Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted March 19, 2012 Thanks smallie. I hope to get back on this project soon. Had to take a few weeks off from it to get rods ready for the Expo I did last weekend and now just cleaning/revamping the rod shop, but I think I'll be back to working on the Aquarium in the next week or two. Steve Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted March 31, 2012 Well I just scored one heck of an unbelievable deal. The big hold up has been getting the filters for it. To have really good water quality I wanted to go with dual canister style filters such as a pair Rena XP3's or XP4's. XP3 is $130 each and XP4's are $200 each. I just found someone on a Cichlid website I am a part of that just sold me both an XP3 AND a XP4 for $65 shipped! That saves me about $270 right there, excellent deal! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted September 4, 2012 Finally got back to this project after a long summer of fishing and doing other things. But back on this now pretty steady. With the help of my brother in law we now brought the unit upstairs and have it in the room where it will stay. Just finished the final trimming of the background and now have the three main large back sections permanently siliconed in and curing. Tomorrow I will be installing the side panels and then placing the intake tubes for the Xp3 and Xp4 filters so that I can build covers that will conceal the intake tubes from sight. Also picked up the filter materials today and ordering the rest of the ceramic rings tomorrow. I already have the lighting system pieces all here (t5 duel light, dimable LED blue moonlights) but after doing some searching online tonight I found a smoking deal on some of the Hydor LED Spotlights. So I'm ordering four of the LED spotlights tomorrow so I can add some more dramatic lighting effects to the tank at night. Back pieces drying.... Steve Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted September 4, 2012 Finished putting the side panels in late last night so now the whole background and side panels are all securely attached in the tank now. Next will be routing the dual filter intakes (one in each corner) and then concealing them from sight, then mounting the spray bars. Steve Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chefben4 0 Report post Posted September 4, 2012 Steve, You never fail to out-do yourself! Very well done. Cool project! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted September 9, 2012 Started building the panels to conceal the filter intakes today (one intake on each end of the tank). Once finished the only thing that will hang below the panels are the very end of the intake because I want it to be uncovered so I will end up painting those so they blend right in... One panel roughed in and shaped... Both panels with first coat of Drylok on them... The last piece of the left cave opening now siliconed in to place... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted September 10, 2012 Managed to make enough time to get both the side rock panels mounted and shaded with color today. They hide the filter intakes extremely well yet still leave opening enough to get good flow to them. Also now that all the 3D background is in the tank I installed the new top tank trim piece with a bead of silicone all the way around the top of the tank. I was struck with an idea today to add something I had not planned. Since I am doing a "cave theme" I though it might look nice to make a few small rock formations that would hang down into the tank from the top of the waterline (think stalactites here) and mount them about 1" from the front upper lip of the tank. So I made three sections out of foam and have the drylok coat curing on them right now. I'll test mount them to see if I like the idea of them once they are dry. If not then they will not be used, but we'll see tomorrow how they look. Here are the finished filter intake panels I made.... Close up...(you can just barely see the intake grill peeking out in this side angle) Front shot they are not visible at all Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Margaretann 0 Report post Posted September 10, 2012 Looks amazing! Keep it up and you will have some fish in there soon. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted September 14, 2012 The past few days I have make some more steps forward. An order I placed last week came in which was for 2L of Matrix bio for my dual canister filters. Also got the pads and some filter floss. Some more of the lighting systems came (3 Hydor LED white spotlights and 1 Blue Hydor LED spotlight) Actually waiting for one more Blue LED spotlight that's on backorder And picked up two 24" Versa-top hinged glass tops today as well as 50lbs of Tan Medium sand and 50lbs of White sand from Home Depot (plan to mix tan & white together). Still waiting on the other one of the Blue LED spotlights which will light up the right side panel in blue like the left one. But here is a test run with the four Cold Cathode "cave lights", twin blue LED 48" moon light bars, three LED white spot lights, and one of the Blue LED spotlights all on now. I also have a 48" T5 dual light which will mount in the canopy for times when I want to really light the whole tank up, but I personally like the more dramatic effect the spot lights give to the look. So far I'm very pleased with the way the lighting system is coming. Now tomorrow I get to wash 100lbs of sand :oops: Current state today (minus canopy because I have to do a bit of trimming on the inside back brace of it). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Chefben4 0 Report post Posted September 14, 2012 Im going to have to order another rod just to see this thing in person!! Looking very good. Cant wait to see some fish in it! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Piker20 0 Report post Posted September 14, 2012 Looking great. What fish are you thinking of adding? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted September 14, 2012 All male peacock cichlids. Stock list I'm thinking of doing is as follows... Aulonocara jacobfreibergi Mamalala (Lemon Jake) Aulonocara stuartgranti Blue Neon Aulonocara stuartgranti German Red OB Peacock Aulonocara stuartgranti "Ngara Flametail" Red Top Lwanda Yellow Labs synodontis Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Margaretann 0 Report post Posted September 14, 2012 That will be some tank when it is finished and all your fishies are swimming around in there! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steeldrifter 0 Report post Posted September 15, 2012 More progress this evening, but what a pain it was. After mounting both glass lids on top I realized that the 1" acrylic rear of the glass lids which is normally used for trimming filter intake clearance... well it just was not gonna work because my custom background I made extends 1.75" away from the back glass, which means the filter intake as well as spraybars were going to need to be routed through the glass part of the lids...uhg! Nothing's worse than having to cut brand new glass you just bought and hope you dont crack the whole thing in two. So after a few tense moments with the glass cutter I went to work. I am very happy with the way it all came out. Rather than run the spray bar along the back like I originally planned on doing from the start of this build, I decided to run them along the sides and tuck them up into the edge of the trim so they were completely hidden from sight. This required some trimming of the upper lip of the background, as well as notching the new top trim piece I just installed, and cutting the spraybar to fit. View from the front the spraybar is completely hidden in the upper trim piece... Then it was simply a matter of doing the exact same thing to the left side of the tank... And then glass all cut/trimmed and new lids mounted into place Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
riffleriversteelheadslayer 0 Report post Posted September 15, 2012 will you hurry up and get some fish in there so I can come try out a few new fly patterns looks great bro Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
