Nice! Good for you!
Thanks. I've been thinking about being able to do something like this for years and am happy I finally could execute it. I'll be picking your brain at the picnic tomorrow; I'd like to do something similar to what you did with your in-wall tank.
Wow! That's quite the tank!! What are you thinking of putting in there?
I've tried many styles of tanks over the years and I still love malawian haps the most. It'll be hap tank (maybe a few non-haps too like clown loaches or peacocks). I've already come to accept whatever I put in it, I'll not be able to get back out without draining the tank way, way down.
600 gallons huh... Good for you man hopefully the fish shed you built can support this
I've got a walkout basement, otherwise I'd have never gone this big.
Not sure what people have pegged it at from the photos, but it's 8' long, 4' wide, and 29" high. Add in the euro-bracing around the top and without draining the tank to net fish, the only way to get them out would be "fishing" for them. The volume is roughly 550 gallons, less the overflow which is ~25 gallons roughly (I haven't done the math).
It's also got a center overflow setup, which initially I wasn't thrilled about, but like that it'll do a better job of drawing water from throughout the tank compared to rear-mounted overflows. I'll be making a DIY background to hide the overflow stack.
I'm still not sure what I'm doing with the background. A DIY background would look amazing, but doing something outside the tank that would allow me to see through the tank from the backside (maintenance side) might be nice. I've spent years researching large tank setups and am still looking for more ideas before I make a decision.
I'll be finally doing a sump for the first time, as it doesn't make sense to do anything different for a tank this size. I'm thinking it'll be in the 150 gallon range, but haven't quite figured out where I want it located (under the tank vs off to the side), but if under the tank the dimensions of the supports under the tank might limit what I can do. I'm aiming for a "leak proof" sump - no holes/seals that could ever potentially result in a flood.
The tank didn't come with much of anything besides the tank, though the PO through in a wavemaker he'd used with it (previously reef setup). While not necessary for an african tank, I'm intrigued and need to look into it more.
Has anyone done a LED lighting setup? Based on power consumption, I think that'd the route I'd like to go, despite having a copious amount of 8' long T12 lights sitting unused.
If anyone has links to other large malawian hap setups, please share. The more ideas the better.