Im from Ontario Canada. At the molment I do not have any "Monster Fish" I sold my Fresh and marine 125 Gallon preditor tanks. God I loved them. I needed to move and did not want to drag them with me. With all bad comes a good though, with the money I made from selling my two 125 preditor tanks (ones salt one fresh). I purchased a new 180 gallon. I did EVERYTHING PERFECT on this tank. There is NOT ONE THING that can be fixed in my eyes. I had the tank a month before water even went into it.
Timberlite Rock
I started buying a new 180 gallon, stand for it and a nice solid oak covering for stand. The next step was to decide what fish I wanted. I decided to stay away from the finger taker fish and decided to do an AWSOME african reef tank. Me having never touch african cichlids, (American yes but never african) needed a little help from my buddy who all he does is africans. I mean you point and he slaps out the african name, how to care for it ect. I go to myself ok reef tank time to research. Decide what rock im going to use what substrate on the bottom lighting ect. Me being an idiot purchased a 180 with no cross beams (Not a problem tell you later) figured I would do lighting last of putting the tank up. So I hit home depot and buy this stuff that I know as "egg crate" it isnt really egg crate but its what they use as light diffusers in buildings. You look up and see the white (or sometimes silver) little squares across the lighting (usually shop lights). They are GREAT basicly they are big sheets of plastic little cubes with the top and bottoms cut out (see what im saying?) so you cut the sheets to fit in your tank and then the rock sits on the cm tall plastic sheet of little squares. This helps diffuse presure spots and broken glass ect. (came in hand because i dropped a 20 lbs peice on my tank when it was empty... Egg crate saved it just broke a bit of the plastic didnt touch the glass.) SO once I had the egg crate cut and put it rock time. I basicly went to my local landscaping company looking for lava or lace rocks. On my way to the back to fill up my trunk I see a bin called timberlite. It is AMAZINGlooking dark reds, light tans, dark tans, blacks, It was AMAZING looking so I look it up on my smart phone and turns out its a type of lava rock and they USUALLY use it for gravel of fish tanks. Never in theis big chunks ! SO I purchased about 160 lbs of it. At my landscaping company that would of been liek 40 bucks for lava or lace rock... It runs me 100 bucks. Alot cheaper then pet store rock but wow still alot for landscaping. But its worth it, I spend about 3 hours arranging, re arranging and re arranging the rock untill I finally like how it is built and how I can hide my filters and everything else in it. SO I tear down the stock in the left back corner, put in the heaterm bubbler and filter back there and build up the rock again. BOOM time for water, run the garden hose from outside in though my basement window worked out great. Let it cycle for 2 weeks. Have put about 20 mixed african cichlids in there need about twenty more then I can watch them grow up.
This tank is awsome I will post pics when I can. Oh yea and substrate ! I used black sand blasting sand. its a bit bigger and is heavy sand. Tank was clear within a day. Pics in a week when I get my phone back from the repair shop !
Timberlite RockI started buying a new 180 gallon, stand for it and a nice solid oak covering for stand. The next step was to decide what fish I wanted. I decided to stay away from the finger taker fish and decided to do an AWSOME african reef tank. Me having never touch african cichlids, (American yes but never african) needed a little help from my buddy who all he does is africans. I mean you point and he slaps out the african name, how to care for it ect. I go to myself ok reef tank time to research. Decide what rock im going to use what substrate on the bottom lighting ect. Me being an idiot purchased a 180 with no cross beams (Not a problem tell you later) figured I would do lighting last of putting the tank up. So I hit home depot and buy this stuff that I know as "egg crate" it isnt really egg crate but its what they use as light diffusers in buildings. You look up and see the white (or sometimes silver) little squares across the lighting (usually shop lights). They are GREAT basicly they are big sheets of plastic little cubes with the top and bottoms cut out (see what im saying?) so you cut the sheets to fit in your tank and then the rock sits on the cm tall plastic sheet of little squares. This helps diffuse presure spots and broken glass ect. (came in hand because i dropped a 20 lbs peice on my tank when it was empty... Egg crate saved it just broke a bit of the plastic didnt touch the glass.) SO once I had the egg crate cut and put it rock time. I basicly went to my local landscaping company looking for lava or lace rocks. On my way to the back to fill up my trunk I see a bin called timberlite. It is AMAZINGlooking dark reds, light tans, dark tans, blacks, It was AMAZING looking so I look it up on my smart phone and turns out its a type of lava rock and they USUALLY use it for gravel of fish tanks. Never in theis big chunks ! SO I purchased about 160 lbs of it. At my landscaping company that would of been liek 40 bucks for lava or lace rock... It runs me 100 bucks. Alot cheaper then pet store rock but wow still alot for landscaping. But its worth it, I spend about 3 hours arranging, re arranging and re arranging the rock untill I finally like how it is built and how I can hide my filters and everything else in it. SO I tear down the stock in the left back corner, put in the heaterm bubbler and filter back there and build up the rock again. BOOM time for water, run the garden hose from outside in though my basement window worked out great. Let it cycle for 2 weeks. Have put about 20 mixed african cichlids in there need about twenty more then I can watch them grow up.
This tank is awsome I will post pics when I can. Oh yea and substrate ! I used black sand blasting sand. its a bit bigger and is heavy sand. Tank was clear within a day. Pics in a week when I get my phone back from the repair shop !
