building a 1000 gal concrete block monster tank

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Feeder Fish
MFK Member
vildotcom;851984; said:
i dont know if those monster cats are gonna fly since i think wizzin was trying to grow out baby monsters. correct me if i'm wrong.
Around here, you can pick up a TSN anywhere from 3" to 8" for around $20. I had one that grew to about 7" in my 55 gal but, oddly enough, found him dried up behind my tank one day. Who woulda thought a bottom-dweller committing suicide by jumping?
 

wizzin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2006
1,027
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East of Pittsburgh
vildotcom;851984; said:
i dont know if those monster cats are gonna fly since i think wizzin was trying to grow out baby monsters. correct me if i'm wrong.
Yes, I think I'm going to avoid anything over 12" to start. That said, I've got a building about 30'x40' (big old garage) on the back of my lot that I've been thinking about turning into a little monster house. I can fit a 15' (or bigger) swimming pool (3900gal) in there with no problem. It had power to it, but it's disconnected somewhere. My buddy's dad is an electrician, and once his back is healed I'm going to have him upgrade the power to my house and run a new feeder down to that building. I've got to insulate it and install a furnace (I have an extra one) for the winter months. I might start taking in some monsters. I promised the wife I wouldn't start that until the 1000 is done though. And at the rate I'm going on that, it wont be until next year til I get the garage project going. I was thinking about trying to breed silvers in there, or something... :nilly:
 

schaadrak

Gambusia
MFK Member
May 4, 2007
363
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Uppinnia
Whew!

This thing took eight lunch-breaks to finish.

Awesome project, wizzin, can't wait for you to finish.
 

Zeppelin3k

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Dec 3, 2006
2,116
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Appleton, WI
lookin damn good wizzin, good luck with the breeding project, i think that aros have to be 7yrs old before they are sexually mature. correct me if i am wrong. i cant wait to see this MONSTER up and running!
 

wizzin

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Oct 10, 2006
1,027
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East of Pittsburgh
Little Update.

Sorry it's taken so long to get some pics up. Been extremely busy. I took today off to play with the tank and see my daughter's play this afternoon.

I got the new primer and LRB from Sanitred last week. Finally got around to scraping all the previous sealant down/off. I re-primed the glass, and now I'm waiting for it to setup, which is "feeling" like it's any time now. It's still a little too tacky to apply the LRB. I'll have the glass re-sealed today.

Pics below are the background in progress. It doesn't look like much, and you can't see the depth of the blue foam from the photos. Theres a lot more variation in terms of thickness of the foam than you can see. Once the spray foam is cured, I'm going to carve/sand it to give it even more depth and curvature. I got the concrete mix, acrylic fortifier and colorant today. I decided to mix the buff and charcoal colors together to get a dark brown. Hopefully I'll start applying the concrete late tonight. I've still got to install the pieces that go on the ends and the "box" column that will hide the overflow pipe and pump. Ran out of spray foam:irked:

After the background, I have to plumb the filters and build the undergravel jet system. So far it's going to be a 3500gph (approx 3000gph after head hight loss) running the filters, and a 2500gph running the undergravel jet. I've got a cool idea for the substrate and undergravel jet (not sand) but I'll wait til I have pics to discuss that.



 
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