My 240 Gallon Cichlid tank build.....From Scratch...

[tunedis95]

Aquarium is ready to come in the house. Just waiting on me now. Gotta drain the old tank into another tank... Move it outa the way, bla bla bla.....hopefully tomorrow I can make some progress. Thanx ya!

[jhenry]

Cool now stop being lazy and make it happen lol

[tunedis95]

Well here it is...looks....sounds gay...but looks beautiful!!! About 90 percent done. Lacking trimming, automated canopy lift, and HID lighting.....Just gotta wait for the water to clear up... yes i put the fish in after bearly putting the water but...... 20 percent of the water is from the old tank.... 100lbs of sand is from the old tank, and 2 filters from the old tank are running. Fish are breathing normal and all is good. I'll post the pix of before i added the water tomorrow....gotta go eat some crawfish...looks good i think!??????

[Lori]

Looks damn good. Any updates?

[tunedis95]

I'm outa town now so all the final touch ups have to wait another week...but here are the "in progress pix" ....oh my....this was time consuming...i installed the tank all by myself....didnt not have any help...and i'm 5'5 150lbs...lol....being a roughneck offshore helped i guess....well here are the pix, thought its kinda neat to see

getting the old 130 gallon drained


2 containers used...one filled with water and fish and the other to hold the used sand


round up time....man...these fish have a little weight to them....


old stand


carrying the new stand into place


just a rough draft...spaced from the wall so i could run all the hoses and what not...DONT WORRY...POSTER ON THE WALL WILL BE GONE!!!


100lbs of used sand and 100lbs of new sand into the tank


setting up the rocks...probably like 150lbs of rock in there...so easy to set rocks up without water or fish...ha ha


filled up the tank with all the old water in the container ...turned on the pumps which were not cleaned just switched over to the new hoses....pictures resemble nothing of what i went through....It was a pain in the butt but I enjoyed the whole thing....My girlfriend loves it....Have to females holding already after just 3 days of having the tank going. No leaks and pumps run quiet....I cant wait to set up the lighting!!!!

[PC1]

well done!!!

[jeebus]

Very cool DIY!

[FIREFISH]

Looks good. Did I miss how tall the stand is? Just wondering? Looks like a nice height.

FF

[eklikewhoa]

I this needs an update with detailed pics of the canopy lift!

[jose1204]

That's nice

[tunedis95]

I guess it about 3 feet or so off the ground....didnt get an actual measurment when i was home...but i will get that....

As for the canopy lift...

using 2X110LB steel line going into the attic-through X2 pulleys that feed the lines at a 90degree angle-rigged to a screw drive garage opener thats in the attic- I even used a new garage spring to help counter the weight of the canopy so that it does not overload the garage opener. But all the average person sees it two small wires going to the ceiling. Canopys i see on youtube are loud and so slow. This one is super fast and quiet. Works great.

[eklikewhoa]

Very nice!

[Mandocruz06]

dude u used hids from a car ..crazy...

[eklikewhoa]

I've seen HID's used in nano reefs, the only concern is having UV glass between the light and the tank.

[eklikewhoa]

That's the only real difference between HIDs and metal halide, that and the good reflectors.