125 Malawi Build

So I bought an Acrylic tank from CL and this is it's budget build story. lol..

Its pretty scratched, and the stand has seen better days. 280$ spent for tank and stand.
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I thought the tank was a little to low so I scrapped some pallets for a lift.
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I liked the red lacquer for the color. Steel wool and 3 coats got it nice and dark.
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The existing panels where not for me so I chopped up some plywood.
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Thought I could get away with a low profile lid. We shall see if this works out.
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The work station.
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Remember to put those kids to work!!
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Especially the big ones! lol
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Preliminary fit, The top needs a second coat but I think it looks great!
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Here is my work on the "decorations". Started with 2" styro-foam insulation.
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So I end up spending 10 hours total carving foam... lol..
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But what I was left with is looking good!
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I did get better at the little "houses" as I went on so I do like some better than others.


Here's some concrete work.
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This is all based on the home made back rounds found on Our site and You tube.

Dude, that is awesome! Looks 100% better than it did in the first few pics.

Oh I didn't put that I had polished it. no pics of that.
So this last one is after the #3 polish. still have 2 and final.

Thanks spy, I have been at this since February.

More pics to come, working on decorations too!!

Look great man! I love my 125g malawi tank, I'm anxious to see yours as it progresses.

The rusties I got from you larry, will call it home. plus the offspring of those red zebras too. I got some peacocks going in, and the rest is a shopping list. Lol.

Awesome! Glad to hear the rusties are doing well, and the zebra offspring as well. I've got a bunch more species you can consider when the time is right.

I will post when I'm looking you can bet money on it. lol.

Done with the tank polish now! Whoot.

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Looking sharp! Can't wait to see how you set yours up. I love my 125g malawi setup. I'm upgrading my tank from an AGA to an Envisions Acrylic tank that I get to pick up this weekend. Then I think the AGA 125 will become the "new" grow-out for the Tanganyikans, while I work on getting the 300 ready. It needs a lot of TLC though.

Did you have to sand many scratches out of yours Cense? Did you sand and/or polish by hand or with a sander?

I used a set of buffing wheels on a cordless from Wesco, with 3 step Novus system. It didn't make it brand new again but damn, it was worth the investment!

lol didnt make it brand new. thats a cleaner look then any of my all glass aquariums.. looks great. GL building the backgrounds and deco. personally for the time itll take id just buy lace rocks lolz. or that huge holey rock dudes been selling on craigslist for two months. just my two cents. GL to ya sir

I agree with you there. I put way to much time into the hides. That big piece of THR wont fit through the windows in the top of this tank, been eye balling that sucker. lol.. In the long run I just may end up with real rocks in the 125 and the hides I made in my other tanks.

for the amount of time it takes to craft those things u may as well go grab the kids and head down to a pottery shop. ive seen some really nice things made out of clay before. either way keep pics coming of how that setup develops it looks fantastic.

Put water in it Today!

Also has used sand with MTS and some used gravel too.

This puppy is runnin around 400 gph with some media that I got ready ahead of time for this build. Can't wait to add lights and heater(s).

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Awesome man, I love it!

thats a nice setup. is that your office or something? quite the statement if so hahah. either way looks great. kids did a good job sanding it all down

It's the waiting room to the company. My office is across from the tank. Perfect placement.
You can see a piece of the old stand where I was keeping a 30G fresh water. My boss liked having the little one around so it was pretty easy to get a big one in.

Ahh.. so your plan all along was to get him hooked with the little 30g. Looks great. I have two tanks in my office now. The subtle sound of trickling water is soothing. I think it keeps my stress down a notch.

So, what Parker lines do you carry? We buy some Parker stuff as needed, mostly A-LOK and hydraulic fittings.

We supply Air and Hydraulic - hose, hose fittings, Hose assemblies, valves, pumps, motors, accumulators, filters and tube fittings. I am the customer service rep and material planner. exciting stuff! lol.. We only service Terex, Genie Ind. here in Redmond though. Nice small branch of the big world of Parker.

Paintguy wrote:Ahh.. so your plan all along was to get him hooked with the little 30g. Looks great. I have two tanks in my office now. The subtle sound of trickling water is soothing. I think it keeps my stress down a notch.

Yeah get em' hooked and real them in... lol..

Ahh yeah, went with natural deco. Buckets O Rocks.
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Left
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Center
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Right
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All the glory! lol.

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Along way from the way this thing looked at the begining. :O)

Looking good! But what looks even better is that Shock Top that's on the table....MMMMM one of my favorites!

I placed it label out on purpose.. lol

Put the heaters in today. Adding extra filtration tomorrow. Hope to see some fish in this week.
WHOOT!

Looks great cense!

certainly is coming together isnt it. great job overall taking something like what u had and turning it into a true gem. love the look. hope it stays that way GL in stocking it

I am planning on adding smaller rocks to the tank, they will come in to play the same day as the fish from home are transplanted.


Eureka red trio
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Rusty colony, These guys have out grown the 30 they're in. One female is
even holding right now.
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Hey, I recognize those fish!

Need to add to the Eureka Red colony? The ones you gave me got banished from the show tank after a couple of months.

Where they too mean? lol.. We can prolly work out something... Depending on when you are coming across the water again...

The zebras I got from you are permanent residents of my living-room 55G, that is beautiful colony.

They constantly bicker. They weren't bothering the other fish (demasoni, yellow labs, acei and cobues) but they were causing an overall feeling of stress throughout the tank. So I moved them into my grow-out setup, but then 1 of them got targeted by the other 2 and I lost him in a matter of a day. I separated the other 2 and they're fine tank-mates, but they need a larger tank to be together again. I suspect they'd be good in a 125, the 55 was just a bit small for them.

Glad to hear the red zebras are doing well. They're a great fish, and I got lucky to get a pretty strain.

Tank has come a long way and looks great!!!love the rocks you got in there.

larry.beck wrote:They constantly bicker. They weren't bothering the other fish (demasoni, yellow labs, acei and cobues) but they were causing an overall feeling of stress throughout the tank. So I moved them into my grow-out setup, but then 1 of them got targeted by the other 2 and I lost him in a matter of a day. I separated the other 2 and they're fine tank-mates, but they need a larger tank to be together again. I suspect they'd be good in a 125, the 55 was just a bit small for them.

Glad to hear the red zebras are doing well. They're a great fish, and I got lucky to get a pretty strain.

I lost one of the 2 males I kept as well. Almost immediately. We'll work something out.



Thanks Doza! I worked at this in my spare time for months.


Today the Peacocks and Rusties went in. The colors look great! The male peacock is already trying to mate with one of his females. Hasn't even been an hour. lol...

you musta done something right. lolz looks great. lemme know if you got any other acrylic tanks u dont need anymore.. (u clearly would do a better polish job then i)

I am looking to upgrade all my tanks to acrylic now. lol.. the 55g's I have are old heavy glass ones.

The polishing was easier than expected.

Thanks!!

ya im considering the switch over. only problem is all my choicest lace rock probably wouldnt fit into many acrylic tanks o well. keep us updated son. i love pics!

I'm switching over my display tanks to acrylic, and in particularly those built by Envision Acrylics. Beautiful tanks!

That is an amazing transformation! I can't wait to see it finished. Nice work!

I got some lights from a friend for FREE! yah!

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Some pics of our fishy friends!
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Free is always good... That looks excellent!

The dang Parrots are swimmin around with their junk out! Awesome they feel comfortable enough to try and spawn.

haha no sense of modesty these days!

Are you going to keep the Blood parrots in this setup?

yeah, thats the plan. no real interest in breeding them. if they do in this tank though more power to them.

So this is super awesome! lol The Peacocks spawned... lol

You can see most of the eggs are not viable, but hey the cool thing is they went for it! lol..
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Long time no Post, So heres a few photos and update.

Moved this tank to my bedroom. It still houses mixed Malawai and Tang AF Cichlids.

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The tank was converted to a sump set up. So the water column is now 155G.

Camera phone is the best I can do. But I did get a few shots.

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Couple more.

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Tank is still in my room, running strong, Has new lights now. Took some Pics for Cory so i took a few more for here.

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Plants in the sump now too. Works great.
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Tetracephalus, since he is in so many shots.
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Great looking Aurora.
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This fulborni has so much character. He actually protects the daffies large fry.
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Cause skulls in tanks are still cool man.
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ooh nice. I'd love to see more pics of the plant sump etc. Have you done any tracking to see how much the plants are pulling out nitrate wise?

Nah, I just threw my planted tank in and watched. The filter was already doing a great job with min. maintenance I just wanted to see how well the plants would do. Kinda made me curious now though. lol.
What I have noticed is a ton of new growth. And, thats great cause they were dieing in a 40G tall...

I didn't have any good detail pic's of the sump so I will need to work on that for ya. :O)