120 Gallon With Home Made Stand, 55 Gallon Framed Into Wall, and My Plumbed Water Cha

So I just recently got into fish and im having a ton of fun doing research and setting up new tanks. As of now I have a 55 gallon planted Gouramis tank that I framed into the wall. I also have another 55 gallon African Cichlid tank that I just finished setting up about 3 weeks ago. Both tanks are pictured below :).

I ended up finding a killer deal on a 120gallon tank with 15 juvi cichlids for $100!! So right now my 55 gallon is cramed full of about 32 fish :P. They actually seem pretty happy being so over stocked. But they will only be cramped like that for another day while I finish my stand and light canopy for the 120. Im making it out of 3/4" oak and staining it black. Ive got a few pics of the progress on it as well.


Also pictured is my plumbed water changing set up. My room is in the basement so ive got a drain line running down form the ceiling to the floor. It worked perfect to tap my drain lines into. My room actually used to be my sisters dark room, so we used to have a shop sink in the corner to wash out the chemical pans and stuff. Sooo im left with a hot and cold water line sticking out the wall that i plumbed into for my fill lines. I used 1/2 cpvc and so far its been working great!. I can do a 25% drain and fill change in about 15 min on the 55's. So much better than dragging hoses and buckets of water down the hall :p.



Anyway just thought id share what all ive done, critasium welcome im still new to all this :). Oh and sry for the crappy cell phone pics.


Just made the frame for the 55 gallon planted Gouramis tank.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/3237/img0246f.jpg

Finished :)
http://img240.imageshack.us/img240/350/img0286.jpg

Still need to paint the lid, but heres how i get to everything.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/5082/img0295u.jpg

Few more pics
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/4104/img0285sfq.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9407/img0287m.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/6052/img0288qla.jpg

Kitty :p
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9297/img0265nrq.jpg


And heres the my current 55 gallon cichlid tank
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/631/img0278x.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3383/img0279vjt.jpg
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/7886/img0289i.jpg


The new housing and light canopy for the 120. Keep in mind that the black tv stand that 55 gallon is sitting on currently^^ will slide under it for extra support.
http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/4766/img0282egu.jpg
http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/5426/img0283p.jpg
http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/9262/img0284v.jpg
My canister filter will go in the left cabinet and thinking about putting my computer tower in the right seeing that its right up against my desk.


Andddd for the plumbing. Im goin to paint it to match the wall so it doesn't stand out so much. But really you dont notice it.
http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/7152/img0291b.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/3060/img0292p.jpg
http://img41.imageshack.us/img41/9088/img0293cfj.jpg

wow!..... that looks awesome!

btw.. your gonna ruin a nice oak stand with black stain!?!?!? :colbert: :P

dayummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn that is sick

ha thanks! im pretty proud of it all so far :)

and yeah i would like to do it a deep red or something, but all my other furniture is black and my walls are flat black and grey. haha im just a perfectionist.. its what i get for being the son of an engineer and an interior designer :p

Absolutely beautiful!

Great job!

That's really impressive. Well done. I like how clean the 120 stand, although I didn't read it all at first and was thinking that it would collapse. But your set up is really impressive.

those tanks are awesome! what are you gonna put in the 120?

thanks guys! i love how i have more comments on here and none on the few fish forums im on :p .

and yeah the thing will actually hold up a truck even without the tv stand :P, but i still pretty much built it around it in plans on it going in the middle.

im putting the African Cichlids inthe 120 that are in the 55 with the rocks. Ive got just over 30 of them in that tank right now. Its wayyyy over stocked cuz most of them will get about 5 inches long. So the 120 will be perfect for them. Ill prolly just throw that 55 up on craigs list. Even though i really want to keep it and do a salt tank just dont need to spend that kinda money right now :p.

what fish forum are you part of?

if you havent checked out Aquariacentral.com you really should :D th eppl there are great


I really want an african cichlid tank, we were thinking of setting one up when we got a 70g tall, but then ended up with a flowerhorn and had to move fish around and so the 70 is in use now...maybe someday. :rolleyes:

i cant wait to see pics of the 120 when its all set up