New Oscar Tank Setup

[Renegade87]

Alright, now we're getting close. While a coat of stain was drying, I put the tank on it's back and installed the background. I went with the AquaTerra 3D Mesa Slimline. At 3/4" - 1" thick it's was a good choice so as to give my new picene friends as much room to manuever as possible. I had to cut some channels for airlines and the Hydor H2SHOW Light/Bubble Maker (Green Stump) that the Wife loves so much. That was a pain, but went okay in the end. Here's the background installed with airlines and the Hydor. You'll also notice I had to silicone the suction cups for my Marineland C-530 intake tubes onto the background.

 

[Renegade87]

There was a little gap between the bottom of the left and center piece of the slimline. IDK if the tank isn't square or the background pieces aren't. Whatever. I've got a nice big fake Amazon Sword for that gap. No worries.

So the tank is on the stand. The background was siliconed in place for a full week before final assembly. Now I washed 160lbs of natural color gravel and added it to the bottom of the tank. Then the driftwood (soaking for well over a month) goes in and the Hydor Stump gets finished off. And I added a ceramic rock that I drilled a hole into to run an airstone through. I conected the Whisper 300 air pump. Now comes time for the ML C-530's.

View attachment 824911

 

[Renegade87]

As I'm not in my 20's anymore and have broken my back in the past, I improvised on the filter placement. You'll notice the C-530's are sitting on pieces of Luan installed in wire sliding shelving. These are rated to hold 100lbs and work very nicely:

Filters are served:

 

[Renegade87]

So the tank was filled and running. After a two week cycle, the Wife and I took a ride to Framingham (Mass.) to pick up some fish. I let her choose them. We got a 3.5" Male Gold Severum and a 2" Female Green Severum. It probably took the kid 5 minutes to net the Female and this caused significant stress on the little girl. Followed by a 45 minute car ride home in the plastic bag. You know the drill. After we got home and they were released into the tank, it took a bit for her to get comfortable. But, I'm happy to report, they're both doing well, eating regularly (Hikari Cichlid Gold) and generally happy in their new home. As each day passes they get a little more comfortable with the family, and now they're happy to come up to the front of the tank whenever we come near. Especially at feeding time.

Here they are:

 

[Renegade87]

With the Canopy and Doors completed I can finally say it's done. The stain finish isn't perfect, but it looks pretty darn good. A lot better than the purple pieces that I started with. It's not a 750gl monster, but it's the biggest tank I could comfortably fit and afford. Now I can get on with just maintaining the tank and taking care of the fish.

After letting the Severums grow out a bit (especially the green female), I'm looking forward to finally getting some Oscars (or at least one Oscar) in there maybe later this month or early October.




Front shot


Another

 

[theboomboomcars]

That is a nice looking tank. I think your filter tray idea is brilliant. I may have to do something like that. It can be a big pain to get the filters out from under the tank.

 

[cigars]

I like the filter slide out trays and the color choice of the stand and canopy is beautiful very nice

 

[itsKRUDD]

Nice tank man. I'm not a fan of rocks for substrate but this is clean


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[Renegade87]

Thanks to "theboomboomcars" and "cigars". The sliding shelving is made by Rev-A-Shelf and available in many sizes at Lowes and Home Depot. They're so easy to install, you can't go wrong. Though some may think twice about the price (around $50 each depending on the size), In my case, they're almost a necessity. Just unplug the filters, disconnect the hose block and slide 'em out for maintenance.

The color turned out great. It looks much darker in normal light. The camera flash almost nakes it look like a dark cherry. But it's the combination of the Minwax burgundy (applied by the stand MFR) and the Minwax Polyshades Bombay Mahogany we put on. It came out pretty good. I'm just glad it's done and "The Wife" likes it.

 

[Renegade87]

Thanks "itsKRUDD". Clean and natural is what I was going for. Okay, the Hydor Bubble Maker Stump is a little "kitchy" But everyone who see's it here likes it so I can't complain.

I'll have to thin out the plants when the fish get larger (for ease of cleaning at the very least) but it looks ok for now.