Michigan Cichlid Association
General Category => DIY => Topic started by: Steve on October 02, 2014, 11:36:50 PM
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Well I was not planning on yet another project, nor tank for myself, but when a good friend called me this morning telling me his son was getting rid of his tank he had taken down a few months ago and was going to give it away free so did I want it?....well duh, of course I'll take it ;D
So since he only lives a few blocks from me he dropped off this set up that was in much need of cleaning.
(http://imageshack.com/a/img674/4194/3dOlZB.jpg)
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The stand had paint marks on it from from his grand kids and the tank itself was covered in dried on algae, but after some elbow grease and scrubbing it all cleaned up very nicely. Glass has zero scratches on it which is nice.
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The background I'm doing for this one is super thin so it does not take up much room since there's not a ton of room to start with. After the background is done I an thinking of using some spray on type foam to make some round underwater "vines/roots" that will adhere flush to the background itself then paint the vines brown to give it a realistic SA type look.
Current state of tank
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And where I decided to put it. Since the 265g is in the adjoining room which is my office I decided to rearrange a few things so I could have this tank in my work shop area so I can enjoy this one while I work at the bench since I spend so much time in this area.
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First coat of drylok applied.
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Was at Royal Tropical today and picked up a nice young trio of Angels for this tank today. Figure by the time they are done with quarantine the tank will be ready for them. They are small right now, probably about 3" tall with a body about the size of a silver dollar coin. I liked the coloration of these three as well as the nice long tails so couldn't resist bringing them home. Also picked up some nice flat "spider wood" pieces for a really good price so going to just go ahead and incorporate these pieces into the background rather than make vines.
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Using real wood instead of making vines sounds like a better plan of attack. I keep coming across threads online where people try to make fake wood stumps or limbs and have a lot of trouble trying to get them looking realistic.
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Been bouncing between this and the other 90g background tonight. This one obviously is much faster to get done due it size ;D Got the BG paint work and all the shading & highlighting done now. Went with a light sand/tan color with gray and darker shaded area then white highlights on the tips & edges. Also mounted the branches directly to the background so it's all one piece.
I'm still trying to decide on sand color, and since I'm going for a SA style theme I'm thinking tan sand with some live plants. You guys think tan sand or some other color?
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Tan probably makes the most sense IMO. Maybe add some leaf litter if you want to get fancy.
I tried to find some good biotype examples of angelfish habitat, but had some trouble in the brief time I had available. Here was one interesting one I found: http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3604
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Thanks for the link Ron. I never thought about adding leaves but those Indian almond leaves they mention look pretty good (I see you can buy them on ebay) I may grab a bag of those for this tank.
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Usually tons of angels at the auction, do you plan on picking up some more or being responsible and just keeping the three? I vote add more. Tank looks great as always.
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Probably just keep the three, and eventually will move one of them and just keep the pair in the tank. Might add a few neons but that would be all. I am REALLY liking these guys though, they are the first angels I have ever had and I'm kind'a diggin' the way they just glide around so graceful. So if there's some nice larger angles at the auction I may just have to twist my own arm and grab them and then set up another bigger angel tank :-X
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Probably just keep the three, and eventually will move one of them and just keep the pair in the tank. Might add a few neons but that would be all. I am REALLY liking these guys though, they are the first angels I have ever had and I'm kind'a diggin' the way they just glide around so graceful. So if there's some nice larger angles at the auction I may just have to twist my own arm and grab them and then set up another bigger angel tank :-X
Angels will eat the neons (regular neons). Black neons may fare better but will eventually get eaten. Cardinal tetras may do OK but are pretty finicky/hard to keep alive. I'd vote just the angels, or else go the other route I suggested with tetras/hatchets/small pair of cichlids for the different levels. Up to you though.
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Yeah I figured with the angels still being pretty small right now the neons might be okay for awhile till they became dinner later once the angels get bigger. I had thought maybe cardinals but most the things I read about angel tankmates last night said to avoid cardinals because they can be a bit nippy. Then I read another article that said cardinals were okay in some cases to keep with them so I dunno, I'll just wait and see, might just keep it at the trio and leave it as that.
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Go with a pair of dwarf cichlids - cockatoos are cool and Moby Dicks has some good prices on them right now (pair for under 20 bucks if I read it correctly).
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I've actually never heard of cockatoo cichlids before, but I just googled a pic and those are really cool looking. Definitely would consider a pair of those I like the looks of them.
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Probably just keep the three, and eventually will move one of them and just keep the pair in the tank. Might add a few neons but that would be all. I am REALLY liking these guys though, they are the first angels I have ever had and I'm kind'a diggin' the way they just glide around so graceful. So if there's some nice larger angles at the auction I may just have to twist my own arm and grab them and then set up another bigger angel tank :-X
Angels will eat the neons (regular neons).
Just what I was thinking too. :D Everyone keeping angels for the first time always wants to get neons to go with them. It's like they *sense* they are from the same biotype. They just don't realize they are connected on the food chain. ;D
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Honestly only reason I was thinking neons Ron, is because I have the worst luck in the world with neons, for some reason I can't keep neons alive more than 3-4 months. So I figured by the time my little angels got big enough to fit a neon in its mouth the neons would already all be dead LOL. I'm cursed when it comes to neons for some reason :o
Oh BTW I bought a pack of 10 Indian Almond Catappa Leaves off ebay last night. $5 for 10 with free shipping so gonna add them to the tank to give off some tannins and more amazon look to it.
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Honestly only reason I was thinking neons Ron, is because I have the worst luck in the world with neons, for some reason I can't keep neons alive more than 3-4 months. So I figured by the time my little angels got big enough to fit a neon in its mouth the neons would already all be dead LOL. I'm cursed when it comes to neons for some reason :o
Gotcha ;)
Oh BTW I bought a pack of 10 Indian Almond Catappa Leaves off ebay last night. $5 for 10 with free shipping so gonna add them to the tank to give off some tannins and more amazon look to it.
Cool stuff. I haven't experimented with leaves, but is my recollection is right those leaves hold up really well. FWIW, you can also use oak leaves as well, but some species hold up better than others.
I did a quick google to double-check my recollection on oak leaves and found an article that might be worth sharing:
http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/articles/leaves-for-aquaria-full-article.htm
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I got to thinking today ( I know scary right?) I planned on doing some simple live plants like Anubias and java fern, but wondering if the 24" height might be a bit too deep for the standard little strip light to give off enough light to reach the live plants? Since this is an low cost build I don't want to have to upgrade on lighting at all. Maybe I should just pick up a few realistic looking silk plants instead? or would the strip light still be okay on the tall tank for some basic live plants?
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I know that anubias have lower light requirements than many other plants. Not sure about java fern.
To combat the depth, is there any way you can put the plants up higher in the water column? Maybe attach anubias to the wood roots or build a shelf into the background?
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I just got done sealing the background with the 2 part epoxy about an hour ago so won't be able to add anything like a shelf to it now. The idea of tying some anubias on the branches is a good one though I like that idea.
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Background is siliconed into the tank now. Also picked up a couple more spiderwood branches to put on the bottom of the tank and then tie some plants to them. And picked up some various Anubias plants as well as some brwon/tan playsand which I think will mimic the Amazon bottom pretty nicely.
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Why did you go with play sand over PFS?
(I've been battling with this lately - whether to get more PFS, try play sand, or go through the painstaking time of collecting natural sand.)
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Color was the reason. PFS that I have found locally here in the Royal Oak metro area is white and I wanted brown/tan. The funny think about that though is it seems like the color of PFS varies by location, because I know some people on the West side that use PFS and it's a tan color.
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Oh and if you go with playsand Ron, wash it REALLY well. I've had PFS before that really didn't even need washing at all. But this playsand I had to wash about 20 lbs of it for at least 30mins to get it where it was okay.
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From what I've seen, there's typically two styles of PFS. One is a finer grain that is much more white and sometimes has dark flecks in it. Another is a larger grain and is tan in color. (There is also "Pool Filter Gravel" - I've never seen it in person, but from pictures it's grey gravel, not great).
I've always washed PFS and had great results. Today I took a peanut butter jar sample of sand from a creek near my house to see how it would look and how hard it would be to wash ... OMG, it'd take a lot of work to wash it clean. I'm guessing play sand would be similar. Really leaning towards PFS again.
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Yeah the play sand is definitely something that takes some serious work to wash well. The stuff I got today is well worth it at $2.46 for 50lbs, but needs lots of washing that's for sure. I have used fine grit and medium grit paver sand from Home Depot before which needed basically zero washing so if you like white sand try that sometime (the fine grit is whiter than the medium grit). The play sand is very tan, but needs a lot of washing for sure.
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Tank is done and filled. I've had the filter running for the past week on an existing tank so it should be cycled and ready to put the angels in it with in a couple days I am expecting. After running for half the day with the wood and Indian Almond Catappa Leaves in it the PH is now steady at 6.6 which should be a very good level for the angels. I also like the tannic color the leaves give the water, very natural looking.
This was my first SA themed tank I have done, all my other have been Malawi themed, and for the first SA tank I am pretty pleased with the overall look of the tank. It's going to be nice having this tank right in the work shop where I spend so much of my time. Once the angels are in it I'll post a pic of them in their new home.
(http://imageshack.com/a/img904/7218/xRAVRC.jpg)
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Tank is cycled and just finished moving over the fish to it. Currently it's home to three small angels, a cory cat that was not getting along with his tankmates, and a small brown BNP.
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Looks great Steve
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Very cool tank and the angels are awesome addition. You could add more bns, some super reds would look good with them.
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Thanks. Right now I have the three angels, a 4" green phantom pleco, two 2" bnp, two gold mollies and four Cory cats in it. I am amazed at just how fast the angels are growing :o I would say they seem to have almost doubled in size in the past two months. They are doing really well though, the Cories are fat as they can be now and the angels all three seems to get along very well so far. I'll post an undated pic of the angels soon as I get a chance.