150gal in-wall simulated marine tank

[billberet]

Hey, I am finally finished with my 150 gal FW tank.
everyone always says you can't get color in a fresh water tank, I just wanted to show you can do anything if you have a little imagination.

I already had 3 FW tanks in my wall, but I always wanted a monster tank. so I combined them all.
first I had to match up the stand.

cleared out the existing tanks and started setting up my 150gal tank

I borrowed a glue gun from my wife, it was able to glue the stones in 3 seconds.
liquid nail took too long to set, lol

after the stone was done, I used colored caulk to use as grout.
I sanded down some extra stones and brushed it on top of the caulk as it dried, this helped it blend.
because the caulk by itself did not look right, looked smooth and didn't simulate grout well.

diy LED hood, made the hood out of roofing aluminum, I just bent it to make a hood. very streamline and low profile.

I chose a nice blue and white that made the fish POP in color.

here is the light hood in all it's glory, lol

here is my finished tank, I have about 65 fish in the tank. but you would never know it, lol

behind the scene

here are some fish pics

 

[Mebbid]

*whistles* that's impressive. Very nice!

 

[Oohitsae]

I like it!

 

[billberet]

thanks for the thumbs up.
here are some more images I just took last night.
my power supplies burned out (china junk)
so I took apart some old PC's and used their power supply.

it's the best LED power supply there is, complete with internal fuses to protect against surges and draws. don't know why I didn't think of this before.

I had extra female molex, so I used them to connect my LED to the 12v power source.

here is how the tank looks now with the upgraded power supply, colors POP.

new LED power supply working well, one power source for all LED's

 

[billberet]

all plants I do is DIY as well.

as you can see here, they are drying in the sun

I get all the raw materials and use GE type 1 silicone clear. TYPE 1 ONLY !!!!!!

just to be safe, I give them a bath for a few days

the base of my plants are made of the same substrate I use in the tank so they blend.

as for my substrate,
I did tons of research on each type of sand and I decided to go with pool filtration sand. it's heavier than standard sand, so it falls to the bottom fast when a fish kicks it up. It's silica based so it's inert. meaning it does nothing to your water chemistry. it is very compact so debris and food particles do not penetrate, which is great for the cats that clean up the bottom of uneaten flakes.

I would never go back to gravel again, all my tanks are now using this sand.
not to mention is SUPER CHEAP !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I get 50lb bag for $17
granted I needed 4 bags, but it was worth it in the end.

 

[jroach1018]

this is the best thing Ive ever seen! how can I nominate this for tank of the month! TOTM

 

[bettaowner]

That is an amazing tank.

 

[billberet]

here is a quick video, it is pre-pc power source, but you still get a good idea of how it looks when the fish move.
they school nicely back and forth. and they pick the flakes off the reef when I feed them, looks like a true reef setup.

 

[billberet]

ok final pic.

here is the full entrance to my man cave!!! lol

 

[itsdagooch]

***baller-status***

 

[MMantelli]

Man I'm really diggin the taank personally I would have done some bright peacock cichlids but that's just me. I really doo like the it though. +1 on it bein baller status hahaha

 

[LaCichlids318]

Did u build all of the reefy stuff?

 

[billberet]

Did u build all of the reefy stuff?

no, can't take credit for making that, but I did choose the pieces.
worth every penny. cost me just under a grand for the coral insert.

 

[nathanden]

omg that tank.is awesome what type.of fish are they

I agree I.would have done peacocks but I'm a cichlid guy also

 

[billberet]

I knew the 'C' word would pop up eventually. lol


I had my share of cichlids, but they would have been to aggressive in this type of tank. all my glows and ID sharks, angels, and discus don't take well to nippers. they would upset the zen of the tank
right now I have about 60 or so fish, and not one torn fin.

I haven't lost a fish since I started this tank (knock on wood).
so I think i'm done adding fish, time to let them grow.

 

[billberet]

omg that tank.is awesome what type.of fish are they

I agree I.would have done peacocks but I'm a cichlid guy also

off the top of my head I would say

I have 1 firemouth
1 parrot
1 fancy tail guppy (don't know why, lol)
3 tricolors
2 irridescents
40 glows
8 danios
4 silver dollars
8 barbs (albino and black)
3 angles
2 plekos
2 pictus
1 ralph
2 bamboo shrimp
i'm not sure what I have in there anymore, lol.

 

[billberet]

just finished adding some night LED's.

my entire fishtank is also hooked into my home automation program I developed. this is what takes care of my lighting schedule.
they LED's gradually come on and get brighter hour by hour, till afternoon, then they are running full intensity. same goes for at night, they get dimmer each hour till the night time LED's kick in.

 

[billberet]

OK, does this help my **baller status**
here is my home automation system I developed.
it can compete with a $100,000.00 Creston system.

here is my little fish page that controls the lights in my tank.

 

[MMantelli]

OK, does this help my **baller status**
here is my home automation system I developed.
it can compete with a $100,000.00 Creston system.

here is my little fish page that controls the lights in my tank.

Holy carp batman lol. I would be so happy with a system like that how many tanks can that run? Does it just control the lights or does it do everything?

 

[billberet]

Holy carp batman lol. I would be so happy with a system like that how many tanks can that run? Does it just control the lights or does it do everything?

it runs all my tanks and my house.
I don't want to go off topic but it's an entire home automation system.
handles all my security, camera's, video, Movies, Music, lights, theater, fish, FIOS STB.
I have motion sensors in all the rooms and as you move, your music will follow you from room to room. or if i'm playing xbox and my wife wants the tv, as I walk to another room, my xbox will follow me to that room.
I have speakers in all the walls so it's great when we have parties.
I have 300TB of storage in an array doing raid 5. Meaning it is striped across 3 drives, so I can loose 1/3 of all my drives and I can still retrieve my data.

there is also voice activation, I have a microphone in certain rooms that I can do voice commands.
when I have friends over it's hard to get them to leave, lol.



this is good for all my anime and movies and music!!!