# 450G tank build



## keg75 (Feb 6, 2006)

Hi All,

It has been a very long time since my last post. Lots has stuff happened and basically I've been starting from afresh. From my past life I came away with two tanks, one 4'x14"x18" and another thats 3'x14"x24". These tanks contain Tanganyika cichlids in my "long" tank and Malawi Mbuna in my "tall" tank. I have wanted to get at least one display tank that I could be proud of and the 3' was intended to be that when it was started. It didn't pan out too well as non of the stuff i planned eventuated and the background has worn to the point you can see polystyrene through the cement covering.

So I'm looking to start from scratch and this time i'm planning everything to the finest detail. I am looking to do one tank for Malawi Mbuna and one tank for Tanganyika Shellies and other suitable tank mates.

I am looking at creating a tank that will be fairly automated or have functionality that it will make it a breeze to do things. Ie water changes, feeding and monitor things like ph.

The tank will be 96"x36"x30" (L x W x H) or a 96" x 30" x 30".

I have a list of things that I would like or desire.

Coast to Coast overflow with "Bean Animal" overflow system.
Low power consumption
Silent running
Auto feeding system
Water change system
Led light hood with sunrise cycle, moon cycle, cloud modes.
Feature Cabinetry for stand and hood. 
In cabinet sump
All filtration etc to be within footprint of tank if possible.
DIY custom background.
Fluidized bed filter
Algae Scrubber filter
Secondary Eheim external filter - existing prof 3
flow rate above 3 times per hour.

The tanks I have currently are

*The Long*


















*The Tall*
Current Pic








Current Closeup








Older Closeup








Original Background... I actually pulled this off fairly well without having visible caves.









This is the first chop at ideas for the new tank. 









If you have any thoughts or considerations then let me know. I hope you will follow with interest and I can get a tank build thats worthy of tank of the month... 

Thanks keg75


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

I really like the long tank- you pulled off the brick stand very nicely.


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## Morpheen (Jul 21, 2010)

Looks very good in concept and very similar to what I have planned for my next build, so I will be following this closely and look forward to your updates as you progress!

What pumps do you plan to use?
How will you achieve the auto water change? Drip system and gravity drain in the sump?
Are you adding a controller to the tank to help in automation?
Which LED lighting are you going with?


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

Also very curious to see the choices you make concerning different components, as well as a lot of pictures

opcorn:


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## keg75 (Feb 6, 2006)

The long tank is inherited. It's 17years old and then some as the glass was buggered when I took it over from the ex's mum.

The concept is just that. I did it up in sketchbook pro. I am currently drawing it up properly in autocad. I want to keep everything within the tank footprint if possible. So will draw everything. On the bean animal overflow do you need the riser pipes? Can you use a straight tee rather than a sanitary tee? I was in a retic store other day and guy there said retic pipe and plumbing pipe are different sizes. He had most stuff so will go with retic pioe (pressure pipe). But retic pipe don't have the curved part on the tee's, they're just straight 90's. I got some acrylic to try out a modified bean animal system to minimise footprint. I'm assuming if areas are equal then it should work fine.










Pumps - royal exclusive red dragon, eheim 1262 or ???? Priority is noise and power output minimisation. I think the red dragon is about 4500lph or 8000lph depending on model so that a turn over around 3 to 5 per hour. I would consider running two pumps if it means I get a quieter system. I am looking to noise proof the cabinet to minimise ambient noise. I'm in Australia and pumps etc are expensive so I will probably buy from uk or somewhere. Red dragons can be ordered on line direct but I'm not sure if they'll ship to aus.

Water change would probably be a tee off the return line. Then I hook up a hose to the return tee and dump water on my lawn. As for filling not sure yet...possibly will just use the same return line tee but connected to a tap for filling.

Controller - probably the profilux 3.1nex as a kit. This should cover light cycles, temp, ph, water top off for evaporation. Day night pump cycle - ie slow down pumps at night.

Led lighting I'm not sure the ecotech radion is a cool system but more for marine. I recon I could source the appropriate led, drivers etc and do it myself. I would probably get the circuit printed rather than do dodgy looking wiring. With some nice aluminium heatsinks it could be interesting project. I have a mate who did soldering circuit boards for a living so maybe he can help design it.

I hope to do things in such a way that I can possibly produce the product for those that can't or won't DIY.

I hope I can get this up n running. I suspect it going to cost a bit so I'll try nd tie down a budget then get things going. I'm not in my own house ATM. I am at mum's so can't be building 8' aquariums at her place. Looking for my own place so hope that all comes together soon.

Anyway hope that answered the questions.

Thanks keg75

P.s. see condition of tall tank background, that's due to a Pleco (deceased) and a Gibbi gnawing on it... Looked good initially, there's about 20 caves in there and tunnels. Left side is the exit pipe and right top is the fill pipe. I'll do something similar for next build. Hopefully my idea works and can be marketed as a product, pardon me if I don't detail this just yet.


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

keg75 said:


> On the bean animal overflow do you need the riser pipes? Can you use a straight tee rather than a sanitary tee?


The riser pipes are important - you could always put them inside the overflow box though. The straight 90's shouldn't cause an issue, but sanitary are standard.


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## ratbones86 (Jun 29, 2012)

My question is if you make those caves into the background how will you clean them out when it comes time to? i have thought about doing this idea also for my 125 and was just curious to your thoughts on that matter.


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

To add to that, catching a fish in that tank is going to be a blast without relatively permanent rockwork to hide in. I guess you could always drape something in front of the background. Have you considered this? I'm sure it was a bit different in the smaller tanks, but 8' is a lot of room to run away in, especially with caves to dart in and out of.


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## keg75 (Feb 6, 2006)

ratbones86 said:


> My question is if you make those caves into the background how will you clean them out when it comes time to? i have thought about doing this idea also for my 125 and was just curious to your thoughts on that matter.


The background you see there (in pics above) I basically shaped the rocks and then on the back I carved holes that I thought would suit maingano and cobue etc... I made the foam relatively smooth but the surface would be like sand paper as per the front coating. I didn't think about dirt etc and cleaning when I made it. After some time, you could see residue in caves, the only way I could clean it, was by putting a hose in the hole and flushing the gunk out. I cant get access to clean properly. Maybe a pipe cleaner would work.

For the new background if I go down the same approach as last time I will make it such that the caves all slope to the glass and there would be a route where the water could exit easily along with the gunk. I would also consider making the caves smooth so they could be wiped. I also thought about instead of gluing the background in with a mass of silicon I would just make it so that it could be press fitted so that the "modules" could be removed for cleaning or fish location.



> To add to that, catching a fish in that tank is going to be a blast without relatively permanent rockwork to hide in. I guess you could always drape something in front of the background. Have you considered this? I'm sure it was a bit different in the smaller tanks, but 8' is a lot of room to run away in, especially with caves to dart in and out of.


i recently had to move the fish to a new location. I had a nightmare of a time removing the fish as they could go into the background and sit there. I tried all sort of methods to extricate them but I gave up. I had to go so I kept some water in the tank where the fish were and moved them in the background. Not a wise move as I lost a couple in subsequent days...  I couldn't wait for them to come out so I could block the hole, unfortunately. In the new tank I will have a removable background (yet to be determined) and I will be able to get into the tank and remove the fish when the need arises. If I have a free swimming tank with no permanent rocks I would remove the rock and then place a net in and walk it to one end and scoop out the fishies, smilar to bank to bank net fishing in a stream that researchers do to capture al the organisms.



> The riser pipes are important - you could always put them inside the overflow box though


I got some offcut acrylic from a shop the other day and made a test of the overflow I'm thinking of doing. Basically a Coast to coast with integrated Bean animal Overflow. I have a couple of pics that show what the durso standpipe will do when the BA overflow is in operation. I couldn't get a siphon to form but I had a 1.5" rectangle outlet and faucet pouring water in, major flow imblance. When I held my finger over the end it seemed to hold it but not a good test bed. It basically worked like a flush on a toilet I'm not quite sure what the risers will do in the bean animal overflow on the full siphon pipe. In the siphon pipe does the air in the riser get sucked out as the siphon establishes? I am going to work out my faucet flow rate and then do another test bed with appropriate size. to see if I can create the siphon as per beans example. without the humungous T's 90's etc. I want to keep the system within the foot print of my tank and I could turn them so they are in the tank under cover but I'd still like to minimise If i can.

The pic below is the overflow tester. Bit hard to make out but the water is trickling down the pipe as per the secondary pipe. The water is sitting above the "90".


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## keg75 (Feb 6, 2006)

well i logged into the forum for the first time in ages. I don't know when the last time i was here (it was the old format so that may give idea how long ago. Well the long tank failed - the silicon on the bottom edge gave out after 20yrs I guess? My bro come home from drinking and he walked into the garage. Later I went out and the floor was covered in and and water. There was still about 2" of water left in the tank luckily the bowed glass closed enough to stop all water draining. I managed to get some clean tubs and transferred the fish. Set up an air line and filter and cleaned up. Went out the next day and picked up a tank from Vebas in O Conner (Perth WA). 

I setup up the new tank and transferred the water I had and put the fish in. I think I lost 1 fish following that incident which is a pretty good outcome. 

Over time the fish died off and I was looking to tear down tank then went to get some thing from Vebas and came home with some calvus to make a tanganikya tank. That tank died off (those fish were finicky) and I i've pretty much got 1 gibbiceps in that tank now. it is bout 18" long now. 

On Christmas day (2021) I came home and long tank and the tall tank were hot. It was 40C for couple days prior and the garage where they are setup was almost as hot at midnight. I had mass fish loss on the tall tank. I setup a fan blowing at the surface as there was one fish kinda still alive, to cool the tank (via evaporation) and the temp dropped from 32/33 to 27-29. The next day I noticed there were 4 babies in the tank - so unsure how they survived. 

Anyway not much of an update on the project. I haven't got my own house so all plans are redundant. I have started back at work so hopefully that will happen soon. It would be good to have a huge display tank inside the house so that i didn't have to worry about cooking fish (like i did the other day). unfortunately the flooring where i live is wood and risk of damage to floor from a tank is quite high. considering the long tanks failure. 

Anyway hope all are okay and wish every one a better 2022 than we had for the 2020 and 2021.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Thanks for the update and glad to have you back again! So sorry for the tank failures, fish losses and the weird weather causing the latest losses.

Best wishes to you also in 2022 and beyond. Don't be such a stranger when you get ready to start another fish related adventure.


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