# I have Rocks! And water!



## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

So, my long-awaited Mbuna build (I started messing with this project 5 years ago!) has finally got water in! And rocks! And sand and a Universal Rocks background wall and a light. I retooled the overflow from Durso (thanks to y'all who helped me sort out what my plumbing bits were!) to Herbie, and added a Continuous Automatic Water Change (CAWC) a la fmueller. I got the outflow and the inflow drip running tonight and built myself some rockscape today. And as an added bonus, I got my first 0 ammonia and non-zero nitrite reading on my fishless cycle tonight. :dancing: This is about as cool as things can get without fish. :fish: Here's a FTS, all empty so you can see my shiny new rocks. The tank is a 110 tall, but rotated 90 degrees so it's deep instead of tall. The footprint is 48" x 30".


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## Old Newbie (Feb 18, 2017)

Very Nice!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Congrats!


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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

Adding a couple photos of my Continuous Automatic Water Changer (CAWC) and sump so I'll have them handy.  Again, credit goes to fmueller for the design of the CAWC.

Here's a plan view of the sump showing inflow and siphon drain for the CAWC, as well as inflow from my Herbie Drain and my pump return...









Here's a front view of the CAWC outflow, which drains via 1" flexible hose to an adjacent exterior wall. I used 1.5" PVC and P-traps to create the U-bends, and a threaded strainer for the wet side. On the dry side, it leads via 1" flexible tubing to an exterior wall of the house where I have a low-profile threaded bulkhead strainer to keep my kids and other critters out of it.









Here's an overhead view showing how the CAWC goes in/out the back of the cabinet.


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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

And here's how the water gets INTO the sump... The 1/4" tubing runs along the base board and behind a couch to the tank in the corner of the room (on the same wall). We contemplated running it along the outside wall so we wouldn't have to cut and patch the wall on the inside, but I've got four small kids and we figured the temptation to mess with a tube coming out of "their" water faucet in the back yard and running along the foundation would be more than they could resist. As it is, there's only a foot or two of this tubing exposed between the couch and the tank cabinet, and they don't seem to have noticed it yet. Thanks for that are owed to Tinkerbell, I'm sure.










And a close-up of the Saddle Valve that makes the magic happen inside its magic utility box enclosure. Sorry for the rotten exposure. I could either blow out the wall and the tubing, or I could leave the valve shrouded in darkness... I know just enough about photography to know what's wrong, but not enough to know how to fix it.


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## wryan (Dec 6, 2015)

Your pics aren't showing up for me ... best to upload and host them directly on CF if at all possible.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

I can see the sump and siphon pics but not the tubing or saddle valve photos.

Question on your siphon overflow...
I'm installing a CAWC as well. I have ran all my piping for supply. Need to work on the drains. Did you just submerge the overflow and then set it in place? I need to build 6 of these, but in 3/4." Thinking of going with fmueller's design as you did, instead of what I've seen on YouTube.

Thanks


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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

harrumph. The photo hosting thing makes me want to bang my head on rocks. I don't know how to host photos on CF, I'm using Google Photos right now. I think of myself as reasonably tech savvy, and... *sigh*

As for the overflows, yes, Iggy. I built the siphon, in my case it was a little too big to just turn upside down in my sump, so I submerged it in a storage tub in my bathtub, then poured out a little water to prevent it sloshing, and carried it over to my sump and set it in place. I had to re-prime it once during maintenance because I needed to move things, and for that, I inverted it in the tank to remove air and then poured just a bit out for slosh prevention, and then moved it into the sump. It's just as easy as it looks and sounds!

I'll poke at the photos and see if I can fix them. *grumble, grumble, computers, grumble, grumble, frickin-frackin, grumble, grumble, get off my lawn!*


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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)




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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)




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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

wryan said:


> Your pics aren't showing up for me ... best to upload and host them directly on CF if at all possible.


did that fix it? I just found the "upload attachment" thingy. I'll try that next if this doesn't work.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Thanks! I'm always a bit cautious on things I'm new to. I ordered a section of clear pvc to take the place of the vinyl tubing fmueller had on his overflows. Just so I can easily check for any air.

So some of the pics are showing, but not all. I've always used Flickr or Imgur. The mobile/app for Flickr is brutal, though. I just do it from a laptop. Not sure on Google photos. And I'm not sure what wyran means by hosting on the site? I am not tech savvy


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

I see 2 more new pics so you are getting there!

@Iggy, C-F added the ability to upload photos from your device directly to the forum but it's a bit of searching to find it. Once you make a post, open Full Editor, scroll down the page and there is an Upload Attachment tab. Follow the steps starting with Filename: Browse >Add the file. I don't know how this process works on a phone, I've only used it on a laptop myself.  It took me a bit of practice including figuring out how to insert the pic where I wanted to in the post so it corresponded with my post comments. There is a limit on the number of pics per post!


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## wryan (Dec 6, 2015)

Thalas_shaya said:


> wryan said:
> 
> 
> > Your pics aren't showing up for me ... best to upload and host them directly on CF if at all possible.
> ...


Yup ... :thumb:

But ... (see below)



Thalas_shaya said:


> I just found the "upload attachment" thingy. I'll try that next if this doesn't work.


(In my opinion) it's always preferable to host the pics on whatever site you're posting on - that way they are here/there, and they won't get lost/disconnected ... if there is some change to a separate site where they are being hosted. It's particularly important on "How To" sorts of project write ups.

If you want to understand just how frustrating hosting them elsewhere can be, just have a look here at some older threads ... before CF was hosting pics.

Just my opinion.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Deeda said:


> I see 2 more new pics so you are getting there!
> 
> @Iggy, C-F added the ability to upload photos from your device directly to the forum but it's a bit of searching to find it. Once you make a post, open Full Editor, scroll down the page and there is an Upload Attachment tab. Follow the steps starting with Filename: Browse >Add the file. I don't know how this process works on a phone, I've only used it on a laptop myself.  It took me a bit of practice including figuring out how to insert the pic where I wanted to in the post so it corresponded with my post comments. There is a limit on the number of pics per post!


Amazing. Thanks.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

wryan said:


> Thalas_shaya said:
> 
> 
> > wryan said:
> ...


Agree 100%

So many pics gone forever from the forum. I believe many members used photobucket.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Glad to see you were able to post a pic Iggy!!

I used to use PB for hosting pics and then they changed the 'rules' so it became a real pain for all the various online forum members to either find and repost their pics anew or as in the case of people that no longer belong, those pics are gone forever. It's a real shame as so many of the links are now broken.

Sorry to derail the OP's topic.


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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

Just about got it all together!  Added a couple of small SunSun pumps behind the background to prevent stagnant water back there, tied some Java Fern to a couple of rocks, built out the rockscape a little more, routed my powerhead cord behind the background, dropped one kitschy little Sandy Squirrel decoration in there (Happy Wife...) and *drumroll* ordered some :fish: :fish: :fish:
My next photo will be finished product, here in a week or two!


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Congrats! Looking forward to future picks


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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

And now there are FISH!!!
There will be some Ps. socolofi coming along soon. Until then, I have these guys!


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

Looks good. Be careful with the Socolofi though, they could cause issues. Labs and Acei are pretty mellow, and Socolofi can be pretty aggressive. I've had a few Socolofi in the past and ended up having to get rid of them because they were just constantly after other fish, and that was in a big 240g. So just be aware of that ahead of time.


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## Thalas_shaya (Mar 10, 2014)

Hrmmm... I was hoping that the Socolofi would be comparable in aggression. I'll post this over to the Malawi species discussion forum to get more in depth.


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

They are aggressive but still work with 1m:4f and I've had long-term success with them with yellow labs.


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## Steve C (Oct 9, 2011)

A 1m -4f as DJ suggests might work well. I just know that with my all male tank they were trouble makers so that's what my caution was based on. If you go 1/4m-f as suggested above it may be a lot better.


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## fishndogs (Dec 5, 2017)

Awesome! I love how you turned the tank on its side to use all that height as depth.

The colours of the labs and acei play beautifully off each other. Which variant of socolofi are you getting, the blue or the white? I have a hankering for a combo of blue socolofi with yellow labs -- they look like colour variants of the same fish 

Can't wait to see your completed stock.


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Nice to see fish in there!

I kept Socolofi once. Started with a 3:9, I think? In a 6' tank. Most aggressive fish that I've ever kept. 3 males was probably the issue. They were housed with Labeotropheus, Metriaclima zebra type, Melanochromis... Socolofi ran the show. Beautiful fish though.


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