# starting a fish tank room!



## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

hey guys hows it going..well I bugged the wife she said no..soo I went and bought the tanks anyway lol.. we have 2 spare bedrooms so one is getting turned into a fish room.. I went to petco and they have 1$ a gallon sale going on right now and I bought a 55 gallon and I picked up a 60 gallon with a t5 light, stand and everything else for 60$.. but im only gonna use the tank and the light.. also b4 the sale ends im going to buy a 40 breeder and possibly another 55 while the gettins good.. and today I went out and bought a **** of a lot of 2x4s and 2 big sheets of pine and some 1x1s for the canopy and stand.. heaters and canister filters will be coming in the next few weeks.. and ill keep posting pix of the process..

55 and 60gal tank








lots of 2x4s








some fine pine








I also have a bunch of these that the old owner of our house left in the back yard 








anyone in socal need them I gotem theyhave flat bottoms (ment for house siding) and there lighter then rocks
heres the bottom of the rocks.. im gonna paint them with cement paint to color match








and heres my pickins for my 2 new tanks








more to come tomorrow!


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Looks like you have some work cut out for you but also looks like you are going to have fun doing it. Good luck with the build...keep the pics coming!


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

Good luck with your wife too...LOL
What are you planning to keep in those tanks?


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## Austinite (Jul 27, 2013)

I'm so jealous, I wish I had extra rooms and a "fish room" is even better!


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

thanks guys! I def have a lot of work in front of me.. the cleaning out of the room and building of the stand starts today after I get back from taking my son to his wheelchair appt.. one of the tanks are gonna hold mbuna the other will be a few convicts to find a breeding pair.. I haven't decided what im gonna put in my 115gal yet.. when I pick up the 40gal breeder tank im proly gonna let my wife pick out what lil "pretty" fish she wants to make her happy  after all these tanks are set up ill proly put up a peacock tank and im trying to save one wall for a big frontosa tank.. but as it gets going I might change some things up.. but for the most part the room will be full of all types of cichlids.. I do like schooling fish to though (I just found this out) lol so I might have to put a tank with a bunch of schoolers... so many ideas my brain wont stop lol.. been hard to sleep at night the past week or so..just picturing ideas while I should be asleep lol


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

and the demo starts! water proof "fake" wood floors getting put in sometime this week I think possibly weekend once that gets laid things should start moving along more quickly... I just want to get these tanks set up and running but the wife says if I want to do this I gotta put a good floor down...I was just gonna paint that garage shop floor paint on it lol..


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

everything is getting goin good capet is up and glue is being scraped and the concrete is getting sealed today.. and tomorrow the floor will be getting laid and tanks will be getting put in the room!! painting the tanks tonight and building stands.. canisters wont be here till the end of the week or earily next week so ill have some time to do rock placement.. thinking of maybe making another 3d background for these tanks... I wasn't planning on it but I think I want to.. a partial background not a full one.. and build all the rocks and stuff should be fun I still got a lot of the materials from my last 3d background.. stay tuned for pix!


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

everything is ripped up and floor is sealed.. tomorrow morning the floor will get laid down.. ill post a pic of the floor that's going in when the wife gets home..








got all the prep for my 55 gallon tanks bench just gotta screw it together (left the screws in the wifes car) so that will get put together tomorrow or late tonight most likely
49" long 14" wide 3ft tall is the bench size or what it will be anyway..








still gotta cut the prep for the canopy.. anyway that's what I got for now.. pix of the floor im putting in in a few min


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

heres the flooring that's goin in


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Looking good so far!

Do you need to use underlayment with that particular brand of flooring? Are the joints glued or just click and lock?

One other thing to consider is if the electrical outlets available for the new room are sufficient for your purposes. I know we had to add additional circuits for some tank racks we put up after we found the entire walk out basement was on one 15A circuit.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

thanks and my bad its not laminate its like lanolium or how ever that's spelled.. the "fake wood" is flexable almost rubberized.. so it glues straight to the concrete but it gets put together like a laminate floor and looks exactly like a laminate floor..really hard to tell the difference.. and ya our whole house is is all on 20 amp breakers and is sectioned off into 3 main breakers soo im sure its more then enough and should trip any... heres more progress on the floor!


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

ment its like linoleum but its not linoleum*


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

It looks like the project is going well. If you don't mind, could you post the brand, style and color of the flooring? It may be helpful to other members that are considering a similar project. I'm also curious how it will wear in a fish room over time.

I chose a slightly thicker sheet vinyl flooring for my fish room to help alleviate the coldness of the concrete during the winter months. So far so good.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

ya ill take a picture right now of the box.. im in so cal soo our winters are like 75* lol I cant wait for winter this 1158 heat sux


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

heres a pic of the type of wood and heres the finished floor!! just need to go pick up some 1/4 round for the baseboards and I can put the stands and tanks in


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

That looks beautiful....you are doing a great job.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

tank you! today I got my second canister filter up and running on my 115gal.. tomorrow, well today the 13th my canister for my 55gal will be here as well.. got all the paint to paint the back of the tanks and bought some pea pebbles and play sand cause I couldn't decide what I wanted lol.. im used to gravel not sand.. I also bought Styrofoam to make some background or rockscaping.. got a lot of work to do this weekend we will see how far I get lol.. hopefully I will at least have the 55gal cycling stay tuned!


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

tanks are finally painted! ordered another canister today and the one for the 55 came in today.. gonna be carving out the rock scape tomorrow and putting together one of the stands but hopefully both of them if I get the time.. lil by lil its coming together


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

started cutting out pieces for the rock scaping.. kinda going for a slate rock wall playground.. I looked up pix of lake Malawi rock structure and taking bits and pieces of that and putting them together.. I still need to add pieces to the front of the flat sides so when I carve it it will have a textured 3d look and it wont look flat.. I think im gonna start to glue it together so the shaping can be done as one piece.. might cut some holes in it for the fish to swim thru and make some arches or something but im not sure yet.. this is gonna be the right side of the tank.. it started getting a lil big so I did cut some of the length down.. but the tank is 21-22" tall and the tallest point on this structure is 15" I want the fish to feel comfortable swimming at all heights in the tank.. also making it so there isn't really and caves that they can hide and poop in gonna be more so that they can hide around the structure that way it makes cleaning easier.. still gotta do the left side and make some small rocks for the center.. ill post more pix as I get more definition done to the piece.. water sealing and paint should be getting done tomorrow..
































I know it doesn't look like much now but once the definition gets put in and its not so flat I think its gonna pop.. not sure how im gonna do the left side but we will see


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

changed it up a bit since my first design was a lil to big and looked a lil funny soo after I carved it up I ended up cutting the big piece is half and turning into 2 different pieces.. heres where im at so far.. got a few more pieces that I glued together just waiting for them to dry b4 I carve them.. gonna add some smaller rocks to the mix maybe one more big one.. then getting started on carving the pieces for the other 60gal tank.. wife went to pick up more drylock since my gallon I had dried out and a few more concrete paints since one of the ones I had dried up as well...


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

testing out different styles

















got a bunch of other rocks cut out to, to see what I like.. ones that don't fit in this tank will be for the other tank hope you like it so far


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## Qozux (Sep 3, 2013)

Off to a super good start!
Though, to be completely honest, that middle one is a bit falic.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

ya I switched it up about 20 times since than lol sat in the garage all night rearranging and going in to make more rocks then coming back to arrange them around again lol.. heres where im at now. def like it better then the one from the last post
































hopefully this is better.. im gonna stare at it for a while lol but I think I like it.. gonna drylock it all and paint it so it looks more like rocks when im staring at it


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## Qozux (Sep 3, 2013)

How hard would it be to carve some tunnels in for hiding places?


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

wouldnnt be hard at all.. I def thought about it.. but thinking on how to do it in a way that wouldn't take away from a natural rock look..


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## Qozux (Sep 3, 2013)

This, but extrapolated would be awesome

http://asteropebc.blogspot.com/2011/07/ ... rocks.html


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

Are these made out of styrofoam? If yes, how are you going to weigh them down?


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## Graffiti (Aug 17, 2013)

Lookin good, cant wait to see it with some tanks in there, my girl would kill me if I tried doing this in my house.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

ya Styrofoam..no need to weight them down.. silicone holds them down more then good enough.. I did this on my 115gal show tank that's 32" tall and 4ft long and 18 or 19" wide I forget but did a center piece like this in the middle of the tank and theres a lot more water in that tank wanting to pull the styro rock off the bottom but its stayed strongly for over 3 years now and I go in and scrub it good if alge grows on it and it holds well... soo I have no worries that these wont hold.. just gotta use a good amount of silicone and pin them down just like u would a reg background with 2x4s or pvc and let it cure for a few days and it will hold no problem.. im really surprised no one has done it this way b4.. heres a pic of my 115gal with the center piece that's siliconed straight to the glass without any other support holding it down


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

So are you planning to silicone these new ones to your new tank? What if you want to change the way the tank looks? I would silicone them to a flat clear acrylic base and then your substrate can hold them down. Just my opinion...have never done something like this myself.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

trust me graffiti..the wife said no but I went and bought the tanks anyway lol..and said they go in the living room with the 115gal or in one of the spare bedrooms.. so I won that war lol.. plus getting the new floor put in the room was a helpful incentive lol..

and I never thought of gluing it to a piece of acrylic at the bottom..def a good idea but even then if I wanted to switch it up id have to make all new rocks.. I do it this way so I don't have to rearrange all the time..if I rearrange anything its the plants and even doing that gives the tank a whole new look..like my big tank it stays like that just rearrange the plants to give it a new look.. I just figure to that people that put huge rocks in their tanks that they done move them to much or take out to clean the tank.. its another reason why im taking so long to find a design I like so ill be happy with it staying like that.. and so far I like the placement now and I think it will stay like this.. I wanted a setup that's gonna be easy to clean, where poop and muck isn't gonna get caught up under stacked rocks and so I wont have to take out 100lbs of rock and replace and rearrange it everytime I clean the tank


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

on I side note I went and picked up a new 40gal breeder I think it is... its a pretty wide and decently long tank gotta love the petco 1$ A GALLON sale!! so now the fish room will have a 55 a 60 a 10 and a 40 might go pick up another 55 or some 10s and 20s b4 the sale ends on the 21st


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

and I built the stand for the 55.. just needs middle bracing and pine siding


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

just finished the second coat of dryloc! thought I was gonna be able to paint to night but I don't think im gonna get to it..









my cat took up a good part of my day.. we woke up this morning to the cat walkin around with a piece of fishing line hanging out her mouth.. tried to pull it out and she freaked and it was stuck.. thought there was a hook on it since it wasn't on my pole anymore and luckily b4 we took off to the vet I found the hook and weight on the floor...but she still needed surgery.. it end up going thru her small and large intestine.. the vet had to cut her in 5 different placed to get it all out.. she ate over 4 ft of fishing line... she is fine now but had to stay over night at the vet...


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

The DIY project is going very well, it looks good.

I'm very sorry about your cat and I'm glad you were able to get her to the vet quickly and the surgery appears to have gone well. I've discovered my cats are extremely fond of rubber bands and other stringy material so I take extra effort to keep these type items out of their reach.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

got the front of the stand put on and framed out the canopy.. got the 2x4s for the other tank stand cut out and ready to be put together.. lil by lil its coming together.. cutting out the doors today and trying to finish the other stand as well


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

I ended up building a new hood tonight.. made it taller, put in a light support.. gonna cut the sides for it tomorrow
















and I bought 2 new light fixtures today.. they both hold 2 t8s


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## JP_92 (Aug 2, 2013)

This room is going to be awesome! This is my 2nd look at this thread and a lot has happened keep up the good work. opcorn:


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

pretty much finished the canopy just needs the doors.. not sure if I should lower the light or not.. the tank doesn't have a lid (but I guess I could get one if needed) and the light doesn't have a cover around the bulbs so I was thinkin stay high enough so water don't get on the lights.. but a tank over and lower the lights might be a better idea
















the side moldings should be going on this week sometime..


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

dangit! gotta take the light back off lol.. forgot I need to seal the inside of the hood..


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

canopy is sealed! got the hinges today just gotta cut out the doors.. *** been lagging on building the other tank stand I got all the boards cut and ready just gotta screw them together.. might do it tonight to get it outta the way.. now im trying to decide if I should use play sand or pea pebbles in this tank.. or go buy some silica sand or cushed coral.. not really sure what I wanna do yet.. I do like the look of the play sand I put in my 10 gal though


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

got the substrate and rocks in place.. not sure if im gonna add anymore rocks I think I got it pretty good and theres lot of caves for them to hide and when plants are put in I think its gonna make it look awesome!.. im building the intake and spray bar right now gonna paint it with krylon fusion so it blends in to the background let that dry and install, fill up and start the cycle then its on to the next tank!.. this one took way longer then I thought it would.. I still need to add the corners to the stand and the doors but I can do that later.. I just want to get it cycling


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

> im really surprised no one has done it this way b4..


Looking good 

I've done it before, here's the latest one I did the rock on bottom with. ended up being my beta tank' Still holding well a year later no problem.
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=251935&p=1789344#p1789344


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

nice man that came out really nice! I might have to do that for my QT tank... heres a pic of the "spray bar" im making.. I didn't take a pic of the intake yet but the spray bar is kinda a 2 in one its gonna move the surface of the water and is gonna point down and at a angle to move water in the tank









I decided to not use the foam rocks on this tank but im gonna use them on my 60 gal since its wider and ill have more room to stagger the foam rocks.. when putting them in this tank it was to much of a straight line that looked unnatural


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

how long do you just wait for the krylon fusion to cure b4 u put it in the tank?


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Not sure about others, but I usually give it 48hrs just to be on the safe side. You could probably do it sooner but I always like to err on the side of caution.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

well I put together the other stand for the 60 gallon.. still needs the front section and the trim.. thinking of covering the window with something so I can put a tank infront of it without worry of algae growing.. now I gotta build a stand for the 40 gal breeder.. lil by lil closer and closer


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

bam! 55gal full of water and cycling.. still need to finish up the cab doors and canopy doors need to clean the glass up a bit as well.. but I might change how I made the canister outlet.. I made it into 2 separate outlets one to hit the surface one to go around the tank.. but that kinda lessened the flow.. its still flowing good but with only one it flows better... or I might just leave it and buy a power head.. but either way its going good.. now its on to the 60gallon and the 40gallon!


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Lookin good. I really like the flooring you put in the room as well.


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

thanks! I just put the 60 gallon on the new stand.. I need to pick up 20lbs more of crushed coral and it should be set up and cycling by tomorrow! after that its the 40gallon breeder


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

I think this is how im gonna have the 60gallon set up... gonna stare at it for a lil while longer and see if I like how the rocks are set up or if I wanna change them out for others and move them around but I think I like it...this will be a convict tank Im thinkin... wanna do a firemouth tank and a ram or eartheater tank I think.. the 40breeder would proly be perfect for the rams..


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## Discus-Glen (Oct 5, 2013)

Subscribed. I love what you are doing! Are you going to install a sink or any plumbing to aide your transfer?


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

thanks! got this tank setup now and cycling and its doing awesome.. might be a possibility to put a sink in their, it def would make it 100x easier.. but their is a sink in the laundry room that's about 30-35ft away I use a water hose and just go from their.. and theirs a floor drain right out the window that I might start using once I get everything setup.. im sure ill make it all in one space sooner or later.. right now just workin on getting everything setup and cycling.. gonna paint the back of the 40gallon soon gonna pick up the 2 2x4s I was short for making the stand tomorrow and get that going.. not sure if I want to buy another canister for the 40gal or if I just want to run 2 big HOB that I have


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

heres the 60 gallon firemouth tank








and now I just got the 40 gallon breeder convict tank set up


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

put 2 370gph HOB filters on the 40 for now.. will proly end up with a canister on it soon.. also found a 80 gallon long for a pretty good price that I might pick up as well


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## NJmomie (Jan 17, 2013)

The tanks came out really nice. How many are you going to end up with in the fish room?


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

thanks! not sure how many im gonna end up with... guess it depends one the size of the tanks I add.. ill proly be able to fit 7 tanks nicely.. I don't want to stack any cause I don't want it lookin like a pet shop lol...but I do still have one extra bed room haha.. but it would take a lot of sweet talkin the wife to get that room lol... my buddy said he will sell me this 240 gallon acrylic tank he has..its 8ft long 2x2 for 50$!! only catch is it needs to finish being refinished... hes on the last round of sanding b4 polishing.... and I really want it.. but ill have to read up on how to finish the refinishing


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

matt duarte said:


> thanks! not sure how many im gonna end up with... guess it depends one the size of the tanks I add.. ill proly be able to fit 7 tanks nicely.. I don't want to stack any cause I don't want it lookin like a pet shop lol...but I do still have one extra bed room haha.. but it would take a lot of sweet talkin the wife to get that room lol... my buddy said he will sell me this 240 gallon acrylic tank he has..its 8ft long 2x2 for 50$!! only catch is it needs to finish being refinished... hes on the last round of sanding b4 polishing.... and I really want it.. but ill have to read up on how to finish the refinishing


Your tanks are looking great. Good work on your fish room project. And I would grab that 240G tank...he's already done most of the work on the refinish for you!


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

I think these rocks I used are starting to bite me in the butt.. their color is starting to come off.. one of the tanks is a lil coudy.. went to clean the tank and brushed a rock and a bunch of dust came off and the color was gone... soo I think im gonna have to take them out.. then im gonna seal them with drylock and paint them myself with the quikcrete concrete paint..... great more work... I hate lookin at bare tanks with no structure... hopefully the fish don't mind having no cover for a few days


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

so I took the rocks out dryed them off with a hair dryer lol... sealed them with drylock and re painted them the best I could.. I might want to put one more lighter coat on them but their lookin good.. this pic was about a hr ago and they have dried and are a lil lighter anyway so I might be good... but check it out.. hope they look good in the tank... kinda wish I didn't have to paint them but I can have the color they came like coming off in the tank... crappy thing is I gotta do this to 2 other tanks that have these rocks in them lol..


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

the def look way darker in the pix then they do in person..


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Looks good. I did the rocks in my 55g tank awhile back and another thing I did was to add a little dry brushed green to them in spots to simulate green algae, makes for a neat natural look. Just something to try if ya get bored 

How come the color was coming off them before? were they coated with something else the first time?


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

not sure why the color was coming off..they were ment to go on the side of houses so that's proly why.... some green would be nice!


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## RangerRift (Aug 10, 2013)

WOW! That looks fantastic! Keep 'em comin'!


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

thank you! the rocks are getting put back in today so ill have updated pix! and on the 40gal that I haven't painted the rocks yet I put the light from my 115gal on their since I had a brighter one I bought recently and I put the bright one on the 115.. the light I took off the 115 for the 40gal had a blue light in it that I never used on the big tank cause it would drown out the color of the 3d background.. but when I put it on the 40 it made it awesome! and its growing some really nice green algae on the rocks and lookin really nice.. sux I gotta take those rocks out and paint those to but at least once their painted they will get some green algae growing on them!! pix to follow soon so stay tuned!


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## Kalost (Feb 27, 2013)

Just curious why did you paint the rocks?


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

the rocks were ment for the siding on houses.. so they have L shaped cuts in the backs and flat bottoms.. and after being under water in the fish tank if u brushed one of the rocks the paint or what ever they used to color them would come off in a dust and they would go back to what ever color they were casted in.. so I decided to paint them


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## matt duarte (Aug 29, 2013)

painted rocks are back in the tank!! and I think they came out awesome look even better under water! the fish are happy to have them back as well I decided to leave the fake stump I had in their while the rocks were out to see how I like it but other then that I couldn't me more happier with how it came out! I also put the rocks for the 55gal back in ill have pix of that in a few 
































I still gotta add some small rocks in front of the stump but other then that its done and lookin rocky


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## omac84 (Jan 2, 2016)

Do you have a finished picture of the fish room?


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## zimmy (Aug 13, 2010)

omac84 said:


> Do you have a finished picture of the fish room?


The thread is over two years old and the OP hasn't been on the forum in a year and a half. I'm doubtful we're going to find out.


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