[Sidius]

Some of you may know that a little over a year ago I purchased my dream tank from Rogers Aquatics. After a year in storage and toying with the idea of selling it due to having no space for it (long story), we finally bought our first townhouse and it had an awesome spot for the 180 in the living room!

The plan is to house my current African cichlids plus a bunch more and attempt to grow low light plants like anubias + java fern and possibly some vals, hygro and an amazon sword. I won't be using co2 and I'm trying to avoid heavy dosing of ferts for them. We'll see how they do and adjust accordingly.

Here are the first pics of it with my new lighting, dry with sand (Don't mind the grainy pics, I'll take better photos with my DSLR soon). I'm heading out this weekend to buy some new rocks and I still have a nice piece of manzanita wood to add that I ordered in from Tom Barr back when I first got the tank. Once I've picked up the rocks, I'll be filling it with water and going to pick up the Africans in my 90g from it's temp home @ the mother-in-law-to-be's house.







Equipment list:

Tank:
Aqueon tank 72x24x24 180 gallon tank and stand

Lighting:
Current USA 36" (x2) Freshwater+ LED's
Current USA LED Lunar moonlights (not shown in pic)
Current USA Dual ramp timer/controller
Hagen GLO T5HO fixture with 2 x 54W Giesemann bulbs (Aquaflora + Pure Actinic)

Filtration/Circulation:
Eheim 2080 Canister
Eheim 2075 Canister
2 x AC110 HOB filters
2 x Hydor 1500 gph powerheads
TMC Vecton 6 25watt UV (not installed yet)

Heaters:
2 x Eheim 300watt

Current stock list:
Nimbochromis venustus
Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus
Cyrtocara moorii
Cyphotilapia Frontosa Burundi
Dimidiochromis compressiceps
Copadichromis borleyi
Protomelas fenestratus
Protomelas sp. "Steveni Taiwan" (Taiwan Reef)
Placidochromis sp. "Phenochilus Tanzania"
Placidochromis electra
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi "Eureka"
Aulonocara jacobfreibergi (Undu Reef)
Aulonocara maulana "Bi-color 500"
Aulonocara stuartgranti (Usisya)
Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri"
Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda"
Dragon's blood peacock
Metriaclima sp. "Dolphin Manda"
Cynotilapia sp. "hara" - this could also be Cynotilapia zebroides (Jalo Reef)
Pseudotropheus socolofi (Albino)
Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (White tail) x 4
Pseudotropheus sp. "Acei" (Yellow tail)
Labidochromis caeruleus x 4
Synodontis petricola x 8
Pictus Catfish x 3
Bristlenose pleco x2
L200a High Fin Green Phantom
L204 Flash panaque
L191 Dull eyed panaque

 

[charles]

that is a lot of filters... with the two eheim, you can skip the ac110. I would put a couple more circulation powerheads.

 

[Sidius]

I will have a pretty heavy bioload with my complete stock list so I'm aiming for way over filtered.. Once I see the flow in the tank filled, I may add more powerheads and drop one of the AC110's

 

[jbyoung00008]

Looking good buddy. I have a bunch of plants to start you off with out my tank. I have lots of Jungle Vals. That hygro you gave me as well. We also got in a bunch of XL Java ferns at work I could grab a few for you.

I cant wait to see the tank come together. You better not think yours will be nicer than mine LOL

Lights look good to me. You can always try a par meter and see how much light those are giving off. Than Ill check mine and see what my lights give off. Id love to make the switch to the lights you bought. What a great idea to buy the US Current fixtures

 

[Sidius]

Looking good buddy. I have a bunch of plants to start you off with out my tank. I have lots of Jungle Vals. That hygro you gave me as well. We also got in a bunch of XL Java ferns at work I could grab a few for you.

I cant wait to see the tank come together. You better not think yours will be nicer than mine LOL

Lights look good to me. You can always try a par meter and see how much light those are giving off. Than Ill check mine and see what my lights give off. Id love to make the switch to the lights you bought. What a great idea to buy the US Current fixtures

LOL I wonder who gave me the idea of the Current USA fixtures... It's a 6ft tank so I win by default

 

[Vman]

Nice set up.What Africans are you keeping?Perfect tank for tropheus.

 

[Sidius]

Nice set up.What Africans are you keeping?Perfect tank for tropheus.

Haps/Peacocks and a few Mbuna

Here's my current stocklist from my 90g:
Nimbochromis venustus, Nimbochromis fuscotaeniatus, Cyrtocara moorii, Copadichromis borleyi, Placidochromis electra, Aulonocara maulana (Bi-color 500), Aulonocara sp. "Lwanda", Aulonocara sp. "Stuartgranti Maleri", Dragon's blood peacock, Frontosa, Metriaclima sp. "Dolphin Manda", Synodontis petricola x 8, Pictus Catfish x 3, Bristlenose pleco x2

I plan on adding a bunch more down the road as well...

 

[Just-Koi]

Very nice set-up. Can't wait to see some fish in it.

 

[onefishtwofish]

I think you picked that house cause it has the perfect spot for the tank. what a nice feature wall. looks good! is that aragonite sand?

 

[Sidius]

I think you picked that house cause it has the perfect spot for the tank. what a nice feature wall. looks good! is that aragonite sand?

Haha thanks! The first thing we said about this place was that it had the perfect wall for this tank. When we painted after moving in, we decided to make that a feature wall with the dark brown colour.

It's actually pool filter sand from Langley By-Water. Cheap sand and it looks great.

 

[indreamx]

Wow man it look really nice

 

[Vancitycam]

Looks so nice there, can't wait to see it with the fish. Very jealous, I love my tank but a couple more feet would be pretty sweet too.

 

[Sidius]

Thanks guys!

I filled it with water last night so I could adjust the heaters to the right temp and establish the PH/GH/KH a couple days prior to grabbing my fish from their temp home (my old 90g at the mother-in-law-to-be's house). I'm having troubles accessing photobucket today from work or I would post a couple pics of it being filled.

 

[skabooya]

That is a gorgeous tank..... I want it.

 

[AKAmikeross]

Tanks coming along nicely... looking forward to updates and fish pics.

I thought you planned to sell this setup? Bet your stoked its coming together and finally setting it up.

How are you liking the lighting? I want to sell my dual 36" double brights for either a single 48"current usa + or dual 36". I assume you got a controller and additional moon lights to create a sun rise/set? Whats you plan on the lighting cycle? Where did you buy the gear from... online?

 

[AKAmikeross]

What is your goal km/gh? Are you planning to mix your own or are you using seachem products?

 

[Sidius]

It's finally up and running with fish!

jbyoung0008 and I did a tour through some LFS and picked up some rocks from Northwest landscape this weekend. Here is my first tankscape attempt with this tank so let me know your thoughts!

I picked up the following fish (all in the 1.5-2" range)

White tail acei x 4
Albino socolofi x 4
Yellow lab x 4

I'm aiming for 1m/2-3f in each group of Mbuna and if they cause problems down the road, I'll get rid of them

 

[Sidius]

Tanks coming along nicely... looking forward to updates and fish pics.

I thought you planned to sell this setup? Bet your stoked its coming together and finally setting it up.

How are you liking the lighting? I want to sell my dual 36" double brights for either a single 48"current usa + or dual 36". I assume you got a controller and additional moon lights to create a sun rise/set? Whats you plan on the lighting cycle? Where did you buy the gear from... online?

Yes I did almost sell this tank. Well I put it up for sale at least. I never did get any offers even close to what it was worth so I decided to keep it.

I like the lighting so far. It's not quite as bright as I had hoped but I think I might add my 48" GLO T5HO fixture to it as well. My only real complaint is that the controller that Current USA sells can have issues with this fixture. I've followed their instructions but it blinks off/on randomly and it does it quite a bit. I've put in a ticket with them to try and figure out where I might have gone wrong with the settings. Oh and yes I'm using their dual ramp timer for sunrise/sunset and I still have to install some of their lunar LED's to run on the second channel for moonlights. I bought it all online from Ken's fish in the US.

What is your goal km/gh? Are you planning to mix your own or are you using seachem products?

I use seachem products pretty much exclusively. There are sources to get it for fairly cheap online and it is reliable. Because I'm planning on keeping plants in this tank, I'm not positive on what kh/gh I'm going to aim for but I think in the end I'll aim for a PH of around 7.8-8.0.

 

[jbyoung00008]

Looks awesome Jamie. Very natural looking. I might be a little bias LOL. I cant wait to see it once you add all your other fish.

 

[Sidius]

Looks awesome Jamie. Very natural looking. I might be a little bias LOL. I cant wait to see it once you add all your other fish.

Thanks Justin! I still have some more rocks that we picked out to use, if I want to build up my rock pile a bit more.

If all goes as planned, I should be adding my other fish tonight. I've sent Charles a PM about picking up a high fin green phantom pleco as well.