My years of fish tank setups(Load warning lots of pics)

[Crazyfish88]

Hello everyone. I just wanted to share my tanks and monster set ups. I've been in this hobby on and off since 1998 as I got into the hobby coz of my dad and some friends were into it. Been through so many tank sizes from 20 gallons through 450 gallons. Been mostly into keeping Arowanas and other monster fish. Unfortunately I don't have any pics of my old set ups from back then because I didn't have a digital camera nor internet. I might have some old school polaroid pics of my old setups kicking around somewhere. If I find them I'll scan them later. However I do have some pics from 2009-2011. In late 2010 I took a half a year break from the hobby due to the bad economy but now I am back in it. My current monster tank today is a 450 gallon 96"x36"x30" glass tank which was custom built using 5/8" glass with eurobracing all around 4 corners through the top and bottom. My previous filtration set up on the 450 was using 3 x FX5's and 2 x HOB filters but I decided to sell it off cuz I didn't like how all the piping showed inside the tank. The tank is now set back up in my parents garage..I wish I could set the tank up inside the house but my Dad didn't like the idea of having over 2 tonnes of water inside the house. Anyhow for the filtration as of now is a DIY wet/dry system using dual overflow boxes draining into 4 x 1.5" drains into a 95 gallon sump dripping over 20 gallons of bioballs then with a return of a 1.5 inch to the top then tapered into a 1" exit using a Reeflo external pump pumping about 2800-2900gph @5' head. I'm also running 1 Fx5 filled with biomax in all 3 trays and a fine filter pad in the top tray. For extra circulation I'm running a Magnum 7 and 8 Powerheads so no need to worry about low oxygen levels. I took my sweet time on it as I was in no rush of setting it back up but it's finally done and has been running for about 1.5 months now. My tank took 5 weeks to finally complete it's cycle using loads of stability/bacter booster and lots of massive water changes. Anyhow enough with the story. Here are some pics.


Enjoy




My old previous tank setups back in 2009 through 2010.


45 gallon 48"x12"18" growout tank








225 gallon 72"x24"x30"


The 3 Silver Aros were picked up at 6" in summer of 2009 and were in a 120 gallon then when they reached to about 11-12" upgraded to a new home for them. They were growing fast so they only stayed in the 225 for a few months and grew to about 16-18".










Preparing and seeding the filtration for the 450.









Few months later the aros and others got too big for the 225 so I upgraded to the 450.














5 months later everyone besides the pbass grew to nearly 2ft in length







Before I sold everything off this was my old fish room. 750ish gallons of water in my mainfloor condo suite







Videos of my old setups. Please bare with me and my pronunciation with the fish's scientific names in the 1st vid.


1st video was taken in Apr 2010 and the Arowana's were 20+". In the 2nd video 2.5 months later the Aros made it to 2ft in length.












Continued on next post.

[Crazyfish88]

Now in 2011 here are my current setups. I ended up selling everything off but kept the 450 and moved back home. The beast is currently set up in my garage. I started the sump project in Feb 2011. It all started with a 25 dollar 95 gallon tank I picked up online and then converted it into a sump.



Everything I did here was DIY from the sump to connecting the pump and the plumbing. Started plumbing in the day and finished at night. It may not be pretty but it works









Let everything dry til the next day and filled it up.








Also tested many times and it's flood proof if a power outage occurs. As of today there are a few slight changes and tweeks to the sump and plumbing. The tank has been running for 2 months with fish in it and everyone is doing great.




My other tank 86 gallon setup.







Videos of new setups















For the stock pics check out my other threads here.


86 gallon and 450 gallon community


Some more shots of my 450 monster community



Thanks for viewing. Comments welcome.



Andy

[blurry]

OMG Andy that 450g setup is nuts.
Can you tell me how much it cost you for everything with those fx5's? Thanks!
Also what are the dimension of your tank and stand 'cause that stand looks so nice and simple.

[jobber604]

Those are some great pictures and an awesome setup.
Look forward to seeing more and more pictures

[Crazyfish88]

OMG Andy that 450g setup is nuts.
Can you tell me how much it cost you for everything with those fx5's? Thanks!
Also what are the dimension of your tank and stand 'cause that stand looks so nice and simple.

Thanks. After everything all said and done about 5k for the whole setup. Dimensions of the tank is in my sig and the stand is the exact same dimensions as the tank.