Hello from Nebraska

Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
This next photo shows the pump (Reeflo Hammerhead/Barracuda Gold), the filter (Aqua Ultima II 1000), and some of the plumbing required to get the water to and from the tank. I used as many union valves and double union ball valves (all schedule 80) as I could, to make maintenance, servicing and future expansion as easy as possible. The filter is direct plumbed to the main house drain and has a sight glass, so I can see when the water starts to run clear when backwashing.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
clownie said:
That stand is awesome!!! Nice job. Did you also do the modification on the fiberglas tank? Looks really...really good!!
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Thanks. The stand is probably overbuilt, but we wanted to error on the side of caution when dealing with that much water and weight. I drilled the fiberglass (slowly and carefully) with a hole saw bit and put the bulkheads in place.

Here's a photo of the tank with the bulkheads drilled and the Lifegard Aquatics intake screens installed.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
This photo is a close up of how we ran the plumbing along the tank and stand. We used Unistrut to fasten the pvc to the stand.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
In this photo, this is the backside of the tank. The intake and outflow lines had to criss cross each other, because they were drilled at different heights on the tank. I was very thankful to have help from my brother in law, who is an HVAC technician. Again, we used Unistrut to anchor the plumbing to the stand and the wall. And schedule 80 unions were abundantly used.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
Finally time to add water. I just used pvc pipe to build a frame for the top and have since placed a full sheet (4×8) of double wall polycarbonate greenhouse panel to keep the heat and moisture from escaping too quickly.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
Ra in his new home. At that time, we just had pond netting across the top of the tank. It was like a sauna in that room. The tank is heated to 82 degrees by using 2 - 1000 watt heaters, so you can imagine the amount of evaporation that creates.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
This is a photo of the tanks in the same room as the 600 gallon tank. They are basically directly across from that tank. The tank on the left is a Marineland 75 gallon. This one is Cocoa Puff's home. The tank in the middle is an Aqueon 75 gallon. It is home to "Taz", our wild caught True Parrot cichlid. His name is short for Tasmanian Devil...lol. He does not play well with tankmates. The tank on the right is an Aqueon 55 gallon. Current and temporary home to the Mascara barbs and panda garra.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
Not the best photo of him, but this is Taz right after we got him. He's put on about 3 inches since we first brought him home. It's amazing how much his color changes based on his mood.

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Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
clownie said:
Beautiful! Was thinking of getting some of them....just haven't pulled the trigger yet!
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Thank you. IMHO, they are a very highly underrated genus of fish. Ours are still fairly young and haven't even hit their full potential yet as far as coloration goes. They eat like pigs and are very peaceful. They were a little skittish at first, but once we added more, they really settled down.
 
Cole

Cole

Well-Known Member
clownie said:
How many do you have?
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There are 9 Dawkinsia assimilis, 6 Dawkinsia rohani, and 6 Dawkinsia filamentosa in that tank. They'll be joining 10 clown barbs and 12 Odessa barbs when they move over into the 125 gallon tank. We'd like to add a few Dawkinsia exclamatio and Dawkinsia tambraparniei, if space allows.
 
FishBeast

FishBeast

Well-Known Member
Cole said:
Ra in his new home. At that time, we just had pond netting across the top of the tank. It was like a sauna in that room. The tank is heated to 82 degrees by using 2 - 1000 watt heaters, so you can imagine the amount of evaporation that creates.

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Found your tank build again! :) Did you order it from Pentaire directly? I am in awe of how neat and organized your fish room and turtle tank are!
 
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