40B Fixer Up!

[Andrewalex11]

So for a better part of 2017 I was running a nice 20L with a custom built in sump area that I was quite proud of. Unfortunately when I had moved this passed month my tank stand began to buckle (cheap compressed wood stand from Petsmart). I then began to wonder how long the wood had been like this, and questioned the integrity of the tank itself.

So in an emergency effort everybody went back into buckets on life support while I ran to my neartest Petco which was having the wonderful $1 per gallon sale (50% off anything above 29 gallons) which made a 40B about $50 so.. almost a dollar per gallon and that was good enough for me so I pulled the trigger and bought it. Along with a nice sturdy metal stand (no more wood for me).

Needless to say the tank inhabitants needed a home that very same day so I rigged up the 40B with all kinds of equiptment I had laying around and though it's running very nicely with the frankenstein of a setup that it is right now, it is by no means pretty.

This thread will document my progress as I updated this nightmare of a 40B while having an established system inside of it. This should help some of our members here who want to do the same but don't know how to achieve the same goals as listed below:

• Paint the back
• Drill aquarium for overflow/return
• Plumb tank to new sump
• Install new lighting
• Build custom sump
• Add sand
• Add 20lbs of rock & aquascape
• New livestock!

First thing that will be happening is definitely going to be painting and drilling. I anticipate this happening within the next 4-6 weeks. I will be using a GlassHoles kit for the overflow, I'm not entirely sure about the return as of yet. But I want to get this out of the way first as it will probably be the most time consuming and daunting tasks to preform considering the tank is full with a thriving ecosystem inside of it. Glass shards could completely crash the system as well as harmful chemicals from the paint so I'm most likely going to empty the system back into buckets one final time and run the aquarium below the overflow until I finish the sump/plumbing.

heres the monster we are dealing with ! Let's see if we can make her shine !

 

[count krunk]

personally, I would go with the snergy or an eshopps overflow. One with 3 drains allows for the quietest and safest operation.

 

[dutch27]

Instead of buckets, why not grab a 20g for a temporary home for everything, or a rubbermaid bin?

 

[Andrewalex11]

Instead of buckets, why not grab a 20g for a temporary home for everything, or a rubbermaid bin?

I dig this idea most likely that is what will happen.

 

[Andrewalex11]

personally, I would go with the snergy or an eshopps overflow. One with 3 drains allows for the quietest and safest operation.

I was considering it but I like the affordability of the glassholes overflow kits, and I really haven't heard too many bad things if any at all of them.

 

[count krunk]

@Tokash23 has one and he can tell you if he likes it or not. I know he has said that it is noisy.

 

[LPStandard]

personally, I would go with the snergy or an eshopps overflow. One with 3 drains allows for the quietest and safest operation.

My 75 has the eshopps overflow with 3 drains, plumbed bean animal. The drains are silent, which is great. I do get a little noise through the weir but it is really not bothersome at all.

+1 for using a temporary tank too. My clowns, nems, and much of the live rock from my last tank (unfortunately full of pests) is in a 29gal temp home while my 75 cycles.

 

[Andrewalex11]

Looks like I'll have to explore deeper into my overflow options.

 

[Steadyreef42]

I diy’ed this glass overflow for my 20 long. I liked it because I was able to whip it together with stuff from Home Depot and salvaged glass from an old 5 gallon tank. Also being able to make something in any dimensions desired is very nice

 

[Andrewalex11]

I diy’ed this glass overflow for my 20 long. I liked it because I was able to whip it together with stuff from Home Depot and salvaged glass from an old 5 gallon tank. Also being able to make something in any dimensions desired is very nice

That's a neat idea I like the substitution of a weir for the strainer caps! Seems more disposable as the tank matures and the system really starts to calcify etc.

 

[Steadyreef42]

That's a neat idea I like the substitution of a weir for the strainer caps! Seems more disposable as the tank matures and the system really starts to calcify etc.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/rick’s-drilled-20-long.336329/

I wish I would have went smaller/slimmer and maybe put egg crate on top to keep critters out. Also someday I may glue some black acrylic to the front

 

[Andrewalex11]

should be ordering some things either this weekend or next weekend!

 

[Andrewalex11]

Overflow is coming soon ! Can't wait to get it installed, but in the mean time I need to design a sump. I will be using a 20L Aqueon and probably just some acrylic sheets cut to size and silicones in.

For the sump I plan on having:

No socks, just pre-filter sponge.
Refugium area
Reactor and skimmer area
Post-filter sponge
And the return area

I also will be dedicating a small section of the sump to my probes from my DIY SurfBox controller!

 

[Andrewalex11]

Only two more days until I get some paint, bulkheads, drillbits, and some acrylic sheets.

My final decision on the overflow and drain is going to roughly be around a 500-700GPH Herbie Style set-up.

I'm going to be practicing my hole drilling by basically turning my 10 Gallon into Swiss cheese, but I'd rather make this sacrifice to ensure that I have a better feel and understanding of glass drilling before I hit up the big 40.

 

[Andrewalex11]

So I have finally begun revamping the tank entirely, the livestock is in buckets with some life-support equipment running. It has been a painfully slow process since the weather here in NY has been absolutely horrible and still somewhat is. I wanted to wait until we started hitting temps close to the 60's to make sure the paint drys good, and it's not difficult drilling holes with running water.

I have decided to build a DIY overflow box for myself, it fits two 3/4'' bulkheads nicely for the Herbie style overflow. I will post pictures of that tomorrow as well because I am using the back panel as the template for drilling my holes. Then I'll continue to silicone it on.

Something tells me this paint job is going to look terrible considering how old it still is outside even though it's supposed to be "Spring"

 

[Andrewalex11]

It was getting absolutely freezing outside so for the sake of solid aquarium seals I brought it inside and snapped a quick picture of the whole operation.

Those two HD buckets are home to all the livestock and about 20lbs of live rock.

 

[Andrewalex11]

Alright! Excuse me for the delay on the update about this fix-up job but yesterday was a FULL day. I managed to finish cleaning up the tank from the paint job, I noticed some missing silicon from a small upper corners secondary seal so I re-sealed that and I'm pretty confident that it won't leak on me, the primary seal in the area looks fair as well I can tell there is silicon between the two panes but it just didn't squish out like all the other spots, I think I might have just rubbed it off with my thumb when carrying it around. No matter this is a brand new aquarium anyway so I'm pretty confident the seals are still good here and I'm just going a bit crazy.

Aside from that, I managed to drill three 3/4'' holes, two for my DIY Herbie overflow box, and one for the return bulkhead. Afterword I finished the DIY box by adhering the back pane in with the bulkheads and some 3/4'' threaded elbows so I can easily screw in strainers and standpipes/ take them out for maintenance regularly. I then moved the tank away from the wall further to allow me to fit the new plumbing in the back, and once I got the tank where I needed it I leveled it really well with some furniture shims. This allowed me to return all the livestock back into the aquarium after living in buckets for the day.

I brought in my 20-gallon long tank from outside and cleaned it up well getting it ready to be turned into a sump, at the same time I've been making water for the tank through my RO/DI unit all night/day and I have the aquarium filled just below the overflow boxes bottom panel.

Now it's onto sump building and plumbing!

 

[Andrewalex11]

Here's some pictures of the work that went on this weekend.

This fixer up project is actually moving quicker than I expected. Last night I picked up a bunch of plumbing parts and began to construct the overflow and return.

The emergency drain is the line without the ball valve, it's completely independent from the main drain. I do have to make a slight height adjustment on the height of the emergency drain but it's a pretty simple thing to do with some 1/2" pvc.

Here's where the tank is at now with all the livestock back inside of it !

Now it's time to construct the sump area!

 

[Andrewalex11]

So I haven't done too much to the tank besides getting the plumbing situated (for now) and electrical organized for safety. I'm using my 20 Gallong Long as a sump, but as expected I'm hating the water level in it so I'll probably switch over to a 20 Gallon High. I'm still in the process of considering what equiptment I will add-on/replace with new so stay tuned for updates on that.

Otherwise the tank is silent as a mouse using the full siphon method with my Herbie style overflow setup. I am going to be making a new overflow box as my last ones dimensions were slightly off and caused a minor bulkhead leak. So for now it's just bare PVC.

Here's some shots of the corals happy to finally be in their refurbished home!

I want this tank to be fully done prior to RAP NY so I can put all kinds of new corals in the tank. My budget this year for coral stands is going to be substantially higher than it was last year

 

[Steadyreef42]

Sweet set up. Gotta love 40 breeders