# 240 gallon tank build.



## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Tank:
240 gallon 96" x 24" x 24" acrylic.

Stand: 
Custom built shell purchased with tank.

Canopy: 
To be custom built by me. 

Lighting: 
Undetermined 

Filtration:
Sump system done in the DIY fashion

Pumps:
Pan World NH-100PX pump ran directly from the drilled sump.

I picked the tank up in Michigan last weekend. I found it for a great price on Craigslist and made the 235 mile round trip to Michigan to look at it and pick it up. You could tell the tank had defiantly been sitting empty for quite a while as there was so much dust and dirt on it. The owner told me that it held water and he would fill it up for me to show me while I waited. I opted not to wait as I knew it would take 30 minutes easy to fill and longer to drain. Insured me the tank was in great condition with very little scratches. So I paid the man and loaded the tank, stand, canopy, filters and light it into our Uhaul truck and we were off.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

*240 gallon tank build. Pic heavy*

Tank:
240 gallon 96" x 24" x 24" acrylic.

Stand: 
Custom built shell purchased with tank.

Canopy: 
To be custom built by me. 

Lighting: 
Undetermined 

Filtration:
Sump system done in the DIY fashion

Pumps:
Pan World NH-100PX pump ran directly from the drilled sump.

I picked the tank up in Michigan last weekend. I found it for a great price on Craigslist and made the 235 mile round trip to Michigan to look at it and pick it up. You could tell the tank had defiantly been sitting empty for quite a while as there was so much dust and dirt on it. The owner told me that it held water and he would fill it up for me to show me while I waited. I opted not to wait as I knew it would take 30 minutes easy to fill and longer to drain. Insured me the tank was in great condition with very little scratches. So I paid the man and loaded the tank, stand, canopy, filters and light it into our Uhaul truck and we were off.










Once home it was time to unload this beast and get into its new home in the basement of my home. Was a fairly easy task. Big Patio door made for an easy entrance. 


















Lastly came the aquarium. As you can see the tank is very dirty and is in rough shape. Nothing a lot of TLC can't handle.









Finally we get it in and tank on the stand. I toss the hose in it to start the water testing process so I know exactly were we stand as far as any possible leaks that may need fixed. After 3 days no leaks detected.









This is where where I am to date. Today I have some Novus plastic polish coming in the mail. My next step is buffing all those little scratches out of the tank and bring it back to life.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Nice score!

Are you set on a canopy? A planted tank this size I'd strongly lean towards suspending a light fixture over the tank so you can play with the height to "dial in" just the right light level without having to worry about heat buildup in the tank.

Unless you're planning on going with dimmable LEDs? (Though heat can still be an issue)


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

This should be fun. What kind of flora and fauna you planning on putting in?


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

lauraleellbp said:


> Nice score!
> 
> Are you set on a canopy? A planted tank this size I'd strongly lean towards suspending a light fixture over the tank so you can play with the height to "dial in" just the right light level without having to worry about heat buildup in the tank.
> 
> Unless you're planning on going with dimmable LEDs? (Though heat can still be an issue)


At this point I am not real sure what I am wanting to do as far as lights go. I want to do a stand/canopy combo like this. This tank is going to double as a room divider in my basement. So looking to do something on the lines of the attached photo. Thats my goal anyways.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

tomfromstlouis said:


> This should be fun. What kind of flora and fauna you planning on putting in?


For the flora and fauna I currently have 2 planted aquariums that have plants that will do well in a hot water tank. 82-86˚F. I have several different swords, and jungle val. spirals val, red tiger lotus, java fern, wenditii green and red, red melon sword, water sprite and a few others here and there.This tank will house 13 discus, 12 neon tetras, 12 black neon tetra, 3 green & Panda cory cats, 6 True SAE's, 2 rosy barbs, I have like 6 glolight tetras. All these fish are scattered about 4 separate systems. They will all be moving into the 240 once I get it complete. Will post some pics of the fish here soon.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

So my Novus scratch polish showed up today. Now my question is. When you use a buffer/polisher to buff out all those unwanted scuffs and small scratches what kind of wheel do I want to use to do this? I am starting with the Novus #3 for deep scratches first then working my way to #1. I picked up a foam buffing wheel but it seems to really suck and not taking out any of the even fine really small scratches. I am thinking I have the wrong kind of pad. Any suggestions?


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

wow, cant wait to see the finished thing! I don't know much about buffing the tank having never owned an acrylic tank but someone ells will.:wink:


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Well its been a rough 2 days here. Yesturday I put in 5-6 hours scratch polishing the tank. I went through and used 1000 and 2500 wet/dry sandpaper on the top and four sides. I opted not to do the bottom or bottom on the outside. Nobody will see them anyways so why waste the time in doing them is my thought. I used an orbital sander with 1000 grit first to scuff up the tank and try to take out those nasty scratches I had in it. This is what the tank looked like prior to scuffing it up.
























Today was defiantly trial and error for me. I am not sure how the hell I did it but I sanded a groove into the acrylic. Thank god its on the end that the overflow is going on and will not be part of the viewable areas of the tank. It took me roughly 2 hours to wet sand the tank with a orbital sand on the inside. I figured that since I groves the tank with the sander that I would actually do the buffing by hand as to not cause issues elsewhere. Yea I actually did the 2 part novus completely by hand. My arms and hands are killing me after starting at 9am and its now 8pm and I am finished. Well at least for today. I have found areas on the tank that still have screeches so I need to fix those areas tomorrow or it will be next weekend before I can work on it again since I work long hours at work. So here is the finished product as of right now,
















My overflow and my bulkheads arrived today as well. So now I will have drill the tank to install them in for my overflow system.







.
This is the progress that has been made this weekend. Wont get much done tomorrow since have to be to work tomorrow.


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

That's a pretty impressive polishing! 

Good idea to take a fresh look at the whole tank after a day or two away from it. Take your time and really get this part right; you will thank yourself every time you look at the tank.

I like the discus idea. Confess I laughed at the idea of a dozen little tetras in that 8 footer. But you know that 13 discus can really take some space. Tank's gonna look great.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Wow.

That was some serious WORK. The tank looks a million and eight times better though!


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

the tank looks so much better! are you going hi tech or lo tech?


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## Agent69 (Oct 9, 2013)

Oh man this is awesome!! Can't wait to see it scaped


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

tomfromstlouis said:


> That's a pretty impressive polishing!
> 
> Good idea to take a fresh look at the whole tank after a day or two away from it. Take your time and really get this part right; you will thank yourself every time you look at the tank.
> 
> ...


I have actually went over it once tonight and found some spots that need more TLC and have circled them with a marker. I will rework the tank again next weekend. I currently work 1 10 hour day and 3 12 hour weeks with the occasional 8 hours on Fridays.

I was actually chuckling to myself when I was typing it out. Neons are so small. There will more then likely actually be a couple dozen of either the neon black or the neon tetras. Not sure I really want to mix them up. I have always like the effect you get when you have 1 or 2 dozen neons swimming together. Its quite a site to behold. 

I think my total hours between yesterday and today are 18 to scratch polish this monster. Hardest hours I have ever put into this hobby by far and yet the most rewarding I hope.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

One or two DOZEN per school? You've got room for one or two HUNDRED! :hihi:

Last time I stocked my 90gal I had a school of 60 Cardinals and 35 Ember tetras and still had plenty of room left for the algae and scavenger crews...

Even with the discus, I would go for at least one school with ~50x. Much bigger visual impact.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

lauraleellbp said:


> One or two DOZEN per school? You've got room for one or two HUNDRED! :hihi:
> 
> Last time I stocked my 90gal I had a school of 60 Cardinals and 35 Ember tetras and still had plenty of room left for the algae and scavenger crews...
> 
> Even with the discus, I would go for at least one school with ~50x. Much bigger visual impact.


Would more then one type of tetra look good schooling in there tho? I know my 40 has a dozen neon tetras for the schooling aspect. It helps the discus feel safer if you have a large school out in the open swimming. I would love to get a large group of rummy nose but they seem to dye off at random. I had 7 at one time and they just slowly died for no reason. Water quality was perfect for them.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Some people report they have better luck with Neons vs Cardinals vs Rummies vs... whatever.

The underlying issue with most of the schooling tetras in the hobby is that they are either 1) unhealthy from being mass-produced in Asia and then shipped through all kinds of crazy conditions before ending up in your tank, or 2) wild-caught and also have gone through all kinds of shipping and stress before ending up in your tank. USA farm-raised tetras are hard to come by, as both #1 and #2 are much, much cheaper to produce/import vs farming.

If you can screen the source of your fish carefully (eliminating as many middle men as possible can be a good strategy, just to help reduce some of the shipping and acclimation stress), and make sure you quarantine them for at least 4 weeks (I personally worm all fish that I know are WC while they're in QT, unless I know my source just wormed them), your chances of success with them increase dramatically.

These days when I go to stock my tanks, I rarely have a single schooling fish species in mind that I *must* have. I generally have several options in mind, and then take advantage of whatever fish I can find that I think is from the best source. I got tired of wasting $$ on fish losing 20-75% of my order within the first week or two.

In that size tank, I'd probably go with two, possibly three, large schools.

It's been eons since I saw a tank with a large school of Glolights. They're gorgeous in a huge school.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

I actually had a dozen in my 75 planted and they looked amazing. One by one they kept going over the overflow and would get stuck to the suction of the drain. They were the first schooling fish I kept when I first got my discus. I loved the orange in the eye and the body how it just glowed. I can usually get them for about $1 each.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

This tank is going to be awesome to look at.


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

i was going to get cardinals and rumies for my tank. but to get more numbers im going to attempt to breed them.

wish me luck


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## tomfromstlouis (Apr 2, 2012)

lauraleellbp said:


> ...In that size tank, I'd probably go with two, possibly three, large schools….


Not me. In fact, I faced this very choice when I set up my 220g (with altum angels, not discus) and I chose one school of 40+ rummies. They were awesome. Between watching one school of tetras and one group of large fish, plus the cleaning crew, there is plenty to watch and focus on without the distraction of too much community. 

Simplify. Better impact.


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

the bad part of having a lot of diferent schooling fish is they mite mix and make on big school. I hope my rumies and cardinals don't mix


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Yeah my issue is that I already have all the fish. I am taking 4 tanks and moving everything into one. I am tired of having to maintain 2 75's, 1 40 breeder, a 20 thats like a hospital/QT tank then I also have an 18 nano in my office. That one will be staying where it is at tho so no issues there.


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Tank this size You have the room to do what you like. Boils down to personal preference. I tend to like contrast, so usually go with 2 schools of contrasting fish when i have room. 8 feet is a lot of room


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

Nice work on polishing that huge tank. It looks a lot better and will be worth all the effort in the end. As for what kind of pad to use I would suggest using a wool pad over a foam pad. Wool pads are made for cutting and removing sratches and a foam pad is for finishing/polishing work. It looks really good for doing it by hand so if you don't mind using the elbow grease then I would just continue to do it like you have been. I will be watching this one come together. Do you plan to run co2 or are you keeping this low tech?


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

ua hua I am planing on doing a co2 reactor on the tank in the future. All things in time. My biggest thing right now is to get the tank up and running. Seem to be running into obstacles along the way here.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

I am trying to install an overflow box into my clarity plus acrylic tank. The tank didn't currently have the overflow box in it. I drilled 2 holes for 1" bulkheads in the end that will be going up against the wall. I purchased a 1800gph acrylic overflow off of [Ebay Link Removed] I want to put the overflow box in up against the top piece of acrylic to make it rigid and sturdy. My question is this. Is it safe to cut a square or even a circle in the top of the acrylic support just big enough to get my hand in to do overflow maintenance with out screwing up the structural integrity of the tank? 

Troy


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## lauraleellbp (Feb 3, 2008)

Maybe post a pic or diagram of the overflow?


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Will try to sketch something up in a bit. At work right now. Will grab a ruler and a pen and get to drawing


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## Green_Flash (Apr 15, 2012)

I vote school of 500 cards. :biggrin:


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

Green_Flash said:


> I vote school of 500 cards. :biggrin:


:iamwithst+500........................................................................cant wait to see this thing running. so close I can TAST it. :tongue:


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Found out today due to funding that the 240 build is hitting the breaks. I gotta slow way down on the build. It is still going forward just at at 10mph instead of the 90 that I had been going. Turns out I am going to just do the framework for finishing the stand and the cabinet to hide plumbing. Canopy will be the last thing done I believe. I will do a rough build of just framework and attach to the stand so all I will have to do is put the wood on the outside and finish it that way. Good news is that it is going forward. Just at a slower speed then I hoped. My goal now is to get the everything added to the stand how I want it then place it in the room. I will be currently using the crappy wood. I have 2 75 gallon tanks to sell along with a 40breeder. Hoping this will give me the needed money to finish the stand on the tank. Just gotta move all substrate from the 4 into the big monster. 
As far as 500 cards? Who's helping me fund $500 in fish? LOL Not sure what all besides the discus I will put in the tank. I just have to be careful what fish I keep due tho the 83˚ temps that will have to be kept at. All things in time right? LOL

Troy


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

I say you get like 15 then breed them all until you get the right number. that's what im going to attempt to do for my 180.


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## ua hua (Oct 30, 2009)

180g said:


> I say you get like 15 then breed them all until you get the right number. that's what im going to attempt to do for my 180.


Breeding cardinals isn't the easiest thing in the world, just so you know. There is a few that have success at it but you would be better off just buying them. Google breeding cardinal tetras and see how difficult it really is. There not guppies by any means.


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

ua hua said:


> Breeding cardinals isn't the easiest thing in the world, just so you know. There is a few that have success at it but you would be better off just buying them. Google breeding cardinal tetras and see how difficult it really is. There not guppies by any means.


I understand this but im on a budget so I have to try it.

wish me luck


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

any updates! I was really looking forward to this one. I hope you find the $ to fund it.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Busy with work this week will have an update post tomorrow or Friday at the latest.


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## jay973 (Feb 5, 2009)

I've had many Tetras cardinals, black neon, columbian, congo, serpae, black skirt and maybe a few others I've gotten. The only ones that have reproduced in my tank and survived were the black neon and columbian. As egg scatters you need a dense ground cover and as little bottom feeders as possible.

My rams would swim around under the black skirt tetras as they did their thing eating eggs and my corys would take care of the rest on there way down to the substrate.

In all honesty having any survive for me is just luck but the columbian seem to be the easiest at breeding not caring much about water parameters. I have hard water Ph 8.2 and are breeding go figure... =)


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Due to photo hosting site issue I can't do my update tonight. Gotta wait until they can fix my account. Bleh. Pictures are well worth the wait!!!


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

It was an exhausting weekend. 
This weekend I went out and picked up several 2x4's some 2x2s and 1x2s. I got the 2x4's to reinforce the stability of the tank stand. I put in 6 cross bars on the bottom where in the 8' section it currently only had 1 on each end and one in the middle. I also put in uprights in the middle for added support. 



























From there I built the framework of the extension portion of the tank/stand that will go up against the wall to hide all plumbing and wires to keep everything looking nice and neat. I used a combo of 2x2 and 1x2 to build this. the uprights and top support are done with 2x2s as well as the bottom and the ones running across the middle section are 1x2s. Once the frame is wrapped in the wood it will be plenty stable. 





















Once all of this was done I drilled 2 1 3/4" holes in the end of the tank that will hold my 2 1' bulkheads for the overflow. This was actually a lot simpler then I initially thought it was going to bed. You defiantly want to take your time and go slow. Using such a large bit the acrylic seemed to warm up quite fast so I kept backing drill out to let it cool down. I found that spraying with water just seemed to make so much more of a mess then what was really needed. there.
















is limited space to get your hands into while holding a solvent bottle.











Once holes were all drilled I installed my overflow box. This was a bit more tricky then I thought it would be.



















This is as far as I have got thus far. This weekend is putting in the dirt, then sand and hard scape the tank. As soon as that is done its time to plant and fill it up. That should all be in the next post


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

Niiice!!


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

any updates? how is the tank doing?


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Yeah but working so much that not been able to do it.


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

oh, ok. I don't have much time on my hands either. just at night.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Well it has been a rough few weeks. I did manage to get a lot done but still have a ton more to do. Bad part is I didn't get pictures done as time was not on my side. But I did manage to get both hardscape and planting done. 







This is what it it looked like the day that it was filled. I put in a HOB filter that was previously cycled 40 gallon planted tank. All those plants were moved into the 240. Here is some of the hard scape.



























Then it was time to do the planting.


















The tank took roughly a week to fully cycle. I know some of you are saying BS. I managed this by not filtering it for 2 days and the ammonia jumped to .5ppm. I then added all the biological filtration from my 75gallon tank and 4 sponge filters that were in the other tanks. Knowing they were full of bacteria i ran them for then next 3 days. The ammonia levels dropped to 0 The No2 and No3 also were where they needed to be. It was time to start adding the fish. First in were the pair of rosy barbs. They were added to help with the hair algae problem that all my tanks seem to have. They were joined by6 BN plecos 1 albion and 5 reds, 6 true SAE's and 3 green cory's, 2 panda cory's and the single pepper cory that I had. Those were left in for 2 days and ammonia checked daily. The ammonia never went up. On the 7th day I added my 5 smaller discus to the tank. Still monitoring the ammonia and no2 and no3 and all was good at day 9 I opted to add the remaining 7 discus to the tank. All is was well in the biotope I had created. 

SAEs









Off white discus









The small school of neon tetras, I currently have 32 more in a QT for the next 2 weeks.









School of discus









my turquoise and red male









My orange and albino red melon


















My albino pleco


















Cobalt discus










The one thing I didn't really plan on being so bad is the tannins in the water. I like the brown tinge to the water but it gets so dark so fast you have to keep up with 50% water changes frequently to keep it light. I can tell my pants are not liking the lower light they are getting due to the dark water. I truly hope it slows down really fast. I think the last time I did a planted it took about a month of very large water changes to get rid of it. Then monthly water changes were needed. I usually did them every 2 weeks tho. With that much water it takes a lot longer for it to show any kind of raised levels.


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

man I cant wait to see it grown in!

for the tannins you sound like you need some carbon. I would just put some carbon in your filter somewhere out of the way. it wont last long especially with all the tannins you have now so only put a portion in and in about 2 weeks you can put the rest in if need be. if you have it in to long it might start to release all the stuff it has accumulated. 

good luck!


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## j03yYunG (Mar 26, 2013)

that's a nice size tank. :0 
How many Discus are you looking to put in there total?


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

The plan is just the current 12 that I have are what is staying in the tank.


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## 180g (May 20, 2014)

any updates? how is the tank doing?


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

I don't really have much new to report. Just letting the tank grow in a little before posting more pics. Fish are all doing quite well. I have roughly 70 fish in it now. Lots of moving action to watch now. I did have to do a major water change and move the tank up against the wall as we have decided to sell our home. Realtor recommended that we not use it as a room divider and instead move it up against the wall and show off the massive living area in the basement.


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## TroyL (Sep 20, 2013)

Thought I would do a quick update. The 240 has been up and running about 5 months now. Have seen a lot of growth and a lot of change in the past 5-6 months. I currently have 14 discus in it. I alway still have the neons and added 5 Blue German Rams to the mix.


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