My new tank (first real MONSTER)

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
JD7.62;2161965; said:
zennzzo, the first fish you posted is a pick of a hydrolycus tatuaia, the second is a young H. armatus about 15" in length, so yeah, we are talking about the second one.
Yeah those are alot larger than I thought. They look like they have the equipment to be very domanant aggro.
What is the growth rate and feedings like?
 
I got my bulkheads today. They are longer then I thought So I have to look into opions on how to connect one tank to another I have some room to play with but I want to keep the tanks as close as possible. So either I find 2"ID hose or I go PVC but I have to make it so it is easily removable. I have to mock the sump up outside the stand before it's put into the tank. And when I place the sump inside the stand b/c of the size resrictions I cannot even have the bulkheads in place I have to do all the work under the tank IN the stand. That's not going to be fun. But it's what I have to do.

So tomorrow I am going to ACE hadrware and carter lumber to look for hose or PVC to make the fittings. I more then likly will not buy from either of them but they should have a big enough selection to let me get a general price for the plumbing.




Does anyone know off hand what size the threads are on a mag12? So I can price the Whole plumbing for the sump.
 
zennzzo;2162549; said:
Yeah those are alot larger than I thought. They look like they have the equipment to be very domanant aggro.
What is the growth rate and feedings like?

Armatus grow fast. My old guy that I think is around 17"+ now was 4" when I received him on Sept. 25th of last year. He was 12" by late December of last year so they grow FAST! They are apparently the easiest hydro to get off of live food. Mine was eating shrimp stuffed with pellets by 6-7".

Koop, get one!!! They do great in bare tanks and with rays. I promise you will be happy if you did. Its like have a doberman in a fish tank!
 
buckeyenut222;2222278; said:
BUMP. Any updates koop?


Since ya bumped it for me here is a small update.

I got my glass hole saw this week. I was just out a few min. ago looking for another hole saw to make a jig. but nothing was open that had one. So I have to wait till tomorrow and go out the carters and see what they got.

IF carters has one and it's not overpriced then I will pick it up and start drilling tomorrow. I will also make a Small 7" stand for the bio tank to sit on. if I can get them drilled I am going to mock them in place. and connect the bulkheads with some pipe coupling I bought. I don't have the time to plumb the tank tomorrow if everything goes well. But if it does I am going to try my best to get it plubed next week. And then test fill.


I still have to get a top made and that's going to be costly. and I need to make my drip tray. but outside of that it will be done soon.



Aslo I just started turning my basement into my fish room since the baby will get the current fish room. I will have pics of all this tomorrow I hope.
 
probably the fastest 17 pages i've ever read in my life, and not just in search of Pictures

but heres what i was thinking, probably my dream tank. it's always been my goal to have a tank full of african cichlids, but the smaller variety, no more than 5" and im extremely fond of Yellow Labs and other Lake Malawi cichlids BUT I won't set up a tank til i can go larger than 125 with a large footprint. if i had a 585g, i can honestly say that id load it with black sand and yellow labs! but just one mans idea :) i'd love a large tank balanced with contrasting colors of cichlids!
 
Ok so today I had the time to get the tanks drilled.... or so I thought.
I first built a small 6" stand for the bio chamber. (was scrape from other DIY stands) then I set the tow side by side so I could get some pics. The next few pics are me getting the jig ready. I decided to go with a wood jig b/c I needed to have holes on one tank line up easily with holes in the other. I so put two holes in jig One at 10.5" up at 6" over. and one at 4.5 and 6" over again. this way I just had to flush the factory edge of the jig with the edge of the tank. Then flip it for the other side. and all holes would then line up. To make sure I did this right I clamped the jig onto the tank and used a maker to outline where the holes woud be. As you can see from the pics this ended up fine. Next was the saftey equip. The yellow glove is kevlar I got it from work. I didn't have two so I tried to keep one hand back. and some glasses. Last pic is right before I started to drill.

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