240g Acrylic tank build thread (PIC HEAVY)

[Steve_C]

Well the fun just never ends does it. One thing I have been meaning to do is fix one small spot where the background pulled away from the back side of the tank a bit not long after setting this up. There was a small opening created because a 30" tall acrylic tank bows slightly, so the made for a little spot where smaller fish sometimes could get behind the BG a bit. Yesterday when I turned the lights on a fish spooked which in turn spooked other fish and my 8" red fin borleyi stuck his head in the opening almost getting behind it. So after getting him free I decided to fix the problem so I would not have to worry about it any longer.

Trying to net 30 fish in a 6x2x30 tank with two small openings in the top is not as fund as it sounds lol. Even with two good size nets (one in each hand) and a divider to corner fish it still ended up taking me close to two hours just to net all the fish.

Everyone shoved into a small holding tank.

Then came the real fun stuff. Getting everything out of the tank. Sounds easier than it is, but not very enjoyable to have to be on top of a step ladder reaching down into a tank trying to get all the decor out without hitting the front panel or damaging anything. Slow but steady and it was cleared out.

All in all it took about a good six hours of work. Started about 7pm and finished up just before 1am. Thankfully it is done and now I don't have to worry about anyone getting back behind the background anymore. And as a bonus everything is now extremely clean

 

[Steve_C]

Well the fun just never ends does it. One thing I have been meaning to do is fix one small spot where the background pulled away from the back side of the tank a bit not long after setting this up. There was a small opening created because a 30" tall acrylic tank bows slightly, so the made for a little spot where smaller fish sometimes could get behind the BG a bit. Yesterday when I turned the lights on a fish spooked which in turn spooked other fish and my 8" red fin borleyi stuck his head in the opening almost getting behind it. So after getting him free I decided to fix the problem so I would not have to worry about it any longer.

Trying to net 30 fish in a 6x2x30 tank with two small openings in the top is not as fund as it sounds lol. Even with two good size nets (one in each hand) and a divider to corner fish it still ended up taking me close to two hours just to net all the fish.

Everyone shoved into a small holding tank.

Then came the real fun stuff. Getting everything out of the tank. Sounds easier than it is, but not very enjoyable to have to be on top of a step ladder reaching down into a tank trying to get all the decor out without hitting the front panel or damaging anything. Slow but steady and it was cleared out.

All in all it took about a good six hours of work. Started about 7pm and finished up just before 1am. Thankfully it is done and now I don't have to worry about anyone getting back behind the background anymore. And as a bonus everything is now extremely clean

 

[Steve_C]

Don't know why the above double posted. Site was lagging for me when I posted earlier so maybe that was why.

Anyway , thought you guys might like to see a short vid of the tank after recently doing some more work on it. Added some new accent lighting today with a couple of 850lum LED spotlights which give it that nice shimmering water effect (vid doesn't show that very well). Recently added some new fish- Moorii, Taiwan reef, Pheno, Fosso, Venustus, some Ob's and a trip of Bucco's.

 

[piranhaman00]

Looks amazing!

 

[wfex4]

Hard work is definitely paying off. The tank and fish look great

 

[Nicholas Marquez]

What do you charge for a 3d background.

 

[Steve_C]

Depends on the size and style. I have done a number of them for people in the past but I really try to keep it to local people these days just because it's a lot easier to have the tank close so I can test fit and build it to exact fit for the tank. Really hard to do ones like this without having the tank on hand for multiple test fits through out the build.

 

[Nicholas Marquez]

Ok that's understandable. I just recently purchased acrylic to build my tank. It's going to be 60"x24"x24" 150g.

 

[Steve_C]

Update time, have added a good number of new fish lately thanks in part to some of the people in my local cichlid club I am a part of plus a couple of the auctions from a week or two ago. Finally got a species I have wanted for a year now (Modka White Lips) and added some other really nice fish from some of the auctions. Stock in the tank is really looking good now. Have had to weed out a couple troublemakers, but now everyone seems to be getting along pretty well for the most part.

 

[Killduv]

Well done indeed. At least not a boring tank. Always movement to keep your eyes moving.