John's future/current build projects

[John58Ford]

This thread will follow the oddball builds I do, not the basic stuff.

Currently I'm working on a double stack of 55s with a custom rack style stand, and a stand alone 45"pent" corner tank.

The 55s were given to me by @sir_keith, and my boys and I are planning to make them every bit as show stopping as my 3D 29, with one soft/freshwater schooling fish focused and the other hard tang water focused. They will appear visually to be the exact same theme, with the difficult but doable task of a fully planted Tanganyika tank, I've been experimenting on a small scale with success. The 45 was aquired to be a terrarium but I am now configuring it to run brackish so it needs to hold a full tank of water so it's sealing time for all of them.

Signs you might need to reseal:



The careful process of not separating the panels:




My helpers prepping the back of the tanks for the magic we have planned:



More to be posted as projects come and go.

 

[John58Ford]

Some progress:



Using a round lid as a spacer will keep the tape straight, we learned on the last tank of course ...

After the silicone and pulled masking:

 

[sir_keith]

Super happy to see these tanks getting new life!

 

[DMD123]

Loving that “pent” tank! That should look really cool once you get it set up.

 

[John58Ford]

Finally getting some vertical progress.

The goal:

(Actually I think I'm going to disable that heater and slide this 2 feet to the left, putting the 2x2 foot print corner tank on the right)

The making:



Will probably get further but forgot to eat so we're taking a late lunch lol.

 

[fishguy1978]

Finally getting some vertical progress.

The goal:
View attachment 10513
(Actually I think I'm going to disable that heater and slide this 2 feet to the left, putting the 2x2 foot print corner tank on the right)

The making:
View attachment 10515
View attachment 10514

Will probably get further but forgot to eat so we're taking a late lunch lol.

What beautiful 2 wheel Honda is that?

 

[John58Ford]

What beautiful 2 wheel Honda is that?

That little guy is a cbr300r, just a super commuter; when I was doing 80+ miles daily through the forest up here I accumulated a small collection of light weight motorcycles. This one was my favorite so I kept it. Gets up to 90mpg if you are willing to tuck in, and does it fast enough to get the feeling that you are not in fact invincible, and need to reflect on your own decisions.

 

[John58Ford]

True vertical progress. I am going the disable the heaters route, it was put to vote and passed with the real boss. Will take it all back apart and paint it tomorrow, put a top and back on it, then begin sculpting.

 

[sir_keith]

True vertical progress. I am going the disable the heaters route, it was put to vote and passed with the real boss. Will take it all back apart and paint it tomorrow, put a top and back on it, then begin sculpting.

View attachment 10516
View attachment 10517

Nice!!!

 

[John58Ford]

Water test today-tomorrow night. I haven't gotten to the paint portion or background carving yet, had to much sun this weekend.


In practice they'll be full to the rims to hide the water line but my garage floor needs a good jack and fill (probably an anchor and re-pour tbh)before I can try that out here.

 

[John58Ford]

I'm designing my 3d backgrounds, and really thinking hard about the Tanganyika 55. If I build the rock crevices and caves into it, would paracyprichromis nigripinnis be happy swimming above my multis? I have to carefully think this out as building caves is going to pull allot of front to back depth out of the tank and eliminate the "one big guy" type options so I want to select species before I mix cement... The soft water tank is going to have a row of caves too but on the lower layer for dwarf pleco so asthetcaly it could go either way.

 

[sir_keith]

I'm designing my 3d backgrounds, and really thinking hard about the Tanganyika 55. If I build the rock crevices and caves into it, would paracyprichromis nigripinnis be happy swimming above my multis? I have to carefully think this out as building caves is going to pull allot of front to back depth out of the tank and eliminate the "one big guy" type options so I want to select species before I mix cement... The soft water tank is going to have a row of caves too but on the lower layer for dwarf pleco so asthetcaly it could go either way.

A few P. nigripinnis would be perfect for this setup: they love vertical rock caves. They can sometimes be difficult to find, but show up periodically online.

​

 

[John58Ford]

I was looking hard at my 10 gallon qt that has been running as a temporary home for my shellies. I had a few questions I wanted to answer for myself and it's time to evaluate all of them for the real tank I'm about to bring online.

1. Can you in fact "fully" plant a multi tank? Yes, avoid fibrous roots, and look towards tap roots, aerial/stem roots or adventitious roots so you can pin the main root with a rock without stunting. (Avoid swords and lillies basically)

2. Can you raise mystery snails and other snail species with fish that really, really, want to get into that shell? Yes.

3. Will the tank mature and look as you would expect after years of soft water planted experience? No.



Anyone else find the irony in this pair of pictures?




I think of it as an apartment complex, and a "coming soon". I've had that mystery snail in this Tanganyika tank water since he was only bb size 5 months ago, I dropped him right in from tank to tank (6.8 pH to 9.2 instantly if I recall). He has grown about half the speed of his siblings in the warmer and softer water tanks but he is the best color of the batch I kept that time. I've never target fed him until last week though so that might keep him a bit smaller. I think the minerals do well for them and though the pH range isn't in the listed "range" this is a very healthy snail. He does keep his eye stalks and antennae retracted more than any other snail but multis are definitely nippy, and he does still have all his parts.

Additionally, this tank had an established anubias nana that had flowered a few times over 2 years and slowly grown from 3 leaves to about 8. When I changed the tanks parameters and lighting, the existing leaves got the darkest green spots,(look like algae but are in the leaf membranes I tried to scrub them once...) the new leaves have grown clean green, and 2-3 times faster. I know this is the highest bioload and fish produced CO2 level the tank has ever seen as the most it's ever housed before were 14 baby tetra and a few otto at once, certainly not this out of control colony I have going. A couple of the multi males are as heavy in the body as the biggest of "king" beta I've ever kept, and I've only ever kept one of those in a 10 at once. It is now passing the "comfortably overstocked cichlid tank" and they are very ready for the new tank but look how cool this plant grew, you can see the layer if new growth distinctly sperated from the old.


Since I use my buffer packages and fish food/waste as my only fertilizers this is all very important stuff to observe in relation to the otherwise artistic process of tank layout, especially how the mountains of sand have moved and the shell movement by the fish. I now have a very clear objective for my future N. Multifaciatis, P. Nigripinnis, and snail, fully planted 55. I think I'm going to dig out the hot knife and cement tonight.

 

[John58Ford]

Well the pent is getting a temporary purpose hopefully as soon as tomorrow. Been crazy busy but managed to re-direct it a bit. Here's the "heart" of my corner matten all in one tanks. Since this is "temporary" the spray bar(s?) isn't getting painted. Also, yes, I use trash cans to build my corner housings. No one would ever guess the 29 lily tank was built the exact same way lol.



I still need to packing tape over the paint (to avoid scratches), cut a lid, fill it and run some carbon, flush it and fill it with tang water before squeezing sponges into it and dropping in bag of old ceramic, but I think I can make it. If only I didn't have to go back to work and run baseball practice tonight. Or, if only it hasn't been so cold the paint didn't cure on the cement backgrounds so I could just run the dang 55 stack.

 

[John58Ford]

Issue, 1/8 wave of 60hz in air is 28". 28x.75 makes that 21" wavelength in water. Tank is 22x22 horizontal, 25" deep.

Any time a 60hz pump is put within an inch of a corner it's so loud the tank shakes intensely and you can hear it from both stories of the house and garage. Doesn't help that the vertical hose is ~21", and the spray bars are ~21". I worked way later last night than I should have testing all my pumps and gadgets to make it work but even with a tiny 100 gph pump in there it's still pretty dang loud. I found a "sweet spot" for a 5 bladed 150gph pump for the moment but I think I need either a ~500gph DC pump, or I'll go canister or sump using the matten as a prefilter.

Pile of pumps had me so mad last night I didn't do the math until this morning.. embarrassing as that kind of math was a large part of my previous career..

 

[John58Ford]

Cut a glass lid for the pent, set up a couple breeder lamps with the full spectrum screw in LEDs for now, haven't decided how I want to light it yet permanently. It's still a bit cloudy in there but I got one so-so full tanks and a couple nice close ups. This was a 6 day build from blank glass working on lunch breaks, and most of the "pretty stuff" happened last night after dinner, stole half the anubias or of my little overstocked 10, 3 young crypt, and a handful of ludwigia all got pinched under the rocks. No idea how they'll do with the clean sand and low nitrogen/carbon output but we'll see.


Calvus has a corner cave:


The occy gang is already showing some decent gold/blue. Should be better with descrete led lighting than with these combination lights.

This should work fine until I get the 55 stack finished, my wife already told me "that's not looking very temporary". I laughed little, but she's right.


Thanks again to @DMD123 for having the fish box in mind when he decided to get out of Tanganyika stuff, I couldn't have set this up without all the nice rocks and sand.

 

[DMD123]

Looking good @John58Ford, glad that worked out. You will love the Occy’s, they are bold! The first time you reach in and get bit you will laugh at how pugnacious they are.