Albertan

Obviously he's more impressive as an adult than a juvenile. As an adult he looks like a brick with fins. :thumbs: I'm actually at least as impressed with his coloration as a juvie as I am as an adult. There's no denying he is a spectacular specimen, but I have found I can make most fish look pretty good turning the lights off in the room, shooting without a flash, and moving the overhead T5s in front of the subject. I guess what I am saying is the coloration of the finnage in particular is more impressive in the relatively bright lighting of the juvie pic as compared to what I would consider "ideal" lighting in the adult pics. Having spewed all that, awesome pics of an awesome fish as always Mo.

I think you can have the tank made out of glass or acrylic so long as you find a reputable manufacturer. If you can get a Living Color tank up here and it's "backed" by Tenecor's expertise, then I would take a good hard look at that option. I'd still talk to Concept Aquariums/Aquarium Illusions as well though about a glass tank. Continue to research both options...glass and acrylic...and get a price for both. Then figure out which has the best cost/benefit ratio and which you are most comfortable having in your basement. I wish I xoould offer you more direction but I haven't completed the research yet myself. Just take your time and ask lots of questions on both sides. BTW, could you please PM me with the contact info for the Living Color rep in Edmonton? I may contact them myself in the near future. Thanks and best of luck with your killer project! :thumbs:

Mmmmm....Chickakoo Lake. There are big, big trout in that lake unless it's winter-killed in the past ten years. I used to fish around there alot and raced mountain bikes there a couple of times in the summer too.

Nice work. I like that lighting the way it is myself.

Yes, I know the fish is actually from Africa. But it's usually discussed/kept by those of us keeping larger New World cichlids rather than the typical African keeper. So I thought I would mention here that the Patland in Grande Prairie just received some excellent specimens in about the 1"-2" range. If anyone is interested I can probably make arrangements to get some down to Edmonton if none of the other Petlands have any. I know the GP store often gets it's own orders separate from the other stores, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only store that has them.

This tank is also 8x2x2 Thank you. I saw you post that your tank is 28" tall. Just so you know, 96"X24"X28" is 280 US gallons, not 240.

Is that the P. managuense sp. Honduras Mo?

What are the dimensions on that tank? It looks to be 24" tall so I am assuming its 18" deep without going to a calculator. It looks great. I have two 8X2X2 tanks planned for my fishroom at my new house, so seeing yours really makes me drool. My dovii are gonna be living large. Congrats on the pickup. :thumbs:

I'm curious on the filtration, lighting, and stocking as well. Looks good.

All excellent photos!

Buy a Rubbermaid container big enough to fit at least half of your biggest piece of wood in it. Put it in the bathtub and fill it with hot water...not boiling but hot makes a huge difference compared to cold or lukewarm water. Leave it for a few hours or over night. Turn it over so the other half is covered if you couldn't fit it all in and repeat. Do this a couple of times and you should be good to go.

Excellent photos. Target play sand for the win! lol.

I don't want to put you off doing it as it sounds like a cool project. But I also don't want to see a member run into serious problems either. The force the water exerts on the tank increases obviously with the size of the tank. But the most important aspect is the height, and I have read a few sources that say once you go beyond 24" tall you need to get into some pretty serious bracing. Talk to Aquarium Illusions and discuss some past projects with them. They should mention a custom tank they did in Cold Lake. I think its something like 20' long and 6' tall...it basically replaces an entire wall in someones house. I don't recall the depth. Ask them how they did that one. Get some references for some tanks bigger than the standard 6&8X2X2. Talk to people and see if they are happy. Having said that, I would be taking a good hard look at acrylic tanks myself for these reasons. Remember though that an acrylic tank has to go into your basement in one piece. A glass tank can be built in your basement if need be. Lots of considerations and lots of research to do. Ask me how I know. Tenecor are considered the Cadillac of acrylic tanks. You can search the MFK forums entering "living color" as the keywords. I have heard of them but cannot recall what I read. Good luck.

That would be great!!!!!! But it's going to take till next year to complete... I try and do as much research as possible before proceeding to the next step...also I'm not rich ........ so I do it in steps..... But when its done I'll Def throw a party for all members!!!!!!!!! If you need some money for your project, figure out the automation system on a setup that large and sell it to me. I'm doing basically the same thing as you are in my shop, but I'm housing each species in a separate tank...likely around eight tanks 225 to 300 gallons. I'm in Edmonton at Aquarium Illusions tomorrow to start figuring out how its going to work. We had it figured out for a fishroom in my house, but then I decided to go a little bigger in my shop. The DIY forum on MFK has several drip setups that I just can't sem to get my head around. If you figure them out let me know. Water changes on that sort of gallonage need to be automated. Also, consider how you are going to heat that much water for the drip system. Some guys using electric hot water tanks have rather shocking electric bills monthly. Oh and also, be very careful building your smaller, thicker pad on clay. I can see you having severe shifting problems if you can't tie that into the rest of the basement.

Looking good! :thumbs:

Very nice as always Mo.

Red devils dig like mad. That's why they were given those huge lips in nature. Texas cichlids also dig a lot in my experience. I haven't kept the others for any significant amount of time.

Here's the start of what should be a very in depth amount of research for you. And here is some more information from the bible site on DIY tank building. Try punching in your dimensions for glass and acrylic. I hate to rain on your parade but unless you are 100% sure you understand what you are getting into then you could be in for a disaster with a tank that big. I know Aquarium Illusions claims to have built some big tanks. But I would get references and do my homework myself before cutting Randy a big cheque and going into the project blindly. Good luck and I hope it all works out for you.

How much it gets scratched depends entirely on what substrate you plan on using in it, but yes large cichlids with gravel/rocks on the bottom of their tank can cause scratches. Personally, my a$$ would be pretty puckered 24/7 with a 6' wide glass tank in my house. If and when the tanks breaks it can do so with enough force to kill anyone unfortunate enough to be standing in front of it at the time. Again make sure you've done your homework.

You're wasting money putting a one foot concrete base under that tank. How thick is the base around the one foot part? You need to go bigger on the base than the tank you ned to set it on. Check some posts on MFK (monsterfishkeepers.com) You really want a good understanding of exactly what you are doing in a project like this before you start IMO. No offense. I take it there will be an acrylic viewing window but the other walls will be made out of concrete?

Hi Greg. There are a couple of accepted theories/means of reducing aggression in a New World cichlid tank. One is to limit the aquascaping as you mentioned. When these fish are unable to establish territories, they tend to get along better with each other. With enough aquascaping (ie. territories) and the right (wrong) fish, it is possible to get a tank where the inhabitants can't move without entering someone else's territory and starting fights. I'm not a big fan of this approach though as first off its not terribly esthetically pleasing, and secondly you are going to miss alot of the unique behaviour of these fish if you have no substrate for them to dig in and no territories for them to defend. The second somewhat controversial means of reducing aggression is to overstock the tank with similarly sized fish. The theory with this approach is that there are more fish to distribute aggression amongst and with so many targets no one fish takes the brunt of the damage. It also limits the amount of territory claimable by a single fish if you choose your tankmates properly. This method is controversial mainly since most people will not take the time to maintain proper water parameters in a slightly crowded to slightly overcrowded tank. But I believe done properly and not just as an excuse to buy more fish, this can be a viable alternative. The third option, and the one most people are hoping they can avoid as they walk through their LFS wondering what else will fit in their tank, is to have only a few fish in a tank and to aquascape it in as esthetically-pleasing a manner as the fish will allow. This has always been my approach as I believe it is the most natural representation of the fish. And I enjoy their behaviour best this way, although overstocking allows for more fish interaction and I think the fish are more active that way. HTH.

I don't think there can be too many reminders about this risk. I know I am lazy too often and reach in to set a thermometer or perfrom some other type of maintenance. Heck I remember moving rocks around in my tanks with the heaters plugged in as a kid because I was afraid the fish would get cold if I turned it off. This thread does give me the thought to put GFCIs into the tank room in my new house though and I thank you for that.

Lookin' good Denis. Fat bellies and they're crapping in most of the pics...that's how you get them to grow. :thumbs: Whats the water temp on that tank? The motas are coloring up and growing too. Not quite as fast as the loiselli though. I'll post some pictures up later tonight once I get the kids to bed and watch Lost.

It's always nice to have a HOB filter running with the cannister to help break up the surface and increase oxygenation. You could also do this with a bubble wand, but why not get a little extra filtration while you're at it? I will confess I ran just the canister on my tanks for a long time with no issue though.

Fantastic looking job! Bummer on the first paint but once you get that sorted you're off to the races. I'll be very interested to hear what the final cost comes in at as I have well over 1000 gallons of large tanks going into my new house. This could be an interesting alternative to single handedly paying the college fund for Concept Aquariums owner's kids. Hang in there!