- Joined
- Jan 27, 2017
- Messages
- 323
- Reaction score
- 270
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:
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 !
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 !