A 60 Gallon Cube Doesn't Fit in a Model 3

[glmory]

After years of deciding it was too expensive a hobby to take up, I finally started poking around Facebook Marketplace. First I found some great 180 and 240 gallon aquariums at a great price and got excited. Then I realized I don't want to buy a used glass aquarium because they seem too likely to end up exploding on the kitchen floor. Still though, I am in a big city so some acrylic aquariums in that size range also seemed to be amazing deals. But would I hate acrylic tanks? Searching online finds that I might as well search for whether Star Wars or Star Trek is superior. Lots of loud confident opinions on both sides of the glass acrylic divide.

So, it is time to get real world experience and find out if I can handle an acrylic aquarium.

Found a good deal on a acrylic 60 gallon cube with an external overflow and a stand. Sent a message, confirmed a time, checked the trunk and back seat of the Model 3 was empty. Drove off to pick it up.

Met with a rather skeptical looking individual who took one look at my car and said it wouldn't fit. I grumbled a bit that I fit all kinds of things in cars that shouldn't fit them, but no a 60 gallon cube does not fit in a Model 3. Drove off disappointed, but he said if I could be there by 4PM I could come back for it. Drove home, measured my Prius and found that while it was borderline it likely would also not be up to the task.

Headed to Lowes to rent a truck. My local Lowes doesn't rent trucks! Headed to Home Depot, rushed through the process, and made it back to his house at 3:50PM. We have an aquarium! Also picked up a sump and protein skimmer that he had laying around.

Got it home now. Probably a few months before I am ready to put fish into it as it seems like there are a lot of small tasks to do.

First will be trying to get the scratches out of the tank. I ordered a kit of Novus 1, 2 and 3. Hoping to avoid sanding but it is a lot of surface area so will re-evaluate after I have tried a bit.

The stand seems sturdy but there are dings in the paint. Ordered some "AstraVox Wood Touch Up Paint, 1.5 Oz Black Paint for Wood Repair Scratches, Spots and Chips" which looked like it should do the job.

Also high on the priority list is to sort out the sump situation. The sump he had was only two chambers, seemed made for a wet dry system. Might try to reconfigure it a bit, or might leave as is. A return pump and the plumbing are still needed. Imagine I will also need an automatic top off system.

The overflow box only has one drain pipe. Debating if it is worth the trouble to drill an emergency drain. Hard for me to see anything that gets through the overflow teeth blocking up the drain but possibly a fish or large snail could.

No lighting yet. Might try to mount a pair of AI blades in the hood, but those cost more than I paid for this aquarium so I may find something cheaper.

As far as stocking, probably going to do soft corals with ORA/Biota fish. The exact details are not worked out but my seven year old made it very clear that we will be getting a Nemo.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Following along!

 

[glmory]

Spent a few hours applying touch up paint and Novus 3 to try and remove scratches.

Started with what appeared to be the worst scratches. Was extremely excited that with nothing but Novus and a cloth I was able to remove them in a few minutes. Then proceeded to find a deeper scratch on the other side of the aquarium that I spent more than an hour on and didn't quite remove.

Will probably try to finish the project by hand, but if I was working on much bigger an aquarium would definitely want a power tool. Does seem like this Novus scratch remover is sufficient for normal scratches without having to resort to sanding although I expect sanding would be much faster. Probably going to take another two or three nights like tonight to finish off the rest of the scratches.

Did find some crazing. Wasn't real bad, but enough to annoy me. Was really hoping the acrylic was thick enough to avoid.

The touch up paint seemed close enough to at least look better than the chipped wood. I might repaint the inside though, there is a very thin layer of spray paint and nothing more there.

Decided I wanted to make a better black background. So ordered some Plasti Dip. That will be the next project post painting and scratch removal.

 

[Üter]

Quite the fiasco. Good luck and Welcome to R2R

 

[shakacuz]

following!

 

[glmory]

My arms hurt.

Ordered another bottle of Novus 3.

Probably just need to give up soon but once you start getting rid of scratches it is hard to leave other scratches which are easier looking than the last one.

As the scratches are gone crazing becomes more visible. Doesn’t seem like a real problem but a bit annoying. Buying new it would make me want extra thick acrylic.

 

[OriginalUserName]

My arms hurt.

Ordered another bottle of Novus 3.

Probably just need to give up soon but once you start getting rid of scratches it is hard to leave other scratches which are easier looking than the last one.

As the scratches are gone crazing becomes more visible. Doesn’t seem like a real problem but a bit annoying. Buying new it would make me want extra thick acrylic.

Nice job putting those kids to work!

 

[glmory]

After three nights of fighting the aquarium, I decided to give in and get some sandpaper. It is possible to do the whole job with Novus and without power tools but it really is a lot of work. I got a sponge with 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper. The 1000 grit was probably not low enough but I successfully got through all the major scratches on the aquarium. Then I moved on to Novus 3 followed by Novus 2. After about ten or fifteen hours of this, I was just too tired to finish today but now it has gone from heavily scratched down to a light haze. Should be 80 or 90 percent of the way done.

It isn't really that rational to fix acrylic tanks unless you are someone with a lot more time than money but it was sort of fun to do once. If nothing else I expect to be a lot less afraid of scratches than I would be if I bought new.

Starting to come up with a reasonable plan for stocking.

Going to start by ordering a bunch of micro invertebrates that can breed in the aquarium from Top Shelf Aquatics. Whatever they have in stock of:

Trochus Snail
Micro Brittle Stars
Collonista snails
Mini Nassarius Snail
Stomatella Snails
Copepods
Amphipods
And since I am making an order probably a Giant Bali Xenia.

Then after giving them a bit of time to settle in I will make an order of sub-$100 fish from Biota. Perhaps:
Court Jester Goby (Koumansetta rainfordi)
Royal Gramma
Skilletfish (Gobiesox strumosus)
Upside Down Goby (Trimma striatum)

Then a few months later an order of sub-$100 fish from ORA. Perhaps:
Ocellaris Clown
Black & White Ocellaris
Pajama Cardinalfish
Chalk Bass (Serranus tortugarum)

Finally, will finish it off with a few soft corals and invertebrates from local fish stores.

 

[glmory]

After three nights of fighting the aquarium, I decided to give in and get some sandpaper. It is possible to do the whole job with Novus and without power tools but it really is a lot of work. I got a sponge with 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper. The 1000 grit was probably not low enough but I successfully got through all the major scratches on the aquarium. Then I moved on to Novus 3 followed by Novus 2. After about ten or fifteen hours of this, I was just too tired to finish today but now it has gone from heavily scratched down to a light haze. Should be 80 or 90 percent of the way done.

It isn't really that rational to fix acrylic tanks unless you are someone with a lot more time than money but it was sort of fun to do once. If nothing else I expect to be a lot less afraid of scratches than I would be if I bought new.

Starting to come up with a reasonable plan for stocking.

Going to start by ordering a bunch of micro invertebrates that can breed in the aquarium from Top Shelf Aquatics. Whatever they have in stock of:

Trochus Snail
Micro Brittle Stars
Collonista snails
Mini Nassarius Snail
Stomatella Snails
Copepods
Amphipods
And since I am making an order probably a Giant Bali Xenia.

Then after giving them a bit of time to settle in I will make an order of sub-$100 fish from Biota. Perhaps:
Court Jester Goby (Koumansetta rainfordi)
Royal Gramma
Skilletfish (Gobiesox strumosus)
Upside Down Goby (Trimma striatum)

Then a few months later an order of sub-$100 fish from ORA. Perhaps:
Ocellaris Clown
Black & White Ocellaris
Pajama Cardinalfish
Chalk Bass (Serranus tortugarum)

Finally, will finish it off with a few soft corals and invertebrates from local fish stores.

 

[glmory]

Seem to have it polished enough. Got all the major scratches out of it although there are a few small ones I am still debating if I want to deal with. There is a light haze, which might mean another round of Novus 2 is in order but I suspect with water inside it and a bit more cleaning it won't be noticeable.

I did not like that the paint job inside the stand seemed to barely cover the wood. So decided to use the plastidip bottle I bought for the back of the tank to paint the inside of the stand. Unclear if that was a good choice of material to make it more water resistant but it did seem to look pretty good in the end. Only time will tell if it holds up.

Went to Lowes for plumbing. After figuring out that they didn't have bulkheads I gave up and went to Amazon. Got the plumbing to get to right above my sump and a drill bit to add a second overflow. Had planned to do the last foot in 3/4 inch silicon tubing but have yet to find parts to connect the 3/4th inch tubing to 1/2 or 1 inch schedule 80 PVC.

Then headed off to the local LFS. Figured I should try to buy as many basics as they have so they don't disappear. Ended up buying a Aquatop SWP-1300 for a return pump, a refractometer, some salt and some base rock. While the base rock looks pretty good, am pretty sure it is something man made. Don't really trust it not to leak so have it soaking a couple days under a slow drip of water. Would rather get as much junk out of the rock as I can now rather than when I need to do extra water changes.

 

[glmory]

Got most the scratches out. Next time will start with a lower grit sandpaper to speed up the process but with enough effort it was possible by hand with 1,000 grit.

Painted the back black with plasti dip. Pretty happy with how that went, much prettier background than my previous experience taping a background on the back or adding a black film.

Glued together some rocks with super glue. More or less a classic two rock structure. Liked using superglue since it allows for a less dense rock structure and can easily be broken if I decide to make changes.

Put down a layer of reborn. Didn’t want a bare bottom but I think most the problems with acrylic are because of sand. Reborn seems unlikely to scratch.

 

[slogan315]

It looks great! Thanks for documenting this.

Those look like Marco rocks which are quarried in Florida.

 

[glmory]

Could be marco rock, certainly looks like it. I suspect it is something man made though. It was more powdery than I expected and didn’t break as well as I would expect natural rock to do.

 

[glmory]

Realized I didn’t sand a few areas flat. Focusing on a few deep scratches and did not sand the area around it enough. That lead to distortion.

So I gave in and went to a more coarse sandpaper, around 220 grit. Sand at one grit, once all scratches are gone, go to the next size up. I would alternate left to right on one grit and up to down on the next. Then used Novus 3 and 2. It was actually easier to not damage the tank with more coarse grit since I didn’t need to work so hard to remove the scratches. Would have had better results if I did the whole tank this way but was too tired to start over.

Mostly done plumbing the tank. Ran hard pvc to right above the sump then a short section of silicone. Not as pretty as I would have liked but seems solid.

Was very happy with the extra high strength velcro on the inside wall of the stand. That seems a great way to get power strips and other items off the ground.

 

[glmory]

Put in water, was just about to add salt then I noticed that one of my unions is leaking. Ugh, because of where it is will be a bit of a pain to cut out. Wasn’t happy with how I aligned the plumbing though so can improve it a bit this way.

Was happy with the Kasa smart power plug strip that I added though. Seems to be secure on the side

of the tank from the velcro.

Probably not much I can do before the new union comes in the mail, but will be at the beach so might add salt then a few gallons of natural seawater so at least it starts growing some bacteria.

 

[glmory]

Still nothing alive except for the ten gallons of natural seawater I added and whatever eats the fish food I have been adding.

After two weeks of keeping it dark, picked up some AI Blades. Turned out to be a great choice. I just put them on top of the aquarium inside the hood. Need to watch how hard I push them to make sure they stay cool but for a soft coral tank I don’t need that much power.

Tried putting an acrylic sheet on top as a lid. Will see if that works out, probably need to at least drill a hole for feeding.

Also added a heater since the tank was staying around 70 degrees without one.

Planning to turn then on until the rocks start turning green then add a bunch of clean up crew and copepods. Will let them grow a bit before making a big order from ORA or Biota.

 

[glmory]

The protein skimmer didn’t work with the amount of water I wanted to put in the sump. So, I needed to raise it up. First thought I would use a block of ceramic to give bacteria room. Don’t think I really need more surface area for bacteria though. Decided that seachem matrix in a pond basket would also add habitat for copepods so would be better.

The nine inch box I bought makes it a bit hard to get my return pump out so may get a smaller box but it seemed to work well.

 

[glmory]

Well, managed to keep one small leather coral alive for a whole week. Not quite cool enough to pull out my real camera but I realized I should take a photo so I can look back and see if it is growing.

 

[glmory]

Since the leather coral seems to not be dying I went ahead and got a cheap gorgonian from Amazing Aquariums in Anaheim. Really well maintained shop. I like how he just cuts off a piece so I am not stuck with an ugly frag plug to figure out how to disinfect. So far hasn’t opened up fully, will take some photos when it does.

Will probably keep ghost feeding a few more weeks before getting fish. Putting corals and clean up crew first feels like it will lower risk of fish disease getting into the tank.

Did a first round of testing. Seems reasonably normal although I will probably add some kalk with top off water to try and bring pH up a bit.

Salinity: 1.26
pH 8.0
Phosphate 0.25
kH 9.0
CA 440
Nitrate 2

Not been using my skimmer yet, possibly related to the low pH, but started weekly 5 gallon water changes. Decided to run my skimmer wet and get as much as the skimmer would remove into a 5 gallon bucket. It stopped removing more water after about two gallons. Definitely feels like a really efficient way to do a water changes. The water was extremely discolored compared to the new water.

 

[glmory]

Was unhappy I missed a few spots when sanding. Also, think I stopped early because everything looked a little hazy.

So decided to purchase a set of wet dry sandpaper with 5000, 7000, 8000, 10000, 12000, 15000 grit. Put it under my algae scrapper and was annoyed that it didn’t have enough pressure to hold it.

A few minutes later I realized I had a bunch of high strength velcro. That stuck the sand paper to the magnet float quite effectively. Seemed more consistent than when I did it totally by hand since the sandpaper was held flat.

Might work on it a bit more with 10000-15000 grit but that seems to have fixed the distortion and reduced the haze substantially.