$50 craiglist 225 tank/cabinet/canopy DIY refurbish

[CWO4GUNNER]

The whole rock issue is still being experimented with. So far I don't like my idea of using 3&4" black ABS piping as hides. I just cant get it to work well with stone or look right.

So now I'm experimenting with just gluing together medium size 4-6" lave stones into hides and may even try using black slate to make a high rise Cichlid condo, slate is also very abundant in this area. Ill post photo's once it looks right to spare you the agony of my tossed out creations LOL.

In the mean time while in Vegas 80 miles drive to do some specialty food supply shopping (Chinese), before going home stopped at a big Vegas LFS and picked up two 3" Blue Peacock Cichlids for the tank thinking that for their size and color they were a good buy at $9 each. I hope that putting them in the tank early and being an inch bigger then the rest in my Cichlid community tank wont make for a bad welcoming comity when I transplant the rest of the 17 group.

 

[Rbishop]

Nice pick up....

 

[Arkangel77]

They look nice But thin! Fatten them bad boys up! IMO

 

[nguyendetecting]

you should post pics of your failed creations. I always think they are a blast to look at. I once tried a 2 liter cut in half and tried to silicon rocks and gravel to it. It ended up a stinky nasty gooy mess. My gf got a good laugh at me though lol

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Actually if you measure them nose to tail they are 4.3 inches long. I thought I had removed all the feeder fish to the Koi tank to keep them humanely safe but apparently I missed one. I never realized these fish could actually latch on and pull in two directions as I thought fin nipping was all that would occur. Sorry camera shots are censored.

The other shocker was that the next morning I was surprised to find out that that my Koi had not treated one of their cousin comet fish so well either.

Before moving the main group of 17 assorted AF Cichlids from the 80 tank over to the 244 I think Im going to have to temprarily move most of the ornaments over from their 80 tank as well before moving them for the following reasons:

(1) It will provide temporary familiar shelter.
(2) The 3 large dead corals have been keeping the PH at a solid 8 and with the new tank at 7.5 I think it would be an easy way to get the PH to gradual chnage safely.
(3) The AF are simply to fast to chase around ornaments and may even injure themselves on the sharp corals if not removed making it mush easier to net the fish.
(4) Im going to repair the tank anyway (leaks in the top trim seal) and dont want to kill the bacteria on the ornaments.

So when you see the next set of pics and the tank looks like a lake/reef gaudy nightmare, remember its just temporary. I just hope they all get along as the biggest is only 3" and the smallest 2". The new blues I just bought are allot longer, bigger and menacing IMO.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

Well here are the last pictures with my African Cichlids in their new home with familiar calcium corals then need to keep that PH high the way they love it. They also love biting the corals which are dissolving very slowly turning to red and blue sand which is their natural dead color being from the Philippine sea, the spiny canter coral the only one white. This configuration is the way it will probubly stay. The photo's below were taken in poor lighting so I posted 3 different exposure to try and capture what I ended up with.

AgainI want to thank everyone for their encouragement and I think the big tank has bitten me so Im looking for large busted tanks deals in trade for 80 and 60 working tanks. I figure someone out there is willing to take something smaller that working in exchange for something that is huge and busted sitting in their garage. My vision (God willing) is to part with 3 working tanks (2 x 80's & 60) in exchange for 3 busted 200 gallon or larger all glass tanks with stands. When it happens I will let you all know and start the new saga LOL. God Bless.

 

[Arkangel77]

VERY Nice - Great Work!!!!!!! Good Luck finding some new project tanks! I know I would grab one if I could!

Arkangel77

 

[dtl92]

That looks great!

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

VERY Nice - Great Work!!!!!!! Good Luck finding some new project tanks! I know I would grab one if I could!

Arkangel77

Your absolutely right that there will be none advertised becasue no one or most would never advertise a busted tank which they would have to list for pennies on the dollar. So big busted tanks are given away or dumped. But I believe this is where a wanted add comes into play either viewed by the owner or by someone who knows a friend who has a busted 300 or 500 gallon tank and is willing to trade down for something smaller that holds water in exchange for trash, my treasure