150 gallon project

[Adam]

Hi,

It's been awhile since I updated this, so I'll make a new thread.  I've been working to get this completed in the near future, so here is my process work:



Equipment

2 x Rio 10HF 600gph for UGJs
2 x 36" 2x39W Hagen Glo with 10 000 ARC bulbs
2 x Aquaclear 110 HOB
1 x Fluval FX5 Canister
2 x 200W Visi-therm Stealth heaters



Here it is with almost everything removed:







Here are my UGJs.  I replaced the old ones with new, 3/4" PVC tubing and a new dual closed-loop design.







Here is part of the gutter/cave/rock background I have been making.  The gutters are vertical with 4 different sized holes for smaller fish to be able to use some caves on their own.  The plan is to have all equipment seamlessly integrated behind the background so as to not have ANY visible equipment...although you may be able to see a hose or heater through the 'cave' openings.:







I have been filing the holes now for any rough edges.  The next step is to make the housing for the Rio 10HFs.  It will have to jut out on the bottom to accomodate the pumps.  That is what the large square shaped cutouts from the gutter are.







Here is a small piece of gutter that I pieced together to ensure the rocks would adhere properly.  It's heavy, but I will have to think about making more holes to have fewer rocks.  Excuse the excess silicone.  It was my first piece and the rest will look much better.











And this is where I got the idea from:  http://www.duboisi.com/diy/BNdiygrotto/bndiygrotto.htm
Of course I did my own modifications of the basic premise.  Hope you like it. 

Adam

[az]

good job, it was a diy i was going to look into, would it be ok to drill holes and using plastic bolts/screws instead of silicone? thanks.

[gvv]

Hi,

I did the same type of "background" for my malawi tank few years ago...
What I found out is that you would prefer to use lightweight rocks for it, otherwise the structure will not be so steady and may fall apart under its own weight.
Silicone... Az probably right. After some time some rocks will fall from this background - it probably can be fish or you cleaning the tank and touched the rock on the background.
I disn't see it in your photos, so I would suggect to make cross deviders like it is shown here:
http://www.duboisi.com/diy/BNdiygrotto/back6.jpg
This will definetly make your background more steady and useful.

How are you planning to fix it on the back glass. I had my tank already filled with fish, so could not glue it to the glass...   I would definetly suggest to glue it.

Good luck. If you will not be in a hurry and do it carefully - it will be a gerat and very practical background!

Regards

[fischkopp]

Great project! I cant wait to see the final state. Keep us up-to-date!

Robert

[beowulf]

I like!!!  Gives me an idea of what to do in the future.

[Adam]

Thanks guys...I'm going to take my time on this one.  The aquarium has been sitting empty for 7 months now.  A little more time won't matter.

Bruce, haven't forgotten either.  Whenever you have some free time.

gvv: I glued the rocks with silicone onto that piece of gutter awhile ago (a month or so) and I still can hardly rip them off with a lot of force.  It all depends on what kind of bond you have.  If you have a good, solid, large surface to bond to, it should be fine.  I will take note of it.  The rocks are pretty small, so I'm not too worried about their individual weights, just the combined weight.  I want to put the cave dividers in, but I'm not sure what material I want to make it out of.  The article suggests plastic edging, but the ones I have found have had these sharp ridges in the middle and they were not very good quality/thickness.

az: I might go crazy with that many bolts.  We are talking about hundreds if not thousands of rocks siliconed on. 

I'm going to drill tiny holes in the top brace to thread some zip ties through.  It will hold it in place quite well, and if I need to get it free, just a couple cuts and it's gone.

Robert: You'll have to come over one day when it is completed.

beowulf: If you have time, patience and a little bit of ingenuity, it's a good project.  There are a lot of things I have to make it fit around, and that is the hardest part for me.

Adam

[Adam]

Some updates.  I have been slowly but surely working on this.  I took out the UGJs because I feel for the work and the stuff sticking out of the sand, and the power consumption, they won't be worth it.  It would be another 70W (2 x 35W pumps) running consistently.  And if something went wrong, I would have to remove the whole wall. 

I am also not going to divide the separate gutters.  It will be one long tunnel.  The reason for this being that I have some holes at the bottom so all the detritus that will build up in the gutters will fall to the bottom and I can easily suck it up without having to go into 100 different caves to do so. 

Enough talk, here are some pictures:

[audioslave_36]

update ?  pics ?