# New Tank Pictures



## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

I posted this in another section but just realized its a bit more appropriate here due to the questions regarding how much rock a tank can hold. Im trying to delete my old post but it wont let me> I am new to this forum. I have about 350lbs of rock/slate. Its a 125 gal tank. The caves go all the way to the back of the tank but its hard to tell with the pictures. Its still a work in progress; I need live plants still and a couple pieces of wood. I have aragonite substrate so I am hoping this will counter-act ill effects of the tanic acid leaching from the wood. I am only going to add the wood if all of the acid is leached out first anyways so I am assuming I will be alright!? Any ones ever use drift wood? Anyways I have no clue what to put in here now (fish) I took a million pictures (A few too many I believe so sorry ha) let me know what you think! I am open to suggestions. Im hoping to have it finished in a week or so.


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## bentcountershaft (Nov 23, 2007)

I'm normally not a fan of the flat slate rocks, but that is the coolest and most natural looking use of them I've ever seen. Very cool, congrats on a killer tank.


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## f u z z (Mar 19, 2008)

I down right love it. It's going to SUCK to have to catch fish or clean it.. but that's ok. It looks amazing. I have to much rock in my tank also. :drooling: :drooling:


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## MidNightCowBoy (May 7, 2007)

I really like the look of that. Good job! :thumb:


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## Aussie_cichlid (May 12, 2007)

wow, totally stunning, amazing, when i re scape my tank, i always run out of ideas, or cant get it looking great,

any chances we can see FULL ROOM photos? looks awfully close to your bed lol, id be too afriad to put my foot or ass through it lol


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## mezzy (Jun 1, 2006)

Have you decided what your going to put in it yet? Cant wait to see pictures of the tank with fish :drooling:


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## F8LBITEva (Nov 9, 2007)

that tank screams "Mbuna" to me :thumb:


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

My only critism is that JD hanging behind it ... I'd switch it to Bushmills or Blackbush!!! :thumb:

Seriously though, remember to sacrifice many children to the fish gods for no sick fish ... catching something out of there will be worse than an IRS audit.

But AMAZING looking! Skip the africans though, go real cichlids ... dwarf pikes baby! Lots of compressiceps!!! They need lots of hiding places and to be overstocked as well, prettier and more personality!!!

(looks at my own handle) I might be biased though.


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## Nighthawk (Mar 13, 2003)

Great job. I love it.


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## tomfoolery (Apr 12, 2008)

prolly the best tank i have ever seen...but like that guy said it will be impossible to catch a sick fish


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## EHryan (Dec 10, 2005)

What an amazing tank!

But yeah catching a fish in there will be harder then winning the lottery.

Can't wait to see pics with fish in it.


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## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

Hey! Thanks for all the reply's haha ya ignore the 2pac poster on my wall in the first pic from when I was 12. I am a huge fan of JD though :dancing: ha.. Ya the sick fish thing will be a nightmare but I have already sacrificed a few small children to the God's so they seem to look favorably upon me now. I cant wait to get some live plants and wood in there. Im still waiting for it to finish cycling. I wanted to do the fishless cycle but just ended up getting lazy and tossing 25 danios in there, you cant even see em in the pictures ha. Anyone know if my nitries will eventually hit zero? Or what exactly am I waiting for. Nitrates are reading but nitrites seem to stay the same over the past week or so, as well as ammonia. I should do a poll to see what I should put in there. I am still debating between mbuna and dwarf pikes.


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## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

Aussie_cichlid said:


> wow, totally stunning, amazing, when i re scape my tank, i always run out of ideas, or cant get it looking great,
> 
> any chances we can see FULL ROOM photos? looks awfully close to your bed lol, id be too afriad to put my foot or ass through it lol


Ya Ill take a full room pic, its literally right along side my bed and its exactly as the bed...Girlfriends (ex's :wink: ) haha have always told me im dangerous when I sleep so I was a bit hesitant but its sturdier then anything. Its by far the most relaxing thing in the world to have next to you falling asleep, and I dont even have fish yet


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## stslimited84 (Oct 5, 2007)

Wow, best tank I've seen, bar none! Great job!

How long did it take you to stack them that way? What type of substrate do you have in the tank?


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## zazz (Apr 5, 2008)

everyone gets their own ensuite second cave....amazing ...

i think slate gets a raw deal because people just stacks em up like multistory car parks but this is something else...

however as has been mentioned before i would like to see a review of this setup in a years time with its pros and cons because access is limited ...but maybe it will all work out fine...

personally i would not have plants ....keep it real edgy!!


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## mithesaint (Oct 31, 2006)

Looks fantastic. What floor is your bedroom on, and how are the floor joists underneath the tank? Just curious. I'm working on getting a 135, but am nervous about the weight. I'm thinking that your 125 will all that rock will weigh more than my 135 :thumb:

Personally, I'd load that beauty up with mbuna. The FP in NT has a great selection, and if you need a local source of p. socolofi, I could set you up with a few :lol: Then again, I've never kept dwarf pikes!


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## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

mithesaint said:


> Looks fantastic. What floor is your bedroom on, and how are the floor joists underneath the tank? Just curious. I'm working on getting a 135, but am nervous about the weight. I'm thinking that your 125 will all that rock will weigh more than my 135 :thumb:
> 
> Personally, I'd load that beauty up with mbuna. The FP in NT has a great selection, and if you need a local source of p. socolofi, I could set you up with a few :lol: Then again, I've never kept dwarf pikes!


MY Tank has officially cycled! Yaa.. I just woke up and almost overnight it seems nitrites and ammonia has dropped to absolute zero. Im heading to The FP right now. Im going to attempt to not buy anything and just weight my options but I dont think that is going to work out too well haha. I put the tank perpindicular to the cross beams. I did a bit of research on it and it seems like this is fine, and obviously it has been so far. Just make sure to level out the tank once you fill it with about an inch of water, or get a leveler and see how level it is once its placed. I put one inch of water in mine intending to fill the whole thing and the one side of the tank was about 3/4 an inch higher then the other so I just shimmied up the one side (with thin wood) and its worked out great. It depends on the FP'S selection of pike and there advice because my PH is 8.2 due to aragonite substrate and natural tap. I may take you up on the socolofi offer pending on what they have :thumb: wish me luck


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## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

stslimited84 said:


> Wow, best tank I've seen, bar none! Great job!
> 
> How long did it take you to stack them that way? What type of substrate do you have in the tank?


It took about 12 hours total id say - two seperate days of working on it-
Aragonite substrate. That stuff is expensive. I spent almost a quarter my weeks pay on 4 bags of it haha. When stacking them I started from the inside and worked my way out. All the holes in the caves open up to a pretty decent area once you enter them. The center of the tank has caves that go back about a foot or foot and a half in some places.. the black slate on the sides has caves that go back about 10 inches..the red is just face value. Its an arduous process but well worth it in my opinion. And I actually found and broke up all the red slate from the woods behind my house. The black was sold at LFS for 39 cents a pound, which I found to be a great deal. I see some places selling 3$ a rock haha.


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## stslimited84 (Oct 5, 2007)

zazz said:


> personally i would not have plants ....keep it real edgy!!


I have to disagree. Th plants really add to the aquarium. Stick with 'em! :thumb:


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## mittzgame (Oct 3, 2006)

stslimited84 said:


> zazz said:
> 
> 
> > personally i would not have plants ....keep it real edgy!!
> ...


I'd like to see what it would look like without the foreground plants. The rest look quite natural and compliment the awesome rock work very well.

Awesome job! :thumb:


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## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

My camera excentuates the greens of the plants and white aragonite. The small crab grass in front is actually rather dull , along with the white aragonite, compared to the bright green and white it looks like in the pictures. I originally did not have them in there but decided it looks better with them. HAHA i actually put them in pulled them out and then put them back in. Pictures never really give a fish tank the credit it deserves. So I added 2 demasoni 2 yellow labs 2 aurautus and 2 bright red zebras. The diferent colors look awseome against the black rock. Only problem is Their juveniles and barely noticeable in the huge tank. Any other votes of what I should go with next


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## mittzgame (Oct 3, 2006)

More of the same! Mbuna are not pairing fish. One will always dominate the other and it could very well lead to the death of the non-dominant one. This is definitely the case with the Demasoni, though with such a large tank, it may take them some time to find each other. You really should have either only one, or 12 or more. I have 34 in my 125, for example. You'll likely be ok with the auratus in such a large tank, however, it will be fairly important that you have only one male and 5 or more females for him, as he can be quite a terror. The estherae and yellow labs should both be in groups of 4 or more (remember that the hybridizing risk for these two is very high, so you should not trust any of the fry you get from either group). You'll want to only have one male estherae to reduce the chance of blood baths, but otherwise, should be ok with their behavior. Keep in mind that you won't notice the extreme aggression that these fish can demonstrate until they are sexually mature, which may take a few months or more. I know from experience that you _will_ experience it with the estherae and demasoni if you don't be careful with your numbers and/or number of males.

My recommended stocking list based on what you have now:

20 Demasoni
5-7 Yellow labs OR 5-7 Estherae (only 1 male)
6-8 Auratus (only 1 male)
1 or 2 more species

You could add 1-2 more species with these numbers. If you are not saving any fry, you could keep both the yellow labs and the estherae and add only one more species. If you were looking for more variation in your species, you'll have to make the switch to an all male tank. I think something albino or light colored would look really nice with that mix. Albino Socolofi's, if you're interested in that idea.

I'm not well versed in Haps/peacocks, but with that rock work, I could definitely visualize them in there. We'll see if anyone experienced with those thinks you could add any with the mbuna you have now.

Good luck!


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## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

For some reason I must have been spoiled in the past because I have always kept them in multiples of two and never had any deaths. My 55 right now which is set up similarly to my 125 gal (rock wise), has two Estherae 2 labs 2 aurautus 8 acei 4 kenyi (2males) and 2 dwarf pike haha. I dont know why but *** never had problems with them destroying each other. I actually put feeders in there from time to time for the pike and the pike will dart around grabbing them making sure not to grab any of the africans (hesitating a little bit before some of the strikes). One of the kenyi is a surviving fry so hes smaller then the feeders and the pike still makes sure not to grab him. WIERD?! Out of my two Estherae the one is definitely dominant and chases the other but as long as the other retreats and does not "stand his ground" the other one does not continue to chase him. I've always assumed its do to all of the rocks and they cannot possibly fued over all of the territory. Im not sure. And the Acei all swim together like one big happy family. I know this is suppossedly very uncommon, but was not sure if it just happens that its the group of fish I have or if that many caves and amount of territory to claim makes it impossible for an extremely hostile tank. Anyways I was figuring I would tank my chances again (since its worked in my other tank )and get 2-4 of every mbuna With the most diverse color schemes for like a NOAHS ARK kind of look haha. Oh and all of the other fish in my 55 are adults. So what do you think am I just lucky or could it be all the rocks?


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## Notrevo (May 2, 2005)

bentcountershaft said:


> "...that is the coolest and most natural looking use of 'slate' I've ever seen. Very cool, congrats on a killer tank.


I cuold just sit and look at the tank alone. Whatever you put in there should just add to the view. I wish I could take pictures like that of my tank. Just...WOW!


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## dwarfpike (Jan 22, 2008)

ugh, he fell to the wrong side of the tracks ... africans .. feh ...

:lol:

If it's anything like this tank and the massive number of hiding places, that's probably why things are working in your 55 ... even malawi keepers rarely give them this many hiding places as you have.


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## conor (May 19, 2007)

Looks like a perfect set-up for a large paracyprichromis group :thumb:


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## whowahhhh (Apr 19, 2008)

conor said:


> Looks like a perfect set-up for a large paracyprichromis group :thumb:


Okay so where does everyone get there fish? *** seen tons of posts suggesting a certain group, but I can never find them in my LFS let alone PETSMART haha. Anyone order online or anything like that? Maybe im just in a bad location here in Buffalo. That gives me an idea.. maybe ill open up my own african specialty store ha. Not even the FP in North tonawanda carries a 1/100 of the possible listings. Granted *** only been in there about 5 times. And to dwarfpike...I really was debating the dwarf pikes but all of my LFS looked at me with a blank stare when I asked for them and they said "well we have gar" ha


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## fishyfishyfishy (Dec 24, 2005)

Beautiful job! Needs wood   :wink:


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## mithesaint (Oct 31, 2006)

whowahhhh said:


> conor said:
> 
> 
> > Looks like a perfect set-up for a large paracyprichromis group :thumb:
> ...


I haven't been in the cichlid world for long, so I might be out in left field here, but here goes anyway. I think the vast majority of unusual cichlids will need to be ordered online, unless you're lucky enough to have a huge fan club nearby. I used to live in Columbus OH, and while I wasn't that into cichlids at that point, I still was at the LFS all the time :lol: The FP has a much much better selection than ANY of the LFS in Columbus did, and lets just say that C-bus is a significantly nicer and wealthier city than Buffalo :lol:

There are a lot of cichlid breeders in Southern Ontario, or so I'm told. I have no idea what it's like getting fry back across the border though. Kim might have better info on that, and on what's available. Again, I've only kept cichlids for about 2 years, so I could be completely in the dark with regards to the underground cichlid trade :dancing:


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