# 72G Tank Journal



## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

I am in the process of redoing my 72G bowfront Oceanic tank from heavily planted to a Tang cichlid tank. Here is a shot of it a couple of years ago (before I was too busy to put a lot of time into it).








one more:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

I have an aquaterra background arriving next week and have decided to remove the top of the tank for easier installation of the background. This way I will also avoid cutting it into modules and reattaching inside the tank. The removal of the top portion of the tank was "unpleasant" to say the least. Half way through the task I wondered if I was ever going to get it off. Here is what it looks like as of now:


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## cichlidfeesh (Apr 6, 2009)

Planted tanks do take a lot of work, but yours looked excellent! Good luck on the transformation, those are always fun


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

Stunning planted tank, *AElliott*. Can't wait to see what you do with a cichlid tank. :thumb:


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## mg426 (Nov 24, 2009)

I find it very interesting as well, I am just looking into the plant thing. I will be watching your thread. Great work !!


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)




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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Well, I finally received my background today and it was the wrong color. Man am I bummed. Progress is definitely halted on the tank.


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Received my 50#s of lace rock today. Should receive my new background tomorrow. Love the look of the lace rock, but I think Ill need more. Too bad, this stuff isnt cheap.


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Received the new background today, hard part was cutting it to fit. After several hours of utility blade and dremel tool action its in the tank. I still need to cut the inlet/outlet spots and silicone everything back together, but I will hopefully get that all done tomorrow night. I hope to have water in the tank by sunday. For now Im happy to see this thing start to come together. Tank is dusty and by no means clean but heres a few shots anyway:


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## LSBoost (Jan 21, 2010)

I like it.


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## ilikemyusername (Mar 1, 2010)

wow, that is going to look really great with that rock and background both being gray then...BAM! fish colors pop!


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## Robtheheretic (Nov 14, 2009)

wow that is a really cool background how much it set up back? i might get one sence i could never make on wrong kind of art for me : (


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Finished two screened "ports" for filter- and outflow spraybar mounted within the background. Tonight I sealed the bottom of the background with sealant. I am planning to let it cure for 24hrs before I finish up sealing the sides. I figured I would wait so that it wouldnt move or shift while applying the last of the sealant. I am planning to cut some black sponge mat to fit in the opening of both of the cutouts that you see, serving as both a removable prefilter and also hiding its location a bit. 
Filter intake 1:








Filter intake 2 and spraybar:


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## cichlidbarn (Mar 3, 2010)

Real nice :thumb:


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

Robtheheretic said:


> wow that is a really cool background how much it set up back? i might get one sence i could never make on wrong kind of art for me : (


i was wondering too.. but maybe its a trade secret 8)


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## cjacob316 (Dec 4, 2008)

=D> these things are well worth the money, just wish i had it :lol:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Thanks for all the positive feedback guys:



Robtheheretic said:


> wow that is a really cool background how much it set up back? i might get one sence i could never make on wrong kind of art for me : (


This one was around 250 with shipping. Depending on the size you want and the level of detail they range from around 60 bucks to around 300. If I had to do it over again I may have gone with one that wasnt so deep. You cant tell very easily from the picture but it cuts a lot of swimming area out of the tank. As a result I dont think I will be able keep as many fish as I once thought.

I finished the sealing of the sides of the background today as well as applied sealant to the rim of the tank. Using the sealant was tough with all the crazy angles I had. I will need to go back with a razor blade and clean it off the glass a bit. Plumbed the UV sterilizer and inline heater, and got all my filter media together. Also cut a 6inX47in strip of egg crate (light diffuser panel) to put down before the sand for my rocks. I couldnt make it very wide on account of the bowfront, and with only about 50# of rock its likely unnecessary. Just need to wait 48hrs to add water.


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## jlive (Nov 30, 2008)

Man, that background looks great. Can't wait to see it with some water and fish! I have a 72g bowfront too. I've been checking out those aquaterra backgrounds for a while. 
How much swimming area, in inches, does the background take up?
From your pics, it looks like the lace rock matches the background color perfectly. Do they really match as much as it appears in the pictures? Thanks for posting your progress.


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

jlive said:


> How much swimming area, in inches, does the background take up?


It isnt pressed against the back wall of the tank to allow room for a filter intake but it takes up an average of 4in. There is one point it sticks out to around 8in., however. As you know with a bowfront 72 its only 18in at its widest point and 12 in at the thinnest, so it does take a good chunk out of the footprint. I think Ill only be able to keep 3-4 Calvus with 8-10 Cyps.



> From your pics, it looks like the lace rock matches the background color perfectly. Do they really match as much as it appears in the pictures?


The rock is a similar shade of grey, but I havent really compared the two yet. I need to rinse off the rock today (dusty and dirty still) and I have a feeling the color might look different once its wet.



> Thanks for posting your progress.


Sure! I always like seeing how other tanks come together and wish others would show theirs more often. Who knows maybe it would help someone at some point.


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Added sand and filled tank up tonight. Still pretty cloudy from the eco-complete but I really like the look of the sand. Was going to add the rocks but things were so murky after adding the sand I figured I wouldnt be able to tell what I was doing. I will probably try a few different layouts tomorrow evening. Dosed ammonia to 2 ppm to begin my fishless cycling. I think my lights (2x65w @6500K) are going to be too bright so I ordered some 50/50 bulbs. I think subdued lighting with the rocky atmosphere will look a lot better.
Still cloudy but here are a few shots:


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## xavi_pr (Mar 9, 2010)

hey my first post, really nice thank :thumb:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Added some of my lace rock this evening. I doubt this is the eventual setup I will use for the rocks. I am torn between creating enough caves/crevices for the eventual rock dwellers (5-6 black calvus), and not covering up the background with too much rock. I want it to look somewhat natural with as many caves possible but without looking "manufactured." I also wanted a look of two distinct rock piles with a small open area between (which this current look doesnt exemplify). Any input is welcome as *** got probably 15-20lbs more rock so I can play with it a bit. Pictures are still a bit cloudy from moving around a bit, and I still have a slightly milky film from adding the sand. Looking forward to a water change to hopefully alleviate that issue.


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## LSBoost (Jan 21, 2010)

That looks really nice. The substrate fit in with the background.

The cloudy water might be from the bacteria bloom too.


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## jlive (Nov 30, 2008)

Man, i am loving that BG. :drooling: The sand looks perfect in there. I can see that adding the rock is gonna be tricky. Like you said, u don't wanna hide too much of the background. have you tried 2 tall vertical rock stacks. One stack at each end of the tank. The right side of the bg seems to have a "line" that u could follow for stacking the rocks. I'm thinking that might look good and give the fish plenty of caves. You never really know how it's gonna look until you actually move everything around. Thats half the fun of this stuff, you gotta keep at it to find the "perfect setup".
here's the line i'm talking about:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Thanks for the suggestion Jlive. I think I will try and move the rocks around this afternoon to get a little bit different look. The only problem is that there is no way I can stack it higher than maybe a foot on either side of the tank. The pieces of rock that I have are too curved and wont safely stack evenly. Ill see what I can come up with later today. Fortunately the hazy bacterial bloom is passed and things are pretty clear in the water column.

My cycling seems to be going very quickly as I have been maintaining around 2ppm ammonia daily. Im already reading a spike in nitrite over 1ppm. *** been keeping the temp around 80F and adding 10ml seachem stabil daily. Not really sure if the stabil is helping but I figure it cant hurt. The media in my canister is the same that I used in my previous setup, and would assume that all of the bacteria would have died off during the 2-3 weeks that the tank was down. I am a little surprised to see that I can go from dosing up to 2ppm in the evening and am reading nearly 0 in the am.

I switched over my bulbs to coralife 50/50 from the 6700k bulbs. Im really happy with the look of these bulbs. I havent decided wether or not to switch the orientation of the blue/white sides of the bulb in the fixture. As of now the left bulb is blue in front and white in back, and on the right the bulb is white in front and blue in the back, you may be able to tell in the picture: 








I may switch the left bulb so that both sides of the tank are more white in the front with the bluish light more on the background. 
A side shot with some clear water:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Moved the rocks around to get closer to what I am looking for. Im not sure how natural it looks but it does create 6 caves for the eventual 5-6 calvus. Still slightly cloudy:








Small open space:








Close up of left rock pile, some good sized caves:


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## cichlidbarn (Mar 3, 2010)

I like change in the setup with lights and rocks - would be a added benefit if some plants were added.

Nice job :thumb:


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## hessels92 (Mar 15, 2010)

wow planted tanks are a hard job but u nailed it


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## tlspmm (Feb 1, 2009)

SWEET!! Super nice job!!!Yes you might have a few fish less then your original thought process but who cares!! Background is sick!!! Don't want the fish to take away from it! ahaha just kidding. Keep up the good work and let us know how things are working out!


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## tlspmm (Feb 1, 2009)

SWEET!! Super nice job!!!Yes you might have a few fish less then your original thought process but who cares!! Background is sick!!! Don't want the fish to take away from it! ahaha just kidding. Keep up the good work and let us know how things are working out!


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## iCichlid (Sep 21, 2009)

Impressive!! background is amazing! Is it upside down? I'm looking at their site now trying to compare the Tang to the Malawi; both are nice!

I might start saving up for one! We're having new floors installed (replacing carpet and going with hardwood) so the tank will need to be drained and moved for a few days. Perfect time to do a project like this!!


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## Vadimshevchuk (May 23, 2009)

That is so nice. This is in my top favorite 5 so far! :thumb:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

iCichlid said:


> Impressive!! background is amazing! Is it upside down? I'm looking at their site now trying to compare the Tang to the Malawi; both are nice!


Thanks for all the kind words everyone. Im not sure if its upside down or not. I set it up so that I had some caves and shadows created, but I have seen it both ways. I liked the malawi bg originally but it would have taken up more room in the tank than the tang bg.


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## barst00lprophet (Jan 24, 2010)

OMG!


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## ashilli48 (May 14, 2006)

never been so excited over an "empty" tank before....Great Look!


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## ksk_che_che (Sep 26, 2007)

I like the blue in the back and the white up front. That is really nice looking.


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## phorty (Oct 30, 2009)

Looks excellent!


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Fishless cycling update:
Dosing ammonia daily to maintain 2-3ppm.
Ammonia reading 0ppm daily (before dosing).
NO2 went from .5ppm yesterday to .2ppm today.
NO3 @ 30ppm.
PH 8.0

Hoping that NO2 will be reading 0 by this weekend and will be able to do the first water change. 
Looking forward to getting some life in this tank (other than microbial). I have been a little suspicious of dead spots behind the background so I added a hydor koralia pump to add some water movement. Added a few white lunar lights that Ill run for a few hours after the lights go off. I have stocked up on NLS food and some frozen brine shrimp. I cant think of anything else I need except of course fish.


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## Scorpio (Sep 27, 2003)

Looking good. That's is the kind of background I wan to have. :fish:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Cycling complete after 32 days.

Current readings:
NH3: 0ppm
NO2:0ppm
NO3:10ppm
PH:8.1

Ordering 5 inkfin calvus, 10 utinta blue cyprichromis leptosoma. Should be here by wednesday, cant wait!!


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## chrisFewell (Feb 3, 2009)

wow I love your sand, I think im going to have to ditch the pool sand and get that type from my work...much more money but man I like that.


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## fishnmaine (May 29, 2008)

*AElliott*
Hello,

I have this same background for my 90 gal but didn't put it yet.....It's been months now....I have my black 3m colorquartz for sand.....I love lace rock and of course I can't get it here at all.....and I been wondering how it would look with this background....Lord and Behold I saw yours tonite and now I can see what it looks like with the grey background.....After months and months of trying to look something even similar.....there you are....great job....weird how some people have the same ideas, cool........But my question to you is where did you get the lace rock?????I have one site that I might buy it from http://store.seacorals.net/aqgrlaro.html But if your found somebody else better could you let me know......Again great job

fishnmaine


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

fishnmaine said:


> *AElliott*
> Hello,
> 
> I have this same background for my 90 gal but didn't put it yet.....It's been months now....I have my black 3m colorquartz for sand.....I love lace rock and of course I can't get it here at all.....and I been wondering how it would look with this background....Lord and Behold I saw yours tonite and now I can see what it looks like with the grey background.....After months and months of trying to look something even similar.....there you are....great job....weird how some people have the same ideas, cool........But my question to you is where did you get the lace rock?????I have one site that I might buy it from http://store.seacorals.net/aqgrlaro.html But if your found somebody else better could you let me know......Again great job
> ...


Thanks fishnmaine-
I ordered from the same source and was happy with what I received. If you have any questions on installing the background please fire away, I couldnt find many tips when I was researching. Theres definitely something unique about lace rock.


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## JennKS (Jul 12, 2009)

AElliott said:


> I switched over my bulbs to coralife 50/50 from the 6700k bulbs. Im really happy with the look of these bulbs. I havent decided wether or not to switch the orientation of the blue/white sides of the bulb in the fixture. As of now the left bulb is blue in front and white in back, and on the right the bulb is white in front and blue in the back, you may be able to tell in the picture:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The bulbs make a huge difference, I love the color! Tank is looking great :thumb:


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## K-ROK (Mar 31, 2010)

Nice tank. I have a 90 gallon that is cycling. I have same backround, same sand and same rocks just piled a little different. LOL I would like to show you pictures of mine but dont know how to upload them. My tank is in its 7th day of a fishless cycle.


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## prov356 (Sep 20, 2006)

The restacking of the rocks was a huge improvement. Looks a lot more natural to me. The other way had too much of the 'stone wall' look to it. As it is now, when you view it, it sort of draws you into the cave in the middle. Upside down or not, that was the better way to install the background. My last suggestion would be to add shoaling xeno like flavipinnis or bathyphillus, or any of the maternal mouthbrooders. Looking good. If you've haven't gotten the 'tank of the month' yet with this, you should. :thumb:


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

prov356 said:


> My last suggestion would be to add shoaling xeno like flavipinnis or bathyphillus, or any of the maternal mouthbrooders. Looking good. If you've haven't gotten the 'tank of the month' yet with this, you should. :thumb:


Thanks for the kind words Tim. Im hoping that the cyps I will be getting will shoal a bit, but Ill have to see how they behave. My fish will be arriving tomorrow and couldnt be more excited. The vendor I ordered them from has been great and told me that my fish will only be bagged for 4 hrs by the time they touch down at the airport-pretty cool!!


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Picked up my fish last night and all seems to be good. Man, I guess I should have realized that these guys were going to all be so tiny! The vendor whom I ordered from (who did a great job BTW) stated that the calvus would be an in. long and cyps would be 1.5 but my god they are small. All in all I am very happy with them, they were eating NLS small fish pellets within an hour of acclimation and all appear to be in excellent health. Looks like 2-3 of the cyps are already doing the "practice" shake. Pretty funny considering their dimunitive size and lack of any coloring. It will be really great to watch these guys grow and color in as time goes by. The calvus I know are slow growers but Im hoping a year from now they will be 2in. Not easy getting any quality photos of these guys but here are a couple....
Inkfin Calvus (which currently look like yellow calvus in their juvenile state):









Cyps:


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## jagz (Nov 1, 2009)

Aelliot,

Your aquarium looks phenomenal!! Your hard work has definately paid off. Please continue to post pics as the fish grow


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## mel_cp6 (Feb 3, 2009)

great job on the tank.
i must say your planted tank was also done superbly.
well done.


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## Scorpio (Sep 27, 2003)

Looking good. I will try to replicate your background into my 375. 8)


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

I thought I would give a small update:
Fish are doing very well and growing very well (especially Cyps). The Cyps now have what faintly appears to be vertical stripes and are showing some color but nothing to distinguish males from females , except the shake that seems to be performed by at least 2 or 3. The Calvus are all growing (albeit slowly) and have seen a small amount of aggression, mostly from the largest (male it seems) calvus who seems to have claimed one entire rock pile as his own.

I have been battling some pretty persistant brown diatoms for several weeks now, causing me to cut back lighting to 8 hours and more frequent water changes, to little effect. I am hoping it will subside in the next 4 weeks or else I will get some plants to hopefully allow some green algae a foothold.

A video I shot using my new FlipHD camcorder (Im still getting used to it)
http://s757.photobucket.com/albums/xx21 ... -21-10.flv


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## bearded lab (Apr 28, 2010)

Your tank looks awesome! I can't get over your background, it's like you took a section right out of a real lake. I only wish that there was a way to make a cheap diy background that looked like that!


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## Airgekko (May 26, 2004)

Wow! What an awesome tank. You're inspiring me to add the same background to my 72 Oceanic bow.


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## Airgekko (May 26, 2004)

Okay, so I ordered an Aquaterra grey back ground and it should be here next week. The only part of this that has me worried is the removal of the top brace and trim to avoid cutting the background up. Any tips or suggestions? Do I just take a utility knife to the silicone on both the front and the back of the trim?


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

Airgekko said:


> Do I just take a utility knife to the silicone on both the front and the back of the trim?


Basically yes. You will have to run the blade inside and out of the rim, especially at the corners where the silicone is heavier. You have to keep running the blade through the silicone and eventually you can grab the lip of the rim and it will start to give way. Whatever you do- be patient and if it isnt releasing you just need to keep running the blade through. It probably took me 3 hours to get it off completely. Remember to take a straight razor and remove all the old silicone once its off and its probably a good idea to use some rubbing alcohol on the glass after all the silicone has been removed. Good luck- Its no fun at all....


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## Airgekko (May 26, 2004)

Very cool, thank you for your help. I'll start a new thread when I get started on my tank. :dancing:


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## dme102 (May 28, 2010)

Beautiful-looking set up. I wish I'd seen this before i did my steup!


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## dainiusiva (Jul 25, 2009)

Impressive!! background is amazing! really nice tank overall


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## AElliott (Feb 14, 2010)

An update: The male "utinta blue" cyprichromis have all grown to adult coloration, I ended up with 3 males and 6 females. Two males show the predominately blue features, while only one shows the yellow tail and is very stunning. My Inkfin Calvus are around 1.75 inches and are doing very well. All have claimed territories and have not seen too much aggression as of yet. This tank has pretty muched settled in and chemistry is very stable with very little algal growth. My camera cant take good shots of the cyps but here is the best I can do:
My dominant male:








Full tank shot:


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