandstone "river rocks" I bought from a local guy that does fireplaces and patios . In this part of Florida , there's sadly no local rock .
There's probably a couple hundred lbs in there . The funny thing , is that some of the "boulders" are so big , they make the tank look small :









A side view - The "reef" is built around an "armature" of a concrete 1/2 block (4" thick) , stood on edge .
The rocks are tabbed together and to the block with black waterfall foam , where you can't see it - The whole thing is actually very stable . Rock solid , in fact ;~)
I first cut a piece of 1/4" acrylic I had , to fit the tank bottom , and built on that . The sand is just washed sand from my road - similar to PFS , but free :









A shot around the end - I built it as a sort of "peninsula" reaching out from the overflow chamber . 
I think this might help to defuse aggression , as the fish can't see the whole tank at once . There are caves and crevices too numerous to count .
I can also add more rocks to the back , and make a veritable labyrinth of caves if I need to : 









And last , my El Cheapo LED lighting :~) These are "Daylight White" (about 6000K +/-) LED yard lights . I bought them on E-bay for $13 a piece - Free shipping . 
Also , you cant see it , but underneath there's a blue LED rope light , the length of the light rail , that works pretty good as a moon light . That one was $20 .
I should make a video of this lighting - The "spectral", rippling effect is truly amazing - It really looks like sunlight in shallow water! Fun to watch , even without fish :









Anyway , sorry for the long post , but I just wanted to show that you can set up a tank without sending big $$ .
I'm sure the set up is not to everyone's taste , but I think it's kind of interesting , and natural looking .

Tom ......... Cycling , now .


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## rgr4475 (Mar 19, 2008)

Looks good. I would be concerned with 2 things. 1st, the size and height of the rocks. I would be worried that a pile would give way, a rock would fall forward and crack the glass. I personally would lower the height of the pile with a few less rocks. Second, I would invest in some glass tops for your tank. Not only will it help reduce evaporation, but keep your fish from jumping out. I have lost a few fish that jumped out in the middle of the night on a newer tanks before I was able to get the tops on the tank.

I am also a fan of adding a little color to the set up. Perhaps a few small subtle fake plants. There are some real nice fake plants out there for a few extra bucks. Good luck!


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## somefish (Sep 2, 2012)

Ha! I knew it wouldn't be to everyone's taste ;~)

I have several other heavily planted tanks (With live plants) , and I wanted something completely different this time - Just rocks , sand , and fish - Lake Malawi .
Hopefully , the fish will provide enough color .

As I said about the rock pile - It's stuck together with waterfall spray foam . I would have to pry the rocks apart , so I'm not too worried .
I took quite awhile to arrange them stably , and then glued them well with the foam - Unless there's a serious earthquake (In Florida?) , it should be good .

When I first started keeping fish , I used glass tops , closed light hoods - the whole nine yards . To me they were more of a nuisance than not . 
For the last several years I've gone to open top tanks - It's just simpler for feeding , maintenance , etc .
I have an auto top up system , with redundant float switches in the sump . This bucket of RO water takes care of evaporation .
The top up container is about 1/3rd the tank volume , so is fine between water changes .

I'm not recommending open top tanks to anyone here - It's just how I do it . If they jump , they jump - Oh well . 
And I HAVE had them jump - 3 fish I think , over about 7-8 years ;~)

Tom


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

The cover was my comment as well. Since Malawi are big chasers, they are also big jumpers. With all those rocks, I assume you are going mbuna.

I've had 3 fish jump in the last year and this was from COVERED tanks with maybe 1/2" x 4" space open. One was a Synodontis, for goodness sake, LOL.


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## somefish (Sep 2, 2012)

Well , if even the catfish are jumping , I guess I'll probably have to do something :-| Sigh .............
I've made covers from 1/4" acrylic before , so it's not a big deal either way . They have to be sectional anyway , to fit around my replacement brace .
I just hope they don't diffuse my lights too much - that would be sad .

And yes , mbuna . But I haven't decided which ones , or how many , yet . Another topic ..........
Oh , and some catfish too - Jumpers or not ;~)

Tom


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## BrendanMc (May 30, 2012)

I think overall the setup looks very good, my one comment is the lighting. It looks very yellow to me, are you committed to those lights? I like some actinic in my lighting, but that's just me. If you like them, then that's all that matters.

If your rock mass weighs a couple hundred pounds, how do you plan on removing it if you have to?


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## somefish (Sep 2, 2012)

The lights are actually pretty white . Part of the color is the ambient light photo , and part is the water - The water in the photos still has a fair amount of dissolved iron .
I'm using the water straight from our well , as it has pretty good pH and hardness , but unfortunately also has iron .
The tank is presently filled with water that I've treated to remove the iron , and looks a lot better .

I started out using chlorine (bleach) to precipitate the iron out (the subject of previous post). 
This worked , but was pretty nasty . I've since gone to using hydrogen peroxide - much less toxic , actually cheaper , and no residuals .

I CAN take the rocks apart , if I ever need to . Hopefully not too often ;~) 
There's really no place for fish to get trapped or "lost" in the upper part of the stack . However , there are a couple rocks around the bottom back , that are just "leaning" . 
If I remove them , they expose the cavities in the concrete block core , so I can get in there if needed . Not super easy , but possible .

I knew this arrangement would have some compromises , but I wanted to try something different from the "rocks-on-the-bottom" look, with all the fish staying down there.
If it turns out bad , I'll just have to re-do . It wouldn't be the first time ;~)

Tom


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