26 replies to this topic

[FrontyKwal]

Hey all early this year I bought a beaut tank and cabinet off my old boss and havnt really had much time and money to do aything with it. We were cabinet makers so my old boss built a very nice solid jarrah cabinet for his tank but lost interest in fish and I was quick to snap up a bargain at the price he was selling it at. The cabinet alone would of cost somewhere close to $3500 to be custom made at my old company but lets just say I got the whole package for a very good price

These photos are of what my tank looked like about 1 month ago, just had some limestone pieces on one side and large fake plants on the other. Sold the fish he gave to me with the tank and I just had in their what I had in my old tiny 100 litre tank which were just some mixed juvie cichlids, clown loach and a couple goldspot pleco's. At the moment I want to keep my clown loach becuase they have a good behaviour, not 100% sure what else I want in there at the moment but leaning towards 8-10 nice looking frontosa perhaps kipili, 3-4 black calvus and a nice pair of L numbered pleco's. The tank is only a 75 gallon but dont worry I plan on starting fresh with every fish from fry. In a year or so when I have more room in my house Im going to get much larger tanks for them to grow bigger in

Only in the last month I have gathered up more money to start doing everything the way I want it to be. Got me new cannister filter, alot of tahitian moon black sand and other bits and bobs from AOA the other day so I can finally start doing everything. Im going to paint the back of my tank black within the next few days and start putting my new sand in. Will post pics as I go along, Im not an expert on fish but Im here to learn so any hints and tips would be great. Cheers, Tom

(Sorry about photo quality, just using my iphone for the time being until I can find my camera)

Edited by FrontyKwal, 08 May 2013 - 04:34 PM.

[Westie]

that's a really nice looking tank. I look forward to seeing the evolution of this tank

[FrontyKwal]

Okay so I did everything today, took me about 5 hours to catch all fish, empty water and scoop out old sand, clean and paint my tank, hole sawed and drilled holes for cannister hoses and to tuck away all cables,tubing etc, empty new sand and fill it back up and chuck the fish back in. Doesnt sound like that would all take 5 hours but had alot of work to do on the hood so the cannister hoses could fit snug through it. Heres a photo of the tank back on stand after painting the back of it black. Turned out really good, only payed $6 for 3 cans of matte black aerosol paint from bunnings. Again Im sorry for the crappy quality of photos, I really need to find my camera!




And heres the tank filled with my new tahitian moon black sand and filled with water with a couple of artificial rocks. I also put in a 3 foot air curtain in the middle, looks really nice when you see it in person. The water is still a bit murky as you can see but is starting to settle down more as time goes by. The sand and black back doesnt look as dark from far away in the photos so I also took a photo for you to see upclose






I think I might get another 2 different looking artificial rocks but same colour to put in. Just need to save up some more coin and then I can go on my fish buying spree Will update once I buy the fish I am looking for. For the time being Iv just got my partners fish in there (took photo before I put them in the tank) as her tank had a leak the other night. Thanks for looking

[Bowdy]

What fish you going to stock it with ?
Would look good if you got rid of that bright green eheim pipe and mate a custom black one.
Also with the spray have it siting on the side glass so it's pushing water down the tank not towards the front.
Looking good though.

[Westie]

The dark substrate looks good. I've always liked the bubble walls too. Good work

Edited by Jason82, 02 August 2012 - 11:10 PM.

[FrontyKwal]

Cheers fellas. Bowdy at the moment Im keeping my 4 clown loach (6cms) and my 3 Nealamprologus Brichardi (5cms) and Im looking to get 3-4 black calvus around 5 cms, 8-10 frontosa (kipili of chaitika) fry around 5 cms and maybe a couple of either L134, L270 or L397 pleco's I cant make up my mind yet. Might be awhile until I can find all the fish Id like but I might be getting the black calvus next week

Where would I go about finding black pipes the right size ? I was going to originally get a hole cut in the lid for the current green pipe to go though and cover it up with that rock filter cover but decided to just saw off a bit of my hood so it fit down the corner. And I was going to face the spray bar on the side but its too long for my tank Might try cutting a bit of it off you reckon ?

[Riggers]

Paint your piping black there's pond safe paint available at bunnings, a small tub costs around $18. Love the black substrate man it's gonna be a sweet looking tank when your done

[FrontyKwal]

Cheers mate, what is the brand and name of the paint ? Might give it a crack this weekend ! Will have some better quality photos this weekend Im going to borrow a camera from my parents

[FrontyKwal]

Heres a photo of the tank with a better camera and a photo of my C. Moori with the new sand. Cheers




Also can anyone help with the identity of this fish (not the red jewel), my girlfriend came home with it one day, she doesnt really care for names of fish so she didnt ask she just calls it the 'pretty fish' :| haha

[Westie]

if not a jewel cichlid, then maybe a central american cichlid. Geophagus of some type. Like the ones found in the swan river at the moment

[wickkyjr]

Thorichthys ellioti

[Riggers]

Hey mate

The paint is Crommelin waterproofing, pond sealer paint. Comes in black sandstone and blue

[Westie]

oh elliotti. isnt that the breed of fish that ends up with a deformed tail?

[Buccal]

Yes it is, just like the one you have, a s bend in the spine.

[FrontyKwal]

Cheers wickkyjr and Rigger ! Yeah Buccal I always thought this cichlid was very odd shaped, the s bend in the spine explains it all haha doesnt look too bad in the photo but in person looks very weird

[Buccal]

Still a nice fish, I have four deformed ones in my display, but I now have two straight perfect pairs I sourced from the east some time ago and they just started breeding yesterday.

[FrontyKwal]

Oh really thats good congratulations ! Would love to get some fry off you, I havnt seen any of these around in fish shops at all but then again I dont look very hard, only really go into lfs around my area, are they very common ?

Im going to be starting off my tank with just fry in a few months so hopefully the timing is right when you are selling fry, Im really thinking of trying to mix tang cichlids with some americans while they are all fry to fill space in my tank, reckon thats a good or bad idea ? When they grow bigger I will have more tanks to separate them

[Bowdy]

The Americans will generally grow a lot quicker then tangs and you may find a few disappearing from the tank

[FrontyKwal]

Oh really ? Damn that sucks, Iv always planned on having Tangs in this tank since I bought it but Americans have really been catching my eye alot recently Im starting to fall for them. Definately dont want to be loosing any of the frontosa I will be getting

[Westie]

go tangs and malawi cichlids. tangs generally like a much higher pH than the americans. i bought some electric yellows and some mdoka white lip yesterday from Aquotix and put them in my Tang display tank. They seem happy enough