150 Gallon Cichlid Tank Project

Hi Everyone,

This is my first post, so nice to meet everyone! I wanted to log my progress on my 150 gallon african cichlid tank that I bought from VNCNT for a great deal. I currently have a 100 gallon set-up and will be moving the inhabitants into the new tank hopefully within a week or two. I've attached some pics of my first days work. I'm planning to do a sump/refugium in a 60 gallon tank underneath. If anyone has any thoughts on how they prefer the water to flow from one chamber to the next I would greatly appreciate the advice.

I mounted my drilling fixtures for the drilling of the overflow holes, one on either side at the same level

I was also able to paint the stand today

I hope everyone enjoys watching this tank come together and please help guide me if you have any ideas or recommendations, thanks!

here's a pic of the current inhabitants that will move to the 150

Mostly it is Mbuna, I have one 6" or so livingstonii that does well as the dominant fish and peace keeper and the rest are mbuna with some electric yellows, a demasoni, an auratus, a 2nd in command maingano, a few jalo reef and others.

Thanks for the comments so far, I'll keep posting updates as things come together.

Hi, Sorry for not posting sooner, it took a while to get this going. So....We drilled the holes, the glass was really thick so it was most efficient to use a new bit to start the job to cut down the cutting time on the glass. Then, I finished the stand, put covers on the sides and made the doors. We cleaned the tank, put it in place and plumbed the back with hard PVC. We set up the sump system and let it go with some bacteria from my current tank for a while before adding the fish. Fish were transferred with no problems, and then we added a razorback musk turtle to the mix a few days ago which is extremely awesome. (I have a soft spot for turtles having grown up in the 90s). I'll post some pics of the finished job below.

Question: Anyone have experience and ideas on keeping the water crystal with an overflow return sump system like I have?