Rena Aqualife 450 With Diy Backdrop - 1st Tank.

[HappyGeorge]

A very interesting and fantastic project George, thanks for the blow by blow account, I would like to attempt something similar in my 150 gallon. I have seen some projects like this elsewhere, but yours looks by far the best I have seen.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of mother in law, I would lose the plastic jellyfish.

Thanks...............what do you mean? They are perfect, they don't fight, you can't overfeed them and they don't affect the ammonia levels. I think I may buy another 50 or 60 of them.

 

[Abyss]

Brilliant. You were right not to use the Juwel Rock because:

a) what you have done is miles better.
b) I used Juwel Rock and regret it. It is flaking and looks terrible.

You should be made up with that tank!

 

[Fats]

Brilliant..Well done...love it!!!...So what was the total cost of it? and what LEDs did you opt for?

Thanks
Ian

 

[HappyGeorge]

Brilliant..Well done...love it!!!...So what was the total cost of it? and what LEDs did you opt for?

Thanks
Ian

Total cost was very low.

2 x 310ml tubes of aqua safe silicone - £10 used just over 1
Bag of mastercrete - £4 for 25kg - used about 7kg
Bag of snowcrete - £5 for 25kg - used about 5kg
Argos play sand - £3 for 15kg - used about 4kg
The poly sheets I got free but looking online you can probably pick up a 2.4m x 1.2m x 100mm poly sheet from a local builders merchant for £10, or you could use some old poly packaging and silicone the bits together prior to carving it up........good excuse to go out and buy a nice new LCD/Plasma!

So full cost would be £22............hadn't actually worked it out but that's pretty cheap, worth a go even if you don't like the finished product and start again.

As for the LED's I went for the Pets at Home own brand ones,3 seperate lights plugged into a 3 socket hub, they were same output as the Marina ones but cheaper and bought them on a bit of a whim, with hindsight wish I had bought the strip ones from ebay. I have now moved my LED's to shine across the surface of the water as well as onto the rocks. as with the top output going on the internal fluval U4 it makes a nice shimmering pattern on the bottom of the tank.

 

[HappyGeorge]

Finished and running

and some of its occupants

 

[mjzuverink]

hey, great setup, i sure do wish i had the time to work on a project like this. i believe i saw a post of yours with the tank set up with fish, looked great. i like the natural earthy feel, really brings out the colors in the cichlids. i actually used to have a setup with many of the same fih you have.



great lookin peralmutt, makes me wish i hadnt sold mine

 

[HappyGeorge]

I had never heard them mentioned or seen them until I discovered some in a LFS I stumbled across, trouble was I wasn't about to buy anything there as it was a dump, but the Perlmutt (well the ones not floating on the surface) looked great. Then I went to get my fish from my favoured shop and they had some lovely ones in there so got myself 3 and then went back a week later and got another 3. They are the biggest sand sifters and movers in my tank and they seem to spend more of their time picking at rocks than any of the others, a really underrated fish in my opinion.

 

[HappyGeorge]

Latest photos of my tank. Now become a breeding zone much to my dismay.
Tank photo
Nimbochromis venustus
Just some of the Baby Afra

 

[conor655]

looks great, that background really looks good with a covering or algae.. far more natural now!

 

[Littlemonkey]

Well done, obviously the fish love it to have young. Looking good.

 

[Evobe]

Well done m8 this looks amazing! if i had more than 90 litres i would attempt the same thing xD. im still sad that you got rid of the jelly fish but your fish look amazing ! Have you got coral sand to raise the PH? or is the filter enough?

 

[fish_tank0311]

Omg i love your background

 

[ArnieStinger]

Very nice mate.

 

[jaylam]

That looks amazing, great work

 

[alex.wardle]

i think one word does this justice
WOW
worth all the hard work. lovely overall tank as well. great layout of all the rocks.
lovely fish 2