The 240g… Revamp’d

[Razzo]

As some of you already know, I took my 240-gallon, eight foot, acrylic tank out of service in March to sand/buff & polish it. That project went well and I also drilled the tank and added some plumbing to connect my FX5 canister filter to it. I’ve recently re-aquascaped it and combined all of my wild Cyphotilapia gibberosa Zaire Blue Mikula (16: 4m & 12f) into it with plans to add some Altolamprologus calvus very soon (they arrive later this week). I have other plans too but will wait to elaborate on them until they creep closer to becoming a reality.

Here are some stills. Hope you like

I’ll start with a Full Tank Shot

Here’s a couple pics of the right side, which I am calling Calvus Cove

Here’s a couple of the center of the tank

And a couple of the far left side

 

[Razzo]

Before and after shots of the sand/buff/polish project

Calvus Cove (before)

Calvus Cove (after)

The “plumbing” I added for the FX5

 

[fishnatics]

As always your pics and fronts look great!

 

[stempy]

Yup, gorgeous tank, stunning fish.

 

[Owens]

Really well done. You can tell you took alot of time and thought into the plumbing/tank.

Sexy show tank.

 

[8DiagramPoleFighter]

This tank is perfection. Can't wait to see the calvus in.

 

[Razzo]

Thanks for the extra kinds words everyone

My calvus are set to arrive next week Weds. Can't wait! They will go through my own personal QT program (1 month) before being added to this tank. Once the calvus pass QT, I plan to convert the 40-gallon QT into a veggie filter and, somehow, plumb it into the 240. My long term hopes are to eliminate nitrates and reduce the number of water changes a bit (as I use RO DI water).

 

[Razzo]

With a recent discussion, in another post, I thought I'd bump this with an update:

The calvus did arrive and I decided to keep them in the 40 also the dominant male is a show beast! I want to do a lot of photography of him and the females as they start spawning (Lord willing). The dominant male was about to kill the sub dominant male so I intervened and put the subdominant in a ten gallon hospital tank. He recovered great and is now in the frontosa tank. I'd like to add some more species makinging this 240 into a, sorta, community tank.

I plan to start work very soon converting a spare 55 gallon tank into an EcoSystem sump/veggie filter. It will have a large middle section with Leng's Miracle Mud and plants. This will, practically, eliminate the need for water changes. If this goes as planned, I may end up doing monthly water changes and that's only out of habit

 

[Razzo]

Here's a few pics of Palau in the 40-gallon tank (posted in other threads):

Here's the subdominant male, in the 40-gallon tank, before being evicted by Palau. I'll try to get some new pics of him in the 240 with the Mikula:

 

[fishfanatic80]

Damn bro I'm gonna start calling you the king of tanginika. Those set ups look amazing, the detail of natural environment is like no other. I always loved calvus and it looks like you have a nice little group. I used to have a group of yellow calvus but I'm starting to like the black now, btw those frontosas I'm sure you already know are gorgeous. The difference between Burundi and blue Zaire is night and day. This is starting to make me reevaluate my next set up. I was gonna go discus but this is truly an eye catching display, I can't stop raving about it. I also like the idea of you using a sump for filtration. I'm surprised you don't see it much with fresh water systems because it's easily the best method. Canisters can't hold the same amount of volume and media, not to mention ease of maintainence. Congratulations on making these spectacular set ups