500 gallon african cichlid update
- Thread starter stempy
- Start date
Outstanding! Bravo!
I'm looking to go bigger than my 240 gallon acrylic. Is building your own tank the way to go? The 10-foot acrylic tank I have been eyeballing will cost a small fortune. I have no knowledge on building? Length is more important to me than height or depth, I want at least 10' long x 24" tall x 24" wide. Could go 30+ inches wide if I build. Thanks, Russ
I'm looking to go bigger than my 240 gallon acrylic. Is building your own tank the way to go? The 10-foot acrylic tank I have been eyeballing will cost a small fortune. I have no knowledge on building? Length is more important to me than height or depth, I want at least 10' long x 24" tall x 24" wide. Could go 30+ inches wide if I build. Thanks, Russ
First off, thank you 
Id say if money is no object buy one form a respected builder. I built mine with zero skills whatsoever but saying that if you look around you will see far more failures than successes 
Maybe I got lucky I don't know, I will say if you choose to build it is very rewarding just take your time and OVERDO everything. I don't care how many people on this forum say there is no need to overbuild just again look around and see how many failures there are then let them say there is no need to over build when that same 500+ gallon tank is in their home.. That's a lot of water that can do a lot of structural damage to your home. The nice thing about the dimensions you want is that it wouldn't cost a whole lot to build as the most expensive part is the viewing panel and at that height you wouldn't need a very thick panel saving LOTS of money. My sig is the link to my build you can see how I chose to go about the whole build process and its been uhhh, over 3 years i think up and running so far with no signs of stopping any time soon. The tank looks like the day I built it TBH and I don't regret building a plywood tank vs buying an acrylic tank a single day! Hope that helps.
Id say if money is no object buy one form a respected builder. I built mine with zero skills whatsoever but saying that if you look around you will see far more failures than successes Maybe I got lucky I don't know, I will say if you choose to build it is very rewarding just take your time and OVERDO everything. I don't care how many people on this forum say there is no need to overbuild just again look around and see how many failures there are then let them say there is no need to over build when that same 500+ gallon tank is in their home.. That's a lot of water that can do a lot of structural damage to your home. The nice thing about the dimensions you want is that it wouldn't cost a whole lot to build as the most expensive part is the viewing panel and at that height you wouldn't need a very thick panel saving LOTS of money. My sig is the link to my build you can see how I chose to go about the whole build process and its been uhhh, over 3 years i think up and running so far with no signs of stopping any time soon. The tank looks like the day I built it TBH and I don't regret building a plywood tank vs buying an acrylic tank a single day! Hope that helps.
I really like the tank and the species you've put together. My only critique would be the decor. I'm not a fan of lace rock or lava rock and the fake plants don't really do it for me either. It will be impressive when all those fish mature though.
ThanksI am freaking impressed, but that's not hard to do, looking great
Well, I'm with you sorta on this. I prefer river rock (though I really do like lace rock as well) but in a tank this size the sheer weight of river rock to make any sort of nice display would be ridiculous and I do not want to risk any sort of structural damage to the tank adding a ton (literally) of river rock. The plants....yea.....I tried live and if you have ever tried live plants with africans you know how that went. The plastic was more for my wife kinda deal, she wanted some green in the tank and since the live plants went real well that was my only option
Guess it's time for a small update. I finally decided to ditch the reef rock in favor of natural river rock and the fish seem to enjoy the extra swimming room with a lot less rock crowding the tank. Hope you enjoy
Looks great! Any updates?
...not many African cichlid fans on this site. Outside of yours and mine(much smaller), there aren't many large tanks. Or at least not many people posting about them.Tough crowd
Thank you, yea this section seems rather dead anymore
I will post an update here in a week or so. I had someone offer me a breeding group of mikula frontosa for an absolute steal. So the Malawi's are gone and the tank is awaiting me making the long drive to go pick up the fronts next weekend.