Loaches Online Forum

They'll love the 7' length.

removed - did not get this tank

so are you planning to put it in the wall at your place?

i may,,, there are several "depends"
1. We close on our new house on April 6th, so i wont purchase it until closer to then if it is not gone already.

2. 1/2 the basement is finished and I will have to see which wall will be the best location for it.

so, we will see.. im thinking the price and size are good, but wanted others opinions., this will be my fist monster tank or if it is gone, one close to it

That's a good deal for a used 220g tank if it's 1/2" glass. If it's only 3/8" thick glass, I might keep looking.

chefkeith wrote:That's a good deal for a used 220g tank if it's 1/2" glass. If it's only 3/8" thick glass, I might keep looking.

good point, I will ask about the thickness, thanks

1/2" and the price has dropped to $350, should have it purchased by tonight!

Well that gentleman never would return my emails/calls until 3 days later just to tell me it was sold.


I really wanted the 7', but will settle for this one I have found. It is 220g tank 6'x2'x30", Tank/hood/light/stand for $500. I will also get the gravel, logs, heater, and filtration, but I will see what I will use out of these.

I will post pictures ASAP, The tank is 3 hours away so tomorrow is going to be mostly on the road , but I will get a nice future home for my 12 clowns

The tank will sit in my buddies garage for 3 weeks until we move into our new house. Then I will get it cycled and moved my tank over,, most likely the very last thing to be moved out of our old place

Pictures to come,, getting excited. I have moved and set up plenty of tanks, but if there are any suggestions from the "pros" shoot them this way. I am planning on running a water line (through filteration) and setting up an autofill on it. I will also plump in a drain to the basement drian to make water changes easier.

I am also picking up 10 cherry shrimps to start a colony of those.. I would like to breed them in my sump.

ok more to come over the next several weeks, wish me luck.

The tank is safely in my friends garage and man is it HUGE cant wait to get it up and running.

I will get some picts of it real soon

i keep forgetting to bring down a real camera to my buddy's, but here is a pict from my phone.



deminsions are 6'L x 30"H x 2'D


Substrate -
I have 200 lbs of play sand, 100 lbs of small river gravel (commercial), and roughly 100 lbs of flourite/quarts sand mix that I can use in any combination.

Decor-I have tons of large rock that I can use, but very little wood atm. I am in the market for bogwood and have looked around. If someone has a good dealer, US, please let me know.

Cicrulation-
I have 2 1300gph power heads coming to go with my current Hydor 1200 gph power head. I will change over my current 75gallon tank into a sump w/ a refugium for plants, snails, cherry shrimp. I will eventually upgrade to a 2nd overflow and Korilia mag 7 or 8.

Lighting-
Nothing to crazy here, just several normal strip lights.


Stock-
Currently- 12 clowns, largest is ~7", 4 others 5", rest are over 4"
- 6 Darios, largest 4", rest are right behind him or her
- 2 Kub's

Non loach- 1 red tailed shark
- 2 clown plecos
- L21 gold nugget ~3"
- 6 giant danios
- 2 Synodontis euptera (left overs from my cichlid tank)
- 2 Algae eaters

Future- the 2 Algae eaters will be moved to the sump to keep the plants clean, but will not be in the main tank with the loches.
- I want to replace the giant danios with a different dither, any suggestions welcome.
- I want to add more Kubs ~4, ~6 yoyo, and ~5 striata,,, too much for a 220gallon?






Now for the REAL discussion ....
I have decided to go with an unconventional background. I have been doing some research on different methods and I am interested in using Cultured Stone.
Simply using silicone to adhear it to the back of the tank.

I have done DYI cement backdrops before, but this seems easier. Here is roughly what the stone looks like and it is is ~1/2" thick,, looks better in person from this picture is looks more bricky than stone shelves.


I have contacted the manufacturer and the product is cement. Of course their customer support does not reccomend using it submerged...
but being stubborn I looked more and googled these:

This is right out of their installation information, lol. I know it is off label usage so they do not want to indorse using it submerged, but it is cement.

Use of Cultured Stone® Below Water Levels
Cultured Stone® veneer is a lightweight concrete material and
will not deteriorate from exposure to fresh liquid water. The
use of Cultured Stone® veneer below water level, in which
the water is chlorinated, treated with chemicals or dirty will
likely cause discoloration as it would on any concrete, natural
stone or other materials. Cultured Stone® concrete and many
natural stone materials are subject to potential damage from
adverse freeze thaw conditions. Water should be drained
below susceptible materials prior to freezing temperatures.
Pressure and abrasion from constant fast flowing water
may cause some surface deterioration as it would on other
concrete materials. The surfaces of concrete and many other
materials may be affected by exposure to extensive salt-water
conditions. Cultured Stone® veneer should not be considered
a waterproof material.

http://www.cichlidforums.com/showthread.php?t=2250

I have a 255 gallon set up now 2 years with Tanganyikans. I have had no problems with any water peramiters due to use of these stones. I applied each stone to the glass surface using a silocone bead around the outside edge of the stone. I thought this would help prohibite food and waste build up behind the stones. It appears to have worked to date. I will try to post a digital photo in the future. I did find that there is a huge choice of colors and styles of stone to work with.

My only worry is on curing it. The stones come wet and will seep water over weeks and months as part of the curing process when installed on a house. So the obvoius question is, will any of this seeping be harmful? Any thoughts on the curing process?

The coloration in the rock is made of metal oxides. The MSDS has the material as non-toxic and they use inert metal oxides in marking fish feed... so that seems to be good. Unless the metal oxides are not inert and are toxic

any thoughts?

The tank is up an running with loaches schooling like mad. So far there has been one causality,, very irritating since it was preventable. One of my 4-5" clowns swam into a powerhead far enough to get mangled and killed by the impeller.

I am upset by this, but I was quite surprised the loach swam against a 1300gph power head into the housing... sigh. I have drilled small holes into the housing cover and added plastic zip ties across the opening to make it harder for this to happen in the future.

I have been very busy with getting the house ready and the tank. I ended up soaking the cultured stone for ~month in rubbermaids changing the water 1 or 2x a day. They tested out just fine and we will see what they do now.

I have been converting my old 75gallon tank into a sump and should have that up and running tomorrow night. My old sump is a jungle with snails, cherry shrimp, java moss, and most surprisingly baby giant danios. The eggs must have settled into the sump after the female released them. I currently have +20 babies at 1" and then another batch of 20 about 1/2".

I will have pictures up as soon as i get time to sit down and not be working on projects

Sounds great!

I have the overlfow lines and return lines all set to go. The baffles are curing as we speak,, so hopefully i can start filling tonight or tomorrow.

I have made a DYI trickle filter that is just amazing. I got the idea from the web where a guy uses 2 buckets to make one real fast. So, I have used 3 gallon drinking fountain bottle. I cut off the bottom around the rim, cut holes in it, and will use it as a "tray" above the bioballs w/filter media as a prefilter. I used a disposable pipette tip holder as grating over the nozzel to prevent the bioballs from falling out of the bottle.

I still need about 1 gallon of bioballs, but those should be here monday. I will need to adjust the holes/overflow notch as i test out the GPH capacity of my creation, but otherwise it is pretty cool. I have taken pictures of this process as well. I will have company over tonight, but I plan on posting pictures ASAP for everyone to see.

Tank back wall
Begining

I laid out the pattern

Silicone around the outside of the stone






I want to fill in the gaps with Java Ferns, so far so good

New Sump -
acrylic baffles

Tank with curing baffles,, not the best i know

return lines and overflow hoses coming through the wall

sump in place under work bench

water line to RO system

RO system

Auto top off float in sump

full working sump, with some snails and plants