# The Rift Lake Project -= 3 years of african cichlids =-



## Vidockq

Hello all,

I wanted to finish my project before posting it to a international forum, but Kojak76 convinced me to do it earlier.
This was my old Tank Post: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=240708 and i wanted something new, something to commemorate the fact that i have been raising african cichlids for over 3 years now and also to incorporate all the good ideas over this time into a single aquarium.

So the basic layout and dimension for the tank would be the following:



This tank will have:
*12 mm thick glass*
Safety first, so the glass must be thicker than the last one.
*3D back-ground all around (except the front of-course  )*
From all the cases of great tanks, you must have a back-ground witch isn't black of another plain color. It simply does so much for both the fish and the viewer that its a must have option.
*water refill system*
Its simple here, there will be a overflow hole cut into the glass of the aquarium and a micro-drip system to poor water in at a steady rate. This will greatly increase water quality and also provide the fish with a healthy environment all while the user doesn't get to much hassle.
*External filters with back-up system in case of power-outages*
Opted for external filters instead of a sump for the air issue and space also. And the back-up system for those bad days when the power goes off and your worrying sick if your fish will survive.

Will be back with a bunch of photos and text about construction.


----------



## Ladyfish

Looks to be a really exciting build! For those of us who don't speak metric, that's around 266 gallons, 8' x 28" x 24". Wow! :drooling:

Can't wait to see pictures and your write-up during construction. Your previous tank was just amazing, so I'm sure this one will be also. I loved the chair in front of the tank. I could easily lose myself for hours at a time in such a chair!


----------



## Vidockq

Thanks very much LadyFish, i forgot that most of the viewers are using gallons and " .

So in a few words this is how it goes:

The first thing is to get our the 300 Kg aquarium (661 pounds) out of my house and that is no easy chore.

I bought some suction cups to help out and we could barely move the aquarium, we literally moved it inch by inch to the balcony where i had a toe service truck come and elevate it from the balcony.










You can see the operation here:


----------



## matt-sheeran

was this made by marry Anne's aquariums? i was looking at there website last night and they showed a tank they made pretty much like this


----------



## Vidockq

Hehe, no. This aquarium was made by me but its made out of glass.
In Europe and in my country to be exact, we cannot find Acrylic so easily and thus we use glass, even if we resort to thick glass that weight a lot.


----------



## Ladyfish

Vidockq said:


> Thanks very much LadyFish, i forgot that most of the viewers are using gallons and " .


You are very welcome!



Vidockq said:


> So in a few words this is how it goes:
> 
> The first thing is to get our the 300 Kg aquarium (661 pounds) out of my house and that is no easy chore.
> 
> I bought some suction cups to help out and we could barely move the aquarium, we literally moved it inch by inch to the balcony where i had a toe service truck come and elevate it from the balcony.


Wow, that is some aquarium  The suction cups were a great idea!

I am always so impressed when I read that people make their own aquariums. I would be so nervous, that amount of water and pressure all depending on my skills. Yeah, now I have to try it some day


----------



## Vidockq

Ok so with the old aquarium out of the way I started building the other one.

Old:









*Tools used for building your own glass aquarium:*
*
Silicon Guns*









*A extra strong Silicone with a silicon spreader*








*
90 degree corners, so that the glass once set into place wont move and it will be a perfect 90 degree corner.*









NOW the STAND.
1'st thing is to get a solid frame work, i preferred steel so that the 1,3 tons of weight wont be to much:










Next on the steel frame put plywood and then on top of it put a soft spoam, this will allow the weight of the glass to be distributed equally.
You should have something like this:









Then position 2 smaller sides just for good measurements of the inner glass.









Now you have a perfect positioning of the inner glass. Just drow some lines for markings and your set to silicone them in place.



























Then start to draw up paper all around the edges where you will silicone the glass. This will help you a lot not to make a mess and get smooth silicon


----------



## PaNiK

Very nice! I'm definitely following this


----------



## Ladyfish

+1 opcorn:


----------



## izabella87

Niceeeee!!!


----------



## Vidockq

Thanks guys 

Here is some more

*After you apply the silicon and smooth it out, remove the tape and this is how it should look like:*




































*Then comes the hard part with the mounting of the large front and back panels. You should always use suction cups for these parts since they are incredibly hard to handle.
Also insert in the silicon a piece of plastic about 0.2 mm thick so that the weight of the glass doesn't make the silicon completely leave the surface under the glass.
Apply the corners and your good to go for another part.*









*Then after a day you can start putting the reinforcements on top of the glass. I made a long sheet ~10 cm in wide and drilled holes into it so that i can hide the tubing of the filters in the back.*









*You can see here the holes*









And here to give you a clear idea of what i was meaning:


----------



## Vidockq

OK, now that you have your all sides fixed with silicon you can start on the background.
I oped for a 3D background to emphasize a natural habitat of the Malawi Fish.

*My personal opinion is that you will need to glue it with silicon just on the bottom and leave the sides open for the fish to cross over from side to side.
2x120cm long pieces *









*Here is the OUT of a filter, i had to do some adjustments for it to work over the reinforcement.*









*Here you can get a ideea how i made the tubing longer:*









*Here you can see how i left some space as such the fish can cross and find a refuge in the back.
This would be mainly for the fish females when they spawn to have a safe place where to hide from harrasing males.*


















I will be back with more pictures about the water replacement system.

Hope you are enjoying it. And feel free to ask questions. . .


----------



## Vidockq

The story continues ...

The next step is the water replacement system, that i made like this

*A whole into the side windows with a simple adjustable nuzzle so that i can give it a certain water level that i want:*


















*Aster that, from a local water-pipe i got a high pressure hose and tide it:*









*On the other end i put one garden sprinkle with fine tuning so that i can put from 1Liter/hour to 8Liters/hour*









Now i have to dress the aquarium in whole wood so that it is aesthetic.

*And here it goes with the filtration, the second most important thing for cichlids after water quality.
I use a Eheim 2080 and 2x JBL E1501, all full with ceramic bio-balls highly porous. All 3 filters have a really low power consumption and noise level.*









*Also filtration and water movement in the aquarium is done with 2 Internal Filters, situated on the sides and hidden in the background.
Here is the left side:*









*Here is the right side, witch has also the Heater:*









*Tubing arrangment in the back:*









*Water replacement and filter OUT*









*And here is the UPS, also the UV light and a filter:*


----------



## Dawg2012

Wow...

My GF is NOT going to be happy about this! :lol:


----------



## Ladyfish

Dawg2012 said:


> Wow...
> 
> My GF is NOT going to be happy about this! :lol:


Know just what you mean. I'm taking notes! 

PS. Glad to hear no fish lost during the camping trip. Did the fish enjoy the great outdoors? haha


----------



## Dawg2012

:lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## Vidockq

And now to the lighting faze:

I opted for LED light in combination with neons. After reviewing LED prices i decided to build my own system
Got some high power leds









And found some old radiators from my old pc, graphic cards ...









Just drill some holes in the aluminium and them put some thermal paste between the led and radiator.









And do not worry about complicated wiring. These leds are so easy to connect, each other goes in series, meaning your just got to go from 1 to the other.









This is a view of a very huge lid.


----------



## Vidockq

And now comes the adding of the fish:










Also here are some pics of how the tank came throw in the first faze. More will be moved and rearranged until its ready, but im pleased with the result and no tubing in sight.


----------



## Dawg2012

That looks... Amazing! :thumb:


----------



## Vidockq

Thanks, here are some movies with the fish:


----------



## kojak76

Thats my buddy. In my opinion this guy should go into professional custom tank building. He is also highly knowledgeable about the fish he keeps. Love the tank, keep up the great work. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


----------



## Steve C

*Beautiful*... Job VERY well done :thumb:

Steve


----------



## mpowers

Very nice!! Excellent job with the whole tank, but I have to ask where did you get the background? It really sets the tank off! :thumb:


----------



## mobafrontlover

Looking amazing


----------



## Vidockq

Thank you all guys !

The background is from a European company called Ekol. Its situated in Poland and they have the best price/look ratio of them all.

Here are some pictures with the fish :

Protomelas Red Empress









Female Borley









Male Livingstonii


















Male Tramitichromis intermedia









Unsexed Fossochromis Rostratus


----------



## Vidockq

More pics:

Red Dragon



























Male Borley



















Oto


----------



## Iggy Newcastle

Wow...


----------



## Michael_M

Always liked the red empress's that are real red, mines got alot of aqua, green, teal in the body.

Good taste in fish though Rostratus are amazing looking fish.


----------



## Buzz_

Stunning work mate. Well done, amazing.


----------



## Vidockq

Thanks very much !

Here are some pics of the rest :
Mdoka White Lip, they are small yet but will soon get even more splendid colors.




































Here is the Livingstoni, stalking a Yellow lab


----------



## jeffs99dime

That tank is awesome!


----------



## Vidockq

Some new pics (pictures not edited):


----------



## kojak76

:thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: as always nice fish vic, I love your pics and love looking at your tank. Actually subscribed to your youtube channel lol. Good Job buddy :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


----------



## Vidockq

Thank you very much.

Here are some more pictures that i took with a better camera:

These are Placidochromis Likoma, my new addition to the tank:


----------



## Vidockq

Mdoka White Lips:


----------



## Vidockq

About the camera, i borrowed one from a friend of mine, it was a NIKON D300 with Lens	18.0-200.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 ISO	200 and Exposure	1/160 sec with Flash on.

Dragon Blood :


----------



## halffrozen

Work of art.


----------



## kojak76

halffrozen said:


> Work of art.


You have no idea..If you think this is good you should really check out his youtube vids. This guy takes such great care and consideration for his audience when making pics, posts, or videos. Theres even music, fades and all kidsa stuff. Just sayin. :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:


----------



## matt121966

stunning tank, beautiful fish.


----------



## nyccichlid

Amazing! Threads like this get me in trouble...because they make me instantly unhappy with my tank, and that leads to projects :lol:


----------



## tharsis

exquisite...I think that about sums this tank up for me. Between the awesome background and the gorgeous fish, you have yourself an incredible tank.

Congrats!


----------



## matt121966

nice work, great photos


----------



## a7oneal

Well done!


----------



## simo1973

could be the best cichlid set up that i have ever seen, something to be VERY proud of.
Well done .


----------



## matt121966

krazy tank.


----------



## ratbones86

How many gallons is this tank btw? not sure if you said it but i would like to know. Awesome job!


----------



## raydawg

nicest tank i have seen on this website by far, really nice fish man where did you get them??????


----------



## Tony La Morte

Ratbones86, That is approx. 266 gallons, and I concur, Nice tank!!!


----------



## Vidockq

Hello guys,

First of all thanks a lot for all the kind words, it really helps when you get cheered up by remarks like yours.

Secondly i wanted to say sorry for answering so late, but i had a huge incident concerning some new fish that i bought. Aperantly one of them was sick with some sort of bacterial infection and i got my whole tank sick also, the story is a sad one since 50% of my stock has died. In the whole years i have been keeping african cichlids i haven't seen a disease like this that killed within 24 hours most of the fish and all the treatments i tried did not work.

I will post some more fish pictures, and when the thread reaches its 5th page i will post some overall pictures of the tank.

Thanks for watching/reply


----------



## Yael

So sorry for your bad news and loss of fish. Scary how something like that can be so devastating. Makes one take seriously the idea of a quarantine tank.


----------



## Morpheen

That really sucks! Things like this will eventually happen, it's not a matter of if, its when. Which is why a quarantine tank is always a good idea as well as a properly set up UV system.

So sorry for your loss.


----------



## Vidockq

Yeah, things like this will happen eventually. I have 2x UV 18W on the aquarium and i still had that outburst.

Last night i decided to make a movie, enjoy:


----------



## mfryga

Great tank, good job and nice fish. Malawi is fantastic water landscape. I miss for my Malawi tank


----------



## theboothsociety

That background is bananas. Love it. Hope my DIY one comes out that good...


----------



## Vidockq

A new Video of my tank while feeding the fish :






Thanks for the comments


----------



## matt121966

great photos


----------



## skeletor18

Stunning. Oh man what an awesome 3D background!!!


----------



## audierou

Very nice job. You should be proud. Love the fish selection. A malawi hawk would be sweet in there.


----------



## Vidockq

My lighting schedule . Share yours in the comments.


----------



## Frank H

Very awesome tank! Thank you for sharing the build and all the great pictures. Not only are you a wiz with aquariums but also a master with the camera!

May I ask what kind of sand are you using in this tank?


----------



## jakekersley

That is so cool I'm so jealous!!!!!!!!


----------



## Vidockq

The sand isnt the best one ... its 1 mm thick but it looks to bright in my opinion.

Here is a new movie made for you guys:


----------



## matt121966

great video, I liked the speedy work rinsing the filter blocks out.

thanks


----------



## Vidockq

Update


----------



## q8vw

Amazing tank, one of the best aquascapes. =D>


----------



## Iggy Newcastle

Bravo!


----------



## glasforex

Congrats' mate!


----------



## clhinds78

Very nice!


----------



## Vidockq

Thanks very much !

And here are my Placidochromis Phenochilus Mdoka White Lips:


----------



## cook

thats insane. great videos too!

what is your day job if i may ask? thats quite an investment. im jealous lol.


----------



## mike383

Gorgeous!!


----------



## Vidockq

I'm a system administrator, but everything i got here is out of passion and in time, piece by piece.

Here are some pictures of my Fossochromis Rostratus in some mating colors:


----------



## NZSIC'S

Nice pics


----------



## Vidockq

Placidochromis P. Tanzania
Male:

















Female:









Subdominant Male:









Female:


----------



## Vidockq




----------



## cichlid-gal

Lots of dancing going on there. Your fish look great!


----------



## Vidockq

3 new updates:
















Enjoy


----------



## Iggy Newcastle

Fantastic...


----------



## Lushaquatics

you guys there overseas have such a stellar selection in 3d backgrounds!!! I'm jealous!!!!


----------



## Vidockq

Hello ladies and gentleman,
It's been some time since i wrote something new here, so here is the Update i wanted to post for some time now.

In the recent months i have changed my aquarium filtration from Filter Canisters like Eheim 2080 to a SUMP aquarium of 300 Liters. The difficulties in making this change were quite a lot since my aquarium was never built for a SUMP attachment so i had to make a overflow-box custom and start form there.
I finally got a person that worked with acrylic who made me a custom overflow-box to my specifications. So a big operation started with the flowing steps as you will see in the pictures below:

Build the SUMP aquarium (myself)
Catch the fish, and get them out of the aquarium (the hardest part  )
Remove the background, so i can place it back in the new position for the overflow-box.
Make the space under the aquarium perfect plane so i can place the aquarium sump there.
Placing the aquarium there (Big problem here, as you can see in the pictures, i calculated wrong and didst had enough space to place the aquarium)
FIX: i started to remove 1 of the sideway metal bar so we could add the sump under.
After placing the sump in its right position i filled it with a grill and full BIO-material.
And finally hooked it up to the overflow box and started to run tests.

All went OK and the sump worked. Now i had to wait for 1 month for the bacteria to work at full potential.
Now the aquarium has:
PH - 8
GH - 12
KH -16
NO2 - 0.0 mg/l
NO3 - 10 mg/l

And the water is always crystal clear, so i am pleased with the new performance very much.
The fish started to spawn more, i have Fossochromis babies in the aquarium and also Mdoka have spawned for the first time 

Hope it all goes ok, its been over 1 years since i had any incidents with any diseases.

Enjoy the pictures.


----------



## FishFishlover

so beautiful！


----------



## Vidockq




----------



## Vidockq

New Stock fish

New rock arrangement and green plants.


----------



## Vidockq




----------



## Iggy Newcastle

I like the new setup. Fantastic tank.


----------



## Austinite

Wow that was a lot of work! But so worth it, it looks amazing!!


----------



## Vidockq

Thanks guys !


----------



## Vidockq

Here is a new movie i made:


----------



## Hapguy63

Wow those Placidochromis phenochilus white lips are beautiful fish. I have been wanting some for years but they are almost impossible to find in the states


----------



## Iggy Newcastle

Awesome video!


----------

