90 Gallon Rainbowfish Tank Build

[MickS77]

This tank build is the culmination of my two threads of; Drilling a tank and Building an aquarium canopy.

My inspiration for this tank came from LRB's rainbowfish tank he usually livestreams in front of. I also wanted another tank with botanicals like my blackwater/tannin 75 gallon tank.

Equipment wise i want to keep it fairly simply. Two Finnex 48" Stringrays and an Oase BioThermo 350 for filtration and heating. I want to try the Oase canister filters because of the easily removable pre-filter. I will the run the filter through 3/4" bulkheads instead of the supplied spraybar for a cleaner look. 

Once I had the tank drilled (as seen in the below thread) I applied a black vinyl background. I use the Blue Life USA brand.

I used a bottle with some weight to hold down the vinyl over the drilled holes. The vinyl is applied with soapy water so once its dried for a day or so I trimmed out the bulkhead holes with a razor blade.

I glued 3/4" 90° barb fittings into each of the bulkheads using all purpose cement because these are ABS plastic bulkheads. 

Attaching the tubing from the Oase was a little difficult but not impossible. The Oase tubing is only 5/8" ID but from past experience I figured I could stretch it over the 3/4" barb by dipping the tubing in some boiling water to soften it. The black ABS barb was too blunt to get the tubing over. I actually had to use a different 3/4" barb to stretch the tubing enough. Once I had it over the gray barb I held it under cold water to set the shape. Then quickly pulled it off and was able to get it over the bulkhead 3/4" barb. The fit was pretty snug but I added a band clamp just to be safe. 

Once the bulkheads and tubing were fit I attached the inlet and outlet for the filter. I'm using a strainer adapter on the inlet side along with a Medium ACO sponge pre-filter. For the outlet I'm using Loc-Line. I used a 3/4" Loc-Line adapter to split into two 1/2" nozzles so I can adjust the flow, one to point at the surface and the other downwards. 

 

Lots more to go on this build.

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2021 by MickS77

[OceanTruth]

Wow you did an amazing job creating a super classy aquarium setup! Even the "normals" who may come over would appreciate the beauty of fish keeping. One day I've got to try a setup like this where everything is hidden.

[MickS77]

I had a local glass shop cut some custom lids for the tank. The glass is 3/16" thick and I had them put a 3" hole in the center for feeding. I plan to cut 4" squares of glass myself to cover the holes. Each sheet is split into two halves so its easy to get in and out of the canopy doors for maintenance.

I wanted to go this route over the standard hinged lids because I want to run a Stringray light at the front and back of the tank. It will also be nice to not have a shadow cast into the tank from a typical hinged lid.

I think it'll also be beneficial for feeding. Feeding from the middle of tank the fish won't get trained to swarm the front glass every time someone is near the tank. 

[OceanTruth]

Those custom lids are really sweet. You put some great thought into it. The hinge part of regular lids are a bit of a let down.

[MickS77]

I setup the Oase filter simply with low maintenance in mind. I arrange the pre-filter with different PPI foams from Oase. Starting with the 30 PPI (orange), 45 PPI (blue), and 60 PPI (black). I'll be interested to see if the foams fill evenly with debris or if the top foam does all the work.

The filter also comes with foams to fill each basket in the canister. I don't want to be opening the filter too much to clean the basket foams so I decided not to use them. 

I instead filled and arranged each tray with coop bio-rings, about 9-10 lbs of them. I oriented them with the flow of the filter in mind. I think this will allow for flow through setup without a lot of clogging. 

Found the coop bumper sticker fits perfectly on the Oase 👍