Diary of setting up a 75 Tanganyikan tank

[Michael]

I have a 40g Tanganyikan tank. I have an empty 75 and I decided to up-grade using the 75. Here I am going to document my project. It should take a while.

Questions and suggestions are welcome to this post.

I presently have 3 pairs of Lamprologus caudopunctatus with many fry and juvi's, 4 pairs Juli Ornatus, again with lot's of fry and Juvi's, 8 Zebra Danios and many fry and one old CAE. I am going to add 14 - 16 wild Cyprichromis leptosoma, small not Jumbo.

To start, I took my 75 gallon tank, all cleaned up and I siliconed a Styrofoam background & base (or bottom) using GE 1 silicone.

Next I took some styrafoam pieces I had and made a cave wall using "Great Stuff" to glue it together.

This is the back showing caves.

And on the background, not yet glued

The left side has three small cave entrances on the bottom

The right side has three small individual caves

This is were I am today. Next I will be taking styrafoam balls and glueing them onto the background to give the appearance of a rock wall.

 

[GlitcH]

Your off to a great start Michael.........I'm lookin forward to your progress.

 

[blazeyreef]

Looks awesome!

 

[chase33]

yes, I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

[Glenc]

Very cool, keep us posted!

 

[theotheragentm]

I can't wait to see the finished product too.

 

[SparKy697]

I'm curious as to how you will finish off the foam?

 

[Michael]

With cement

 

[Marconis]

That's really cool

 

[Michael]

I made a few minor changes. I was concerned about the caves at the end. I thought it would look bad when you look into the tank from the ends. I made the bottom into an off center island with the caves on that. I also shortened the hight of the styrofoam.

Here's a few pics

Tomorrow I will add some more "Great stuff" to fill in and begin with the cement. I am going to add a charcoal color to the cement, I hope I like the color.

 

[Atl300zx]

Any update on this project?

 

[Michael]

Did some more work on the project. I added more "Great Stuff" the the caves and did some torching. I put the first coat of cement of and as you can see I added a charcoal coloring to the cement. The gravel will be Eco-Complete cichlid sand, which is a black & white sand so I think the coloring will look good.

I forgot to bring my camera to work today so I took these pics with my cell phone.

The caves with lot's of Great Stuff on it

Torched

Fresh wet cement, it looks much better in person, I think

 

[LandGhoti]

That cement color is awesome.

 

[Michael]

Up-date

I finished the styrofoam and torched it

Here I have my first complete coat of cement on. I'll try yo do a second coat tomorrow - Cement was still wet

Close up of left side

Center

Left side

Looking down - right side

Looking down - left side

So that were I am so far, any comments or suggestions.

 

[theotheragentm]

I can't wait to see it filled up. Looking good.

 

[rich311k]

Nice work. This is going to be special. How long to cure it?

 

[Michael]

After I put on the final coat I'll wait 48 hours then add water. I'll do huge water changes every three days until the pH comes down to normal, then it's cured. It should take less than two weeks but this is my first time doing this so we will see.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[Marconis]

Awesome, dude.

 

[Michael]

Finally, YES! The cement has cured and the tank is ready to go. I have some work to do on the stand but I hope to have it running by the end of the weekend.

Here are pics with water in the tank. I like it, hopefully the fish will to.

Hope you like

 

[theotheragentm]

Wow, that looks great.