MissMTS

I spent forever setting this tank up. It was by far more work than any of my other tanks. I collected the rocks in fields next to my parent's house. I bleached and boiled all of the rocks to sterilize them. Then I siliconed them in place so that they don't fall over onto the fish. I wanted to build the rocks up higher, but I was afraid it wouldn't be stable enough. I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out and the fish seem to love it. The LFS said that this tank is a 65 gallon, but I put the dimensions in the Aquarium Calculator and it came up as 70 gallons. Please let me know what you think. I am open to suggestions!

Attached Images

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	Mbuna Tank Resized 2.jpg (169.8 KB, 51 views)
	Mbuna Tank Resized 3.jpg (171.2 KB, 62 views)
	Mbuna Tank Resized 4.jpg (166.2 KB, 58 views)

Shawnie

wow its amazing...so secretive are those caves...great job!

sirdarksol

Nice.
(I like the way the pictures display in the new setup, too)

Shawnie

yes thats so cool! the black backgrounds make even my pics look good LOL

MissMTS

Thanks guys! I so badly wanted it to turn out right. After it was set up, I kept asking my husband if he was sure that it looked okay. He kept saying "yes, I already told you". I guess its just because I put so much time into it, and since the rocks are siliconed together I can't rearrange them. So I guess its stuck this way whether I like it or not lol!

MissMTS

I was gonna do blue like my old african tank, but I figured the blue fish might blend into it. I got paint all over when I was painting the back of it. My husband got mad cause I got it on our closet doors. hehehe.

Shawnie

I want a tank EXACTLY like this someday...I find myself almost going off the road sometimes looking for rocks as I drive LOL ...the MTS will hit me when I know I can afford to set it up right!!

hockeyref88

Looks good. they'll dig it!! Are those real plants? My mbunas don't do real well with real plants. Mischievious little devils.........

Martinismommy

That is breathtaking! Very nice job on decorating..

slakey

Looks really nice. Im looking at doing some work with rocks and plant pots if I get a 180 litre tank

MissMTS

My dad actually does the same thing when he drives. He is always looking for rocks for landscaping so he knew exactly where to look. I was glad he was able to help me find some because I definetly didn't have the money to buy all of those rocks. The rocks at my LFS were $7 each!!!

MissMTS

Nope. They're fake! I wasn't going to put any plants in the tank, but the top portion looked very empty, so I added the tall plant. It looked odd by itself, so I added a few others.

Allie

lxwxd divide by 321 Or 231 I can't remmember atm. Try both and see whatever one isn't too far off. lol
It's looks good.

MissMTS

Thanks! It was a very nerve-racking project so I'm glad that I'm done and get to enjoy the end result now

MissMTS

Thank you. You'll have to post pics when you get yours set up! I like using clay pots as caves too. I have some in my 80 gallon Oscar tank. They are inexpensive too, which is a definite plus for me.

Shawnie

I got some cool clay pots from our dollar store...as far as putting anything else in with my oscars, they redecorate the tank daily LOL ...I even have all the gravel piled on one side of the tank right now ...gotta fix it tonite after lites out...the raskals!

MissMTS

Thanks! That formula will come in handy. The tank is 70 gallons by those calculations (36x18x25). It's 231 btw....I tried both and 321 only came out to 50 gallons lol.

Allie

My boyfriend said it is the most accurate way to find out the size of your tank. If you measure from the inside you an even more accurate volume of water.

MissMTS

I took off half an inch from the outside measurements each way, so hopefully that is accurate. Using the outside measurements it comes out to 74 gallons but that's with an extra half inch in each direction.

slakey

Hopefully some of the clay pots will be able to with stand rocks being put on top of them.

Take a look at My Fish Tank topic for the design I'll be going for.

MissMTS

What mischevious little buggers! My Baloo isn't big enough to re-arrange his tank yet but I'm sure he'll get to that stage soon lol.

Shawnie

Im still so in awe of this tank...you should try to get an entire pic of it and enter in the aquarium of the month!

MissMTS

Thanks so much. The first pic is the whole tank, I just cropped off the edges. I'll take one when I get home and zoom out a little bit more. How do you enter it in Aquarium of the Month? I've never entered any of the contests before...

Shawnie

http://www.fishlore.com/fishpicture/ just upload your pics here..either under fish of the month or aquarium of the month..I think you should!

MissMTS

Thanks!

Barbrella

All the hard work paid off. Your tank is simply stunning!!

The plants look so real.

COBettaCouple

Beautiful tank & aquascaping!

MissMTS

Thank you so much guys! I was really nervous about how it was gonna turn out. So far, so good. All of the fish seem really happy with the extras space and love all of the little caves. I'll try to take a video of it soon.