Omgitsjoe
Active Member
Im a little behind on starting this thread but hey! better late than never,my tank has been built and running for about 6 months now. I conveniently lost most of my photos but I was able to recover a few.
The Beginning:
My wife is just as addicted to this hobby as myself so she was browsing craigslist for a tank and stumbled across this "gem" 80gallon with stand for $100. Steal right???? WRONG! I paid the guy an extra $20 to bring it to me because I wasnt really feeling the whole carry a heavy butt tank on a Sunday. When he showed up it looked like he was trying to contain Satan in the tank and for 8 months he was trying to claw himself out. Needless to say there was no way I was going to have this scratched to all hell glass in my living room.
Pictures from the ad:
I really wish I still had the pictures from this part.... But Using some real thin wire and about 52 cuss words I disassembled the tank and separated all the glass panes. There were 2 salvageable glass panes. I went to my local glass shop and had them cut me 3 panes to my specs. I reassembled this mess and painted the bottom trim and back glass black. I ordered a new top trim from https://www.aquariumframeswholesale.com/. We then stained the cabinet and bought some new hardware. In the spirit of DIY we attempted to make our own sump. (boy did that fail)
I ended up ordering a trigger systems sump to replace my fail of a DIY.
Fast forward a few months. Our nitrogen cycle has started... Im doing more research... Learning more... buying more.... After I think ive finally added all the equipment I think im going to need, I couldnt stand looking at this mess of a sump. I HAVE OCD FROM HELL AND SEEING WIRES GO EVERYWHERE DROVE ME NUTS. I drained the tank, rotated it so I could get behind it and spent 3 days organizing everything.
Today:
I lost all the pics during the renovation of the sump area but this is where we stand today. About 2 months ago we decided to convert over to the Triton method. so we had to turn the first chamber to a fuge. Im using a Kessil H80 to light that chamber. We also took apart everthing and painted it to try and get a theme going. All the pvc and the Bubble Magnus Curve 5 were painted to match.
Using some cable organizer I made a wiring harness to contain the rats nest from the front door to the back where everything is plugged up. If anyone is wanting a cheap way to light their sump area, I had some outdoor rope lights that I used, but I ran into a problem of switching the things on and off so I bought this neat little device from Lowes. Its a wireless outlet switch. Theres a tiny box that plugs into the outlet, the rope light plugs into the box and BOOM we got a wireless switch!
My QT area:
After getting tired of seeing a fold up table in my living room and losing a fish due to cross contamination, I deiced its time to get organized. What good is having all the meds and tools you need to QT a fish If you dont have a organized area to work with? We couldn't really find a shelf to suite our needs. The ONE shelf we did find was as stable as toothpicks and they wanted $500 for it! Screw that! lets make it ourselves!!!
Ignore the mess on the bottom and middle shelf.... we are about to start growing our own Phyto and Pods. (More to come)
Im sure I missed something and we are constantly making changes so ill come back here to update everything!!
The Beginning:
My wife is just as addicted to this hobby as myself so she was browsing craigslist for a tank and stumbled across this "gem" 80gallon with stand for $100. Steal right???? WRONG! I paid the guy an extra $20 to bring it to me because I wasnt really feeling the whole carry a heavy butt tank on a Sunday. When he showed up it looked like he was trying to contain Satan in the tank and for 8 months he was trying to claw himself out. Needless to say there was no way I was going to have this scratched to all hell glass in my living room.
Pictures from the ad:
I really wish I still had the pictures from this part.... But Using some real thin wire and about 52 cuss words I disassembled the tank and separated all the glass panes. There were 2 salvageable glass panes. I went to my local glass shop and had them cut me 3 panes to my specs. I reassembled this mess and painted the bottom trim and back glass black. I ordered a new top trim from https://www.aquariumframeswholesale.com/. We then stained the cabinet and bought some new hardware. In the spirit of DIY we attempted to make our own sump. (boy did that fail)
I ended up ordering a trigger systems sump to replace my fail of a DIY.
Fast forward a few months. Our nitrogen cycle has started... Im doing more research... Learning more... buying more.... After I think ive finally added all the equipment I think im going to need, I couldnt stand looking at this mess of a sump. I HAVE OCD FROM HELL AND SEEING WIRES GO EVERYWHERE DROVE ME NUTS. I drained the tank, rotated it so I could get behind it and spent 3 days organizing everything.
Today:
I lost all the pics during the renovation of the sump area but this is where we stand today. About 2 months ago we decided to convert over to the Triton method. so we had to turn the first chamber to a fuge. Im using a Kessil H80 to light that chamber. We also took apart everthing and painted it to try and get a theme going. All the pvc and the Bubble Magnus Curve 5 were painted to match.
Using some cable organizer I made a wiring harness to contain the rats nest from the front door to the back where everything is plugged up. If anyone is wanting a cheap way to light their sump area, I had some outdoor rope lights that I used, but I ran into a problem of switching the things on and off so I bought this neat little device from Lowes. Its a wireless outlet switch. Theres a tiny box that plugs into the outlet, the rope light plugs into the box and BOOM we got a wireless switch!
My QT area:
After getting tired of seeing a fold up table in my living room and losing a fish due to cross contamination, I deiced its time to get organized. What good is having all the meds and tools you need to QT a fish If you dont have a organized area to work with? We couldn't really find a shelf to suite our needs. The ONE shelf we did find was as stable as toothpicks and they wanted $500 for it! Screw that! lets make it ourselves!!!
Ignore the mess on the bottom and middle shelf.... we are about to start growing our own Phyto and Pods. (More to come)
Im sure I missed something and we are constantly making changes so ill come back here to update everything!!
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