My Masterpiece!!! (Come in and see my pics!)

[0reo]

First, please no comments about my stocking issues. I'm well aware.

This has been a long time coming. One of the first things my fiancé Carri & I did when we first met was to set up an aquarium she had. She fed the newts & I maintained the filter. Ever since then it's been a constant engineering project for me. Learning all about aquarium filtration & how to provide the best home to our critters. Very fun hobby that Carri & I have come to enjoy together.

Once we found that we had a bad habit of over-stocking the 20gal tank she had, I knew we had to upgrade. So I bought a 110gal. Built my own styrofoam / concrete background, and put together a custom designed filtration system that in my not so humble opinion kicks the ass of everything on the commercial market.

Finally got it all pieced together & fish moved in a couple weeks ago. The plants are real but please excuse the fact that they look like crap. I had a couple accidents with them & am still a complete newb at aquaculture. They'll get better & look awesome when I get that part figured out. Anyway... here's some pics for your enjoyment!

Front View: Actual water capacity is somewhere around 70-80gal as far as I can tell. Water level is kept low intentionally to provide some dry land for critters that need it.
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Right Side View:
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Top View: The cave goes all the way through as seen in the above picture.
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Filtration System: This is plumbed to the basement with 1" PVC. Water is mechanically filtered by two heavy duty whole house filter units run in parallel with custom sponge filter cartridges that can be washed & reused. Then another unit for biomedia. Then water is sent through an Eheim pump, and split to go through a Hydor ETH 300w heater and a TurboTwist 6x. Carbon filtered tap water is added at the turn of a valve & can be temperature controlled. The aquarium can be drained for water changes by the turn of a valve as well- but that's just out of frame on the left. This system runs at about 6gpm & can turn the tank over about five times an hour.
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That's all folks. Built it all by my self. I'm damn proud too. Hope you like!

[Sharon]

...and PROUD you should be!!! That is awesome!!!thumbs2:

[Rue]

Yeah! What Sharon said! Awesome!thumbs2:

[Ty]

nice looking tank!

how big is that gold fish? It looks just like mine.

[Mith]

Did i hear you right? You made that tank from cement? It really looks awesome not to mention the filtation system!!!! Im a newbie here, but even I can see what a great job you did!!!

[korith]

That background looks really great. I kind of thought it looked store bought before I read that you made it.

[AABatteries]

Awesome, that filtration looks complicated to me, just like anything else with plumbing, but I see the different chambers of media. They're RO/DI system thingy majigys, if I'm correct.

Back to the tank. Looks awesome, especially the styrofoam/concrete rock work. =]

[Crispy]

Thats a great looking filtration system... you should post how you made it in the DIY section.. I would really love to make a custom filter myself!

[machineman]

I think that's great. YOU ROCK!!! My hats off to you.:22:
I was considering making a filter system like that. Have you thought about having the tank do water changes automatically. You could put a sprinkler valve on the drain and have it go on once a day and drain x number of gallons then have a float valve or such to fill it back to level. That's what I was going to do on mine.

[fishlover49]

All I can say is WOWEEEEE!!! thumbs2: thumbs2:

[shockshockshad]

Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Friendly]

Lucky fish, man. Looks awesome!

[cer]

What fish are in it?

[0reo]

I have a couple scats and a columbian shark catfish that are supposed to be brackish water fish. This is a fresh water tank. Those fish are healthy and happy right now but I'll have to move them eventually. Not to mention that the two scats pester each other constantly. They just aren't ideal inhabitants of this tank considering the direction I'd like to go with it.

Otherwise, I have a 9" goldfish, a coryadora, a ghost knife, and a patriot crab.

[kaybee]

Impressive plumbing!

[Fish Tail]

Thats really cool! Wow, custom made filter...
Sweet!

[Shea]

Not to shabby. Tank is awesome!

[mac]

Hi,
Nice set up. I looks very amazing. Something I would love to do.

For me I see the plumbing s pretty strait forward. And very well set up. Practical and not in your face like some filter systems. Thumbs way up on what you have done.

mac

[lobsternoob]

Nice work there, you have definitely earned the right to be proud of what you've done. No wonder you titled it your masterpiece, IT IS! Can't wait to see what that looks like when your plants grow out!

[KingFisher]

That background and the filtration system are awesome. It shows that you put a lot of work into making them. thumbs2:thumbs2:thumbs2:

[abaigael04]

Nice tank!

[robnepper]

Really great set up man! What is your concrete mix and what kind of styro did you use?

[Demi ^_^]

All I can say... WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO[Only Registered Users Can See Links.]!

LOL, awsome mate! I have a stinkin' store bought tacky background on my fish tanks :11:

[TazManiac]

Nice looking tank.

[0reo]

Really great set up man! What is your concrete mix and what kind of styro did you use?Well, the foam was a billion layers of this thin blue high density polystyrene. I wanted a layered sedimentary look to the rock wall so I figured I'd achieve that better by starting with a layered foundation.
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The brand of the cement isn't really important- any will do. Mine is what ever home depot sells. I did however, use the concrete with the fiberglass fibers in the mix. I sifted them out for the top coats but I left them in for the base coats to add some strength. It makes the base coats look really crapy but the top coats cover it up perfectly.

I also used this liquid acrylic fortifier instead of water for my cement mix. It's supposedly non-toxic and makes the cured cement stick better, more flexible, and impervious to water. I was hoping to reduce the necessary pH leaching time but it still took a couple weeks. Otherwise the jurry is still out on whether it was a worth while addition.

Thanks to everyone for all the compliments. After all the hard work I do enjoy the compliments. :)

[Deleted User]

WOW that is some set up and that is an excellent aqua scape too. thumbs2: :19:

[Northernguy]

You did a very nice job!thumbs2:
The tank looks great!

[rageybug]

Very cool background!

[kevvy2k]

Nice job.Good ol inginuity (spelling?) lol I like seeing pics of DIY stuff gives me ideas and others THX!!thumbs2:

[terrapin24h]

She fed the newts & I maintained the filter

You go from that to custom designed concrete background and purpose built filtration system. One heck of a jump, man. Awesome work.

--chris

[SamAnthrax]

I am thoroughly impressed by that background. I am sooo jealous.

[0reo]

You go from that to custom designed concrete background and purpose built filtration system. One heck of a jump, man. Awesome work.

--chrislol... Don't get me wrong man, it didn't happen over night. It was a little progress every day for four years. Particularly that filtration setup. We started with an eheim canister. But I've got an inventive kind of mind, so it wasn't long before I started seeing all kinds of problems with the eheim & realized I could do better. I invented a sump style filter system before I ever saw that it had been done before. I experimented with all sorts of settling chambers with bottom drains, which I still think is the pinnacle of efficient mechanical filtration. Then I started fooling with sponge filters & the whole-house canisters I'm using now. I settled on that design when I decided that they were the most efficient for my purposes.

The background was just a spark of artistry I had to express once I had seen what others were doing. I really need to look into carreers doing this kind of stuff. I really enjoy it & I seem to be pretty good at it.