135 gallon goodwill tank

[Silverback26]

Hey guys, I made a post already about this 135 gallon acrylic that my mom found at goodwill for $180 that I went in and bought! Some replies on that post told me to start a build thread so here it is.

It holds water and is in very good shape but I have never built a tank myself or owned an acrylic aquarium but I’m excited to learn. The tank came with a stand and that smaller aquarium on top in the first picture, which I’m hoping I may be able to use as my sump.

I’d first like to remove the blue background that’s on the back and bottom of the tank as it is pretty chipped and peeling and redo it to black, not worried as much about the bottom as I plan on having sand. I’m unsure of what the best way to do that may be, It looks to be painted on the outside and I assume I may be able to just scrap it off or gently sand it then buff the acrylic back smooth? It also may be good to polish the acrylic at this point anyways just to get it in top shape, there aren’t any deep scratches on the tank that I noticed but some areas do have some light scratching.

I’d love to hear any advice you guys have for building this tank, specifically to start, I’m looking to remove and change the blue backgrounds on the back and bottom of the tank, polish the acrylic maybe and remove small light scratching, and I’m also curious about any overflow recommendations as there are no holes drilled in this tank yet.
For the overflow I’m thinking of getting the

Deluxe CS102DX Overflow Box (1200 gph) - CPR Aquatics​

Let me know what you guys think! Thanks

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[Silverback26]

Hey guys, I made a post already about this 135 gallon acrylic that my mom found at goodwill for $180 that I went in and bought! Some replies on that post told me to start a build thread so here it is.

It holds water and is in very good shape but I have never built a tank myself or owned an acrylic aquarium but I’m excited to learn. The tank came with a stand and that smaller aquarium on top in the first picture, which I’m hoping I may be able to use as my sump.

I’d first like to remove the blue background that’s on the back and bottom of the tank as it is pretty chipped and peeling and redo it to black, not worried as much about the bottom as I plan on having sand. I’m unsure of what the best way to do that may be, It looks to be painted on the outside and I assume I may be able to just scrap it off or gently sand it then buff the acrylic back smooth? It also may be good to polish the acrylic at this point anyways just to get it in top shape, there aren’t any deep scratches on the tank that I noticed but some areas do have some light scratching.

I’d love to hear any advice you guys have for building this tank, specifically to start, I’m looking to remove and change the blue backgrounds on the back and bottom of the tank, polish the acrylic maybe and remove small light scratching, and I’m also curious about any overflow recommendations as there are no holes drilled in this tank yet.
For the overflow I’m thinking of getting the

Deluxe CS102DX Overflow Box (1200 gph) - CPR Aquatics​

Let me know what you guys think! Thanks

Got the blue bottom and back scraped off today, going to look into polishing now if anyone has any tips! I plan on making the bottom and back black and will likely use them as test areas to begin polishing so I can learn how to do it haha. Any recommendations on how to polish or what you use to black out part of your tanks?

 

[fish_collector]

Good find for $180. I'd have bought it too for that price. It's acrylic you can always restore it as good as new.

 

[UncommonSense]

Got the blue bottom and back scraped off today, going to look into polishing now if anyone has any tips! I plan on making the bottom and back black and will likely use them as test areas to begin polishing so I can learn how to do it haha. Any recommendations on how to polish or what you use to black out part of your tanks?

I have heard nothing but good words about Novus brand #1, #2, and #3… in addition, I had great success with it on my own acrylic tank getting light scratches out!

They sell an acrylic restoration kit with wool buffing wheels and a drill arbor adapter; I recommend getting an actual 8+ oz bottle of each part: the #3 “heavy” scratch remover, #2 light scratch remover, and #1 clean/polish!

 

[UncommonSense]

Just, check carefully around all the welded seams where the panels of acrylic were physically assembled/welded for opaque “bubbles” that can indicate the beginning of a stress related weld failure!

 

[Silverback26]

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of updates but I did plan on this being a slow process building it, I sanded and polished the tank, got a hang on the back overflow and cut a space for it in the back middle and ordered a sapphire cr44 sump from trigger systems that should be coming sometime in the next few weeks. I ordered the sump 3 weeks ago but apparently they had a fire at their warehouse when I reached out for an update! Right now I’m looking into potential options for a skimmer and return pump as there are a lot of Black Friday deals going on, might get 3 radion xr15 pros as they are $100 off each right now just to slowly collect the equipment at decent prices.

Let me know if you guys have any recommendations for skimmers and a return pump as I am sort of getting lost in the sea of options. I found a deal for a K1-160 icecap skimmer that seems pretty good but can’t find too much discussion on it.

 

[Silverback26]

Hey guys! Sorry for the lack of updates but I did plan on this being a slow process building it, I sanded and polished the tank, got a hang on the back overflow and cut a space for it in the back middle and ordered a sapphire cr44 sump from trigger systems that should be coming sometime in the next few weeks. I ordered the sump 3 weeks ago but apparently they had a fire at their warehouse when I reached out for an update! Right now I’m looking into potential options for a skimmer and return pump as there are a lot of Black Friday deals going on, might get 3 radion xr15 pros as they are $100 off each right now just to slowly collect the equipment at decent prices.

Let me know if you guys have any recommendations for skimmers and a return pump as I am sort of getting lost in the sea of options. I found a deal for a K1-160 icecap skimmer that seems pretty good but can’t find too much discussion on it.

Also I got the eshopps-1000 overflow for reference

 

[OZoned]

Hey guys, I made a post already about this 135 gallon acrylic that my mom found at goodwill for $180 that I went in and bought! Some replies on that post told me to start a build thread so here it is.

It holds water and is in very good shape but I have never built a tank myself or owned an acrylic aquarium but I’m excited to learn. The tank came with a stand and that smaller aquarium on top in the first picture, which I’m hoping I may be able to use as my sump.

I’d first like to remove the blue background that’s on the back and bottom of the tank as it is pretty chipped and peeling and redo it to black, not worried as much about the bottom as I plan on having sand. I’m unsure of what the best way to do that may be, It looks to be painted on the outside and I assume I may be able to just scrap it off or gently sand it then buff the acrylic back smooth? It also may be good to polish the acrylic at this point anyways just to get it in top shape, there aren’t any deep scratches on the tank that I noticed but some areas do have some light scratching.

I’d love to hear any advice you guys have for building this tank, specifically to start, I’m looking to remove and change the blue backgrounds on the back and bottom of the tank, polish the acrylic maybe and remove small light scratching, and I’m also curious about any overflow recommendations as there are no holes drilled in this tank yet.
For the overflow I’m thinking of getting the

Deluxe CS102DX Overflow Box (1200 gph) - CPR Aquatics​

Let me know what you guys think! Thanks

Excited to see how this build comes together.

 

[squidarcher]

Also I got the eshopps-1000 overflow for reference

Why did you choose an HOB overflow over just drilling? It’s acrylic, so there’s no real risk of the tank cracking

 

[Silverback26]

Also I got the eshopps-1000 overflow for reference

Why did you choose an HOB overflow over just drilling? It’s acrylic, so there’s no real risk of the tank cracking

To be honest I didn’t even consider drilling the tank for the overflow, all my tanks have been all in ones up to this point so I’m pretty unfamiliar with the whole process and was pretty nervous about potentially messing something up. I figured it would be safer to cut into the attached lid as It wouldn’t affect the tank really in any way if I messed up as I could just cut the lid off entirely. This is my first experience with acrylic at all and drilling anything on tanks and building my own system so I figured it was better to be safe

 

[UncommonSense]

To be honest I didn’t even consider drilling the tank for the overflow, all my tanks have been all in ones up to this point so I’m pretty unfamiliar with the whole process and was pretty nervous about potentially messing something up. I figured it would be safer to cut into the attached lid as It wouldn’t affect the tank really in any way if I messed up as I could just cut the lid off entirely. This is my first experience with acrylic at all and drilling anything on tanks and building my own system so I figured it was better to be safe

I learned how to drill acrylic by going by my local plastics fabrication shop to ask a few questions! (They can also probably drill the tank for you!)

Your local plastic fabrication (or possibly sign making) shop will almost certainly have some acrylic off-cuts in the scrap bin they’ll be willing to give you for free! — you can use the scraps to practice cutting, drilling, and solvent welding!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

looks like you did a great job on shining it up!

 

[Silverback26]

To be honest I didn’t even consider drilling the tank for the overflow, all my tanks have been all in ones up to this point so I’m pretty unfamiliar with the whole process and was pretty nervous about potentially messing something up. I figured it would be safer to cut into the attached lid as It wouldn’t affect the tank really in any way if I messed up as I could just cut the lid off entirely. This is my first experience with acrylic at all and drilling anything on tanks and building my own system so I figured it was better to be safe

I learned how to drill acrylic by going by my local plastics fabrication shop to ask a few questions! (They can also probably drill the tank for you!)

Your local plastic fabrication (or possibly sign making) shop will almost certainly have some acrylic off-cuts in the scrap bin they’ll be willing to give you for free! — you can use the scraps to practice cutting, drilling, and solvent welding!

Interesting I’ll have to look around to see what any me, luckily the tank did come with some extra acrylic sheet scraps I think the previous owner was using to cover the lid openings so I practiced cutting on one of those prior to doing the tank. I also ordered a few extra sheets to try and make nicer coverings to lower the evaporation when it’s set up and to practice working with acrylic more! Luckily I’m not in a rush and kept the receipt to the HOB overflow so I could always return it and looks at drilling the overflow as an option as I am a little skeptical about how the HOB will work with it being siphon based

 

[UncommonSense]

I am a little skeptical about how the HOB will work with it being siphon based

I’ll just say that I’ve never had one of my drilled overflow tanks flood the room… that’s been a nice change…

Edit: if you’re curious, here’s a little write-up I did on enlarging hole sawn holes in pretty much any material, with plenty of acrylic specific drilling tips!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/closed-loop-questions.1122444/page-2#post-13773061

 

[Silverback26]

I am a little skeptical about how the HOB will work with it being siphon based

I’ll just say that I’ve never had one of my drilled overflow tanks flood the room… that’s been a nice change…

Edit: if you’re curious, here’s a little write-up I did on enlarging hole sawn holes in pretty much any material, with plenty of acrylic specific drilling tips!

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/closed-loop-questions.1122444/page-2#post-13773061

Yeah I think I may end up drilling it, just put on the background and doing a little test fitting and it does not look too great . The background I think looks good but the HOB hangs off at an angle

 

[UncommonSense]

Yeah I think I may end up drilling it, just put on the background and doing a little test fitting and it does not look too great . The background I think looks good but the HOB hangs off at an angle

Well that’s definitely wonky!

It’s also an awfully small overflow for that tank…

I’d recommend one of the external overflow boxes that is constructed out of proper acrylic, Modular Marine comes to mind! (Some brands of external overflow are injection molded plastic, and are very, very prone to cracking once hard plumbed!)

 

[Silverback26]

Oh really? I was debating on getting the model up when I was at the store but ended up on that one, what size or gph should I be looking for do you think? Cause seeing how poorly that overflow seems to sit in the tank makes me think I’m definitely going drilled now.

 

[UncommonSense]

Oh really? I was debating on getting the model up when I was at the store but ended up on that one, what size or gph should I be looking for do you think? Cause seeing how poorly that overflow seems to sit in the tank makes me think I’m definitely going drilled now.

I think a 1,200gph max overflow would be the minimum, a 2,400gph max overflow if you want >1” plumbing…

The maximum flow rating seems excessive, but we have to keep in mind that this rating is under ideal conditions… not after years of life has grown on the weir and inside the plumbing!

 

[Naekuh]

Why not just drill a hole in the back of the tank?
I am not a fan of overflows unless you absolutely need them because they are a potential point in your tank overflowing if and when siphon breaks.

And yes, your siphon WILL BREAK somehow, and always at the worst time possible.
So if u do use one, make sure you get one of those aqua lifters and have it plugged in all the time and have it go on like every 10 min for 10 min for the rest of its working life if and when your Siphon breaks.