# opinions please



## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

my second 125g w/ slate backround. set up on acrylic w/ styro spacers. made some design errors, but curious to know ur opinions anyway. this is supposed to be a waterfall backround using a bubble wand between the 2 outer sections of the backround. :fish: it is intended as a malawi cichlid tank.















































so the questions are...

A-should i remove the large piece that spans the 2 rockpiles

B-should i take all the rock piles out and choose a different type of fish that doesn't need hidey holes

C-swap the white sand for black...even if it will cost 8 or 9 times more money

D-yank the whole thing out and start over

i'm looking for aesthetic opinions folks. :thumb:


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## herefishy (Dec 14, 2006)

Looks nice. I don't understand the large space behind the wall, but that doesn't affect the asthetics. I might have use lava lace rock in lieu of the slate work. Would have broke up the monotony of all of the slate.


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## Amphitrite (Sep 8, 2006)

I'm a great lover of slate in tanks, and I love the background you've made - it looks awesome. 

I don't like the slate wall in front of it though.. I think there's too much slate now and it ruins the overall effect of the background. How about changing the slate wall to make it look less solid.. more gaps and structure to it?

Either that or as Bob suggested, replace the slate with some rock work.


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## Gump (Oct 26, 2006)

I basically agree with herefishy, like the background by id change the rock type in the tank and not put as big of a space behind the slate background.


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## gymnothorax (Sep 20, 2007)

very creative design, pleas post pics when the tank is stocked, looks great!


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

ty for the replies guys. i've come up w/ an idea that i think i will like. it will basically be the same thing but have styro stacks in between the horizontal pieces. 
[foreground rock stacks] i'll cut some caves into the styro then cover the styro w/ small vertical pieces. this will give me the more natural look i was hoping for. should take a few weeks to do, so hang in there and i'll post pics of the progress and final set up.
i will also be hunting for cheap black sand to bring it all together. 

ps...the spaces behind the walls are for filter intakes and heaters. this way no equipement can be soon.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

this weeks progress is going well so far. i bought a roto zip tool w/ a diamond blade to cut the slate. whoa what a mess. talk about dusty. i don't recommend doing this inside,lol. i actually moved my workspace outside for the day, and still made a mess!:wallbash:

so i started the other day by cutting the styro stacks up. i made sure to make plenty of caves, and the caves are big enough to house the fish when they grow, i hope.









here's the left side









the right









and the whole thing dismantled after a good rinse. hopefully i will get to paint the styro tommorrow.


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## willow (Sep 9, 2006)

wow ! looking great.


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## Amphitrite (Sep 8, 2006)

Looks fantastic porksnorkel. What are you using to coat the styrofoam?


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

ty guys. the styro will be painted w/ black epoxy paint and maybe sprinkled w/ black sand. all the flat surfaces between the caves will have rock glue to them as well as the L and R sides.


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## 1077 (Apr 16, 2008)

You truly have a nice tank going. I would express some concern with cichlids that may start pecking at styro. If enough of it gets loose into water it could pose digestive problems and could also weaken supports and cause possible collapse. However it could pose no problems with fish other than cichlids. Still, a very nice job! :


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

today's activities include epoxy painting styrofoam! sticky mess this is,lol.


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## Amphitrite (Sep 8, 2006)

Looking good. What sort of consistency does the styrofoam have when coated with the epoxy? Is it quite solid to the touch, and how long does it take to dry enough to be safe in the tank?


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

the epoxy paint has created a nice hard shell over the styro, and it dried in around 24 hours, although i would prolly give it at least 48 hours.


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## Amphitrite (Sep 8, 2006)

Cool. Can't wait to see how it looks set up in the tank.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

sunday update...
rocks glued to flat cave front surfaces


















i was going to leave the sharp points alone, figuring they would be fairly invisible, but after looking at it i decided to play it safe. these were tough to glue rocks to and keep in place, so i used nails and clothes pins to keep the rocks set. 



















i modified a 280 also, mostly due to lack of foresight. it now has clearance over the foam of the back round. i'm going to epoxy the cut piece back on in a horizontal position, to allow water flow over the acrylic.










ohhh...i also vacuumed out all the white sand, to be replaced w/ black.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

here's a dry run shot. it looks alot better w/ the light on top, as if the overhead lights were in place.










i think i'll slide the stacks over towards the outside, and tilt them back some at the upper tiers. 

i have screwed up the 280 mod though. i forgot about the glass top interfering. so either cut the mod off and try again or have the glass cut.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

there is a light...i can see it!!

fillin this bad boy up tommorrow folks. would have done it tonight, but i'm pooped from building a canopy all day. plus a piece of acylic is still drying. i cut some acrylic pieces to cover up the overflow areas on top of the styro blocks. this will force the filters to pull water from the sides and bottom, and also direct water over the backround, instead of back into the overflow areas, as it comes out of the emperor HOBs'.
right side...








left side...









and this piece to cover the right 'side' view of the styro blocks and fx5 intake area...









to fix the emperor 280 mod from the left side error, i finally bit the bullet and cut the backround in the tank. huge mess, but worth it. of course this means i chopped up a perfectly good emperor for nothing, but no biggie i hope as i cut the filter to the back resevoire' ramp thing, then epoxyed it in place w/ an acylic tringle brace. hopefully it works. if not, i'll just get a smaller canister or another 280.










i'll put a few final pics up of the tank filled and the canopy on. after that i'll do a seperate thread titled 125g malawi tank, to track the tanks progress. hopefully i'll get some more feedback.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

minor set back folks. on filling up the 125, i noticed the rock/styro stacks are still a bit bouyant. the smaller stack actually toppled, so i'll have to glue rock to the back of the stacks and another piece to the bottom of each sub stack. 

get back w/ yall next week. sorry for the delay!:wallbash::wallbash:


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

i'm back in business today. an idea came to me while i was trying to get to sleep last night. "Pork", says my pee brain," take the dern sand and eggcrate out, and glue the stacks to the bottom. then glue each consecutive stack to the one under it. throw an extra thick rock on top of each stack, in case something breaks loose, and be done w/ it."

so that's how i spent my afternoon. i must say i'm getting pretty adept at removing substrate,lol. here's how things look now.



















i ran out of silicone of course, but i'll finish up tommorrow. then i'll need another week or so to let the silicone dry.

....till then


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Wow...that looks great. Sure all that slate and the black sand will be rather...monolithic, but I think it will show off the colors of the Malawi cichlids. 

Just a thought...maybe connect the two stacks across the middle with a single piece just as high as the first piece of slate up from the sand in each stack with some supporting pieces under it? And I'm thinking in the middle, you could glue up a slate shelf with another stack on top? That'd add even more hidey-holes and would help break up the monotony of the solid slate wall between the two stacks on the sides.


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## GeegaFish (May 4, 2008)

It looks nice what you've done so far. What a lot of work, but doing things yourself always is! I can't wait to see the final product.

I made a rock and styrofoam stacked structure for my 46 gal. community tank because I love to see the fish swim in and out. It also is "home" for my upside-down catfish, Scuttles, my clown loach and an Albino Bristlenosed catfish.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

looks awesome geega!

batman..ty for the reply. i actually had a span across the original slate stacks, until i decided to go the styro route. check the first page. 

i liked the look, but it kind of messed up my waterfall plans, which i can't show till the tank is full. the other probs w/ doing that now, is these stack are to far apart and may not support the piece of slat required to run the span.


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Ah I had forgotten about the waterfall plans and yeah, the shelf thing I was thinking of definitely might interfere with that. 









I was thinking something like this. The black would be a shelf of slate glued to your wall with triangular pieces as supports. You could put another stack on top of this to break up the middle of that back wall some. Although, like I said, it'd probably interfere with any sort of waterfall effect you wanted on the middle of that back wall.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

might actually look cool in the middle of the waterfall on the bottom. it would stop the upward bubble flow and break up the falls a bit. i try it and see how it looks. just stack some rocks down there.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

filled her up yesterday, and that mystery fog u may have seen in the other thread ,clouded the whole tank. i let the filters work on it, but they couldn't make a ding overnight, so i drained and filled it twice today. it's much better now, but still a bit hazy. these are the best pics i can muster between the fog and the actinic lights. plus my whisper pump is tired [drank a gallon or 2 of water last year] , so the waterfall effect is not happening yet. i'll have to get a new pump tommorrow.



















again the pics blow. my camera apparently doesn't do actinic very well. i'll bust out the video camera when things clear up, and the new pump is running.

say...mystery fog...purple lights...

DEEP PURPLE!!!

smoke on the water baby!!!


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Looks great! Fog's probably just dust from the slate and will settle out or filter out. Can't wait to see it stocked!


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

hate to break the news folks, but i unfortunately chose the wrong type of silicone. it is disentegrating under the water. the entire backround is junk as well as the styro stacks. 
i'm out several hundred dollars in supplies, as well as over 100 hours of work and gas and headache. possibly 3 ruined filters too. all because home depot was out of GEI black silicone. hopefully i can get the tank torn down w/out breaking it, and clean it up properly. going to take forever...but, better me than u!!!

i honestly feel like quiting right now, but it's not my style.lost a few quarantine fish last night to top it off. [not in this tank

the pig shall be back, bigger and better!

i will rise up my friends!!! [just not tonight...uuggghhhh]:


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## iamntbatman (Jan 3, 2008)

Aw man! That's terrible!

Don't give up though...it was a really great looking tank and getting it going would be awesome.


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## GeegaFish (May 4, 2008)

Yeah please don't give up. It's going to be really great in the end! So...you have a few setbacks. Take some deep breaths and try again.

What type of Silicone did you use? I belong to another fish forum and one of the moderators says he always uses GE Window & Door 100% Silicone - Type I. (He's been keeping fish for over 30 years.) As long as there are no mildicides or fungicides in the silicone it should be safe for fish (and really adhere well). 

Good luck Porky!


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## Amphitrite (Sep 8, 2006)

porksnorkel said:


> hate to break the news folks, but i unfortunately chose the wrong type of silicone. it is disentegrating under the water. the entire backround is junk as well as the styro stacks.
> i'm out several hundred dollars in supplies, as well as over 100 hours of work and gas and headache. possibly 3 ruined filters too. all because home depot was out of GEI black silicone. hopefully i can get the tank torn down w/out breaking it, and clean it up properly. going to take forever...but, better me than u!!!
> 
> i honestly feel like quiting right now, but it's not my style.lost a few quarantine fish last night to top it off. [not in this tank
> ...


Oh I'm really sorry to hear that Pork. No wonder you're gutted, especially after all the effort you put into it. However... I look forward to the new and improved version this time using the GEI black silicone. You know it'll be worth it in the end!


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

ty amph. the tank is cleaned up and new plans are in the works.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

last pic...










tanks pretty much cleaned up. hopefully my filters will survive the ordeal. i may have burned up a shop vac though, suckin the mud out,lol.

i'm kinda contemplating sticking w/ black backround and nice stack of rocks at this point. i'ma think on it for a few days. maybe go look at some rocks tommorrow.


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## porksnorkel (Oct 6, 2006)

and we have a full recovery folks! i'm likin the new look, even if it's not the DIY madness of this last attempt. have a looksey and lemme know what you think...

http://www.fishforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=17887


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