# Back in the Hobby New Build



## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

G'Day from West Australia,

Been out of the hobby for the best part of 10 years, thought it was time to re-invigorate the passion.
Found a new tank on gumtree.com that was a really attractive tank and built tuff so I jumped at the opportunity.

*** ordered a colony (17) of F1 Frontosa Mpimbwe Juveniles for stocking, its going to be a dimly lit mellow species tank.
Specs.
6' x 2.5' x 2.8' (12mm polished / Beveled / braced)
Custom DIY stand Tassie Oak Industrial look.
2 x FX6 Cannisters custom PVC plumbing
2 x Hydor ETH 300W Heaters
New Zealand Iron Sand 160kg
Aquadecor BG with sinking rocks and Hanging Rocks
3 x Feature Achitect Lamps with DIY LED E27 Globes (red/white/blue)

Tank Dims are 1800mm x 750mm x 850mm Tall, 12mm beveled polished with bracing all round. The pine stand is bare bones and built really well.

























Fit nicely on the back of the Hilux for the 1hr journey, picked up the stand prior weekend.









Threw together doors and sides for the stand, made from Tassie Oak. 









Stained with two types of stain, going for an Industrial look to marry in with the rest of the furniture and overall image of the house.

















Turns out the tank is bigger than I first anticipated and it wouldn't fit into the house via the original (easy) route, so we had to go the long way around.
Had to crowbar the skirting board off to shoe horn the tank into the room.









Ordered a custom Background with rocks and hanging rock from Aquadecor, amazing customer service and delivery....the product is A class all the way...very pleased
Intakes will be concealed in each corner, the output jets will be hidden behind floating rocks.









Had to modify the BG to custom plumb the two FX6's intakes, used 20mm PVC for all the plumbing as the OEM ribbed hose and intake pipes are a bit **** and wouldn't fit due to the bracing. Im expecting a little flow restriction as im running 20mm and the OEM is 1", but I think it will balance out as the ribbed internal would have to have some restriction as apposed to smooth internal of the PVC.

















My little helper enjoyed the silicon fumes (not) she must really love me, good thing she is a Yoga instructor, contorting her body in between the thick bracing and BG.

































Painted the background and the RHS of the tank black as its going up against a wall on that side, plus it hides the gaps in the BG.
Also retro fitted the Architect Lamps to the back, custom LED globes have been made E27.

















Purchased 140kg of New Zealand Iron sand substrate, going for a dark tank.









Twin Hydor ETH 300W plumbed under the tank to one of the FX6's out puts, *** done this as the output on the FX6 is 1" and the Hydor is 1/2", so two into one will provide minimal flow restrictions. 
The current plumbing is all I could manage with our Australian offerings to get the tank running, I will source new fittings down the track and tidy up this mess.

















Before we pushed the tank into its final resting place we decided to paint the entire area two shades of grey with White on white accents, this will tie in with the background.









Time to Fill and speed cycle (fishless)

















Cloudy as expected for a few days, this is from the BG. Also have prawns hanging in the tank for now.









Still need to build the Slimline hood, top of tank is staying open on top, only want to hide plumbing and water line.

Will post more as it progresses.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Welcome to C-F!!

Nice size tank and setup, the pics really show everything well. Very nice alteration for mounting the lighting also!


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

New Tank and stand $1400


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

Both the Amazon 300w (220-240v) hydors died in two days, incorrect power supply for us down under....whoops, fixed up the horrendous heater plumbing and now running just the one 300w Hydor (au compatible)which is really struggling to get the temp up. Will add another this week, DIY inline with a 500w heater.
LED globes should arrive today...will post a pic when all lit up.


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Sorry to hear about the heater problem due to the incorrect power supply. I can imagine the difficulty ordering equipment online in this global economy and getting the wrong product.

You may want to hold off on adding an additional heater for now to give the tank a chance to heat up with the new heater and the 2 FX6 filters since the filters will also add some heat to the tank. Just a thought!


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

Awesome tank man, you're definitely getting back into the hobby in a big way. If I can ever figure out how to post pictures I'll put mine up too lol


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

The single 300W is just not cutting it, Max 24.9c,I could probably get the temp up with lids on the tank, but the plan is to leave it open , will DIY an inline with a 300w Jager


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## Deeda (Oct 12, 2012)

Yes having an open top tank will have an impact on maintaining the tank temperature. A quick conversion shows your tank temp is about 77F which should be satisfactory for the fish you are considering though it's up to you.

I use glass lids on all my tanks as I find it keeps the fish in the tank and also helps with keeping water off the light fixtures.


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

Threw together a 2nd inline heater using Jager 300w, brought the temp up to 28 within 1hr....note to self...Glue or Lock the Uni-Seal fitting into the PVC....2am wakeup call last night with 200+lts of water pumped out by the RHS FX6....that was fun...Not
All the tutorials I watched on making these inline set ups with Uniseals none of them glued or fixed the seal in place....I guess the heat and the self priming start up of the FX6 was enough to blow the seal out of the PVC.....man them FX6's have got some balls.


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## engotski (Dec 29, 2014)

opcorn: opcorn: opcorn:

are those small crevices in the 3D background actually open - nothing to stop small fish from swim between and get into the back of the background?


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## Austinite (Jul 27, 2013)

Fascinating!


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

Yes there are tiny cracks but lots of them, the physical gap between bg and rear glass is only a couple of millimeters, the fish I have going into the tank are far too large to squeeze through


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## engotski (Dec 29, 2014)

peettee79 said:


> Yes there are tiny cracks but lots of them, the physical gap between bg and rear glass is only a couple of millimeters, the fish I have going into the tank are far too large to squeeze through


ah that helps...I had a 3D back ground on a 125g I used to have and it had 3" to 5" of vary depth between BG and back glass...I had up to 2.5" peacock/haps that were able to squeeze through small cracks I thought not even a 1" fish would be able to do. It would take me hours to get them out through 2x 2" diameter holes (covered with strainers) on back ground...got fed up and ended up selling the tank.

Your tank looks awesome and good choice of fish :thumb:


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

Mucking around with different LED E27 globes, when I cross the three beams and spot the center of the tank the lighting is OK, but I want to maintain the arrangement of the lamps as per the photo. The RHS has far too much red and the Left seems to look too unnatural with the blues (looks different in photos) The center light seems to provide the most natural color. Will make the call when I add the fish, see what brings out the colors best without making the tank too bright.
Excuse the incomplete Hood and cloudy water, tank is still settling


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## caldwelldaniel26 (Jun 11, 2017)

I agree, the center light looks the most natural. I use a mixture of blue and white LEDs for my Africans and it really brings out their color. Thanks for keeping us updated on the build, it's looking really amazing.


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## AquaTom (Jun 15, 2017)

Some really awesome work you have done there! I would love to get into this kind of thing, the outcome is just brilliant


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

Thanks for the kind words....its still a fair way off what the final product is going to look like....but Im happy thus far


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## SantaMonicaHelp (Oct 1, 2012)

peettee79 said:


> G'Day from West Australia,
> 
> Been out of the hobby for the best part of 10 years, thought it was time to re-invigorate the passion.
> Found a new tank on gumtree.com that was a really attractive tank and built tuff so I jumped at the opportunity.
> ...


Hey peettee79!

Welcome back to hobby :thumb: 
Looking great! How the set up is going? Any ideas for the fish?

Zhenya


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

Thanks Zhenya, The tank is getting 17 F1 Pims to grow out, couple of Black Calvus and Synodontis Petricola's.....got some nice Moba lined up so might switch to them down the track......going for a mellow species tank.... eventually


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## peettee79 (Jun 14, 2017)

New pic


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