Setting up a Jack Tank

Most of you know that I kept mostly Mbuna, well I'm going away to college in the fall so I needed to find a way to make this so that someone in my house could do maintenance without it being as extensive as I used to do it. I used to have several tanks now I'm down to just my 55.

Last night I tore everything down and scraped the black paint off of the background.

Today I am painting the new blue background.

Either tomorrow or later tonight the tank will go back in the basement.

Tomorrow all the sand and some of the rocks will be put back in.

Later in the week the fish will go in.

Filtration - Marineland C-220, Emperor 280, Eheim 2026, Aquaclear 50. If it sounds like overkill... it is. But hey if I have them all laying around I'm going to use them.

Hopefully I'll have some pictures later.

Ok just a little ticked right now. My Eheim and Aqua Clear are working fine, but my C220 doesn't want to pump water and my Emp. 280 is hardly flowing. I need to find a new power strip as well.

No such thing as over kill on filtration.

Problems after sitting? It can be frustrating.

Well the bio mass from 2 fish really isn't going to be that much so 10x over really isn't needed. Hopefully I can get the Emp flowing at full speed, but the C 220 seems like a goner. The Eheim and AC50 seem fine right now. Oh and my original heater also decided that it didn't want to start up again. Doesn't matter cause I had a brand new one that was supposed to be for another tank that never happened.

good luck Cam, let me know if u need anything... u still need to stop by my place and check out the reef!

Ok just went and messed with my Emp. My water level was a little low because I didn't have my big rocks in yet and I think there was an air bubble in the intake tube. So now it's starting to pick up. Still no luck on the C 220 and my AC50's impeller is pretty rough. Even with the Emp and Eheim I should be fine.

Reused the sand that I had in the tank. The tank had water and some fish running with the Eheim before this whole project, but I decided to go a different direction. Reason for this whole project.

This is what I have so far. Sorry about the dirty glass and the low water level. If it looks hazy it really isn't I just haven't cleaned the glass.

Also I have not done the aquascaping yet.

BigFishMan25 wrote:Also I have not done the aquascaping yet.

I like the way the rocks look. Sometimes I think the aquascaping looks better when we just randomly pile rocks than when we purposely place each one.

Like the sand too. What kind is it?

The sand is Quickcrete? All purpose. Very messy but turns out nice.

Very nice! The aquascaping looks good that way. I agree with Betty when it comes to rockwork. Random looks much better.

Problem with the rock work now is that it would be fine for them now, but not for very long. The spaces are pretty small. I don't know right now, might keep it might switch it around.

Should be getting the fish today

Picked up 4 little ones today. I'll take some pictures tomorrow.

Very nice..

It is coming together very well.

they should love that

Ok. I haven't been home in about a month. I am going home soon and staying there. Hopefully I can work on this again. My goal is to create blue gene dempsey's, and produce some EBJD. Maybe mess with some Gold Gene as well.

so yal now i dont read so you gonna try and breed?

dude that rock work wont work for 4 jds in a 55 not enough space bro

Nah I'm going back to 2 dempseys. In those pictures I have 1/3 of the rocks in. The other 2/3 are sitting on the floor lol

this isnt a mbuna set up jacks dont need or really like that stuff man...

Lol you're lost Derek. I just have it clumped up. I'm going to move it out of piles and hopefully put in a piece of driftwood.

lol well there isnt much room in a 55 if thats a 1/3 of the rock that tank gonna be busy with rock and drift wood you know jacks get like 9 inches

I'm not putting anymore rock in. If anything I'm taking some out. Those pictures are from 5 months ago.

It will be fine for a couple of Jacks.. Add a nice Royal Pleco or something with the driftwood.