Galail52
Community Member
Howdy. So, I dropped out of the reef-keeping hobby for the last year and a half or so. About 8 months ago I decided to give a freshwater planted tank a try. While I enjoyed it, it just wasn't what I really wanted.
- Some backstory on the origins of the new tank.
I live at home still and had a 75 gallon planted freshwater tank on what was originally a stand for a 300 gallon tank. The 300 gallon tank ended up being a nightmare. I cracked the bottom pane, to begin with, and got it replaced and rebuilt, only to have the rear pane shatter. The 75 gallon looked nice enough for the stand, but my father wanted a tank that fit it. I told him he had to buy the new tank if he wanted it, not really expecting him to go for it to be honest, and, low and behold he did. Originally, the plan was to get a new 210 Aqueon tank and drill it myself because it would fit on the stand perfectly. And then Facebook happened. $2500 later and here we are!
- New tank! Yay!
Found a tank on Facebook, 300 gallons, stand, sump, radeons, MP40s, a full apex system, and 4 lovely fish. Pair of black clowns, Purple tang, and long nose hawkfish. I went earlier this week and picked up the fish, and they are chilling in my 75 gallon right now as a holdover tank until the big tank is ready.
- What a long freaking day
Today, 9 AM, picked up a U-Haul and headed over. Per usual, I have a terrible sense of how long things will take and we spent the next 4 hours emptying the tank, disconnected everything from it, and loading it all into the back of the truck. It's finally home now, sitting on the floor of my garage. I've done used tanks in the past and they always need some degree of cleaning and TLC. The stand for this tank is in fairly decent condition. The bottom trim pieces need to be re-attached and I've been informed I have to paint it to match the decor of the house better. The tank, however.... is one of the nastiest I've dealt with. I was informed it has sat, un-cared for, for the last several months. The 4 fish got fed every time the man's wife would walk by the tank. I was shocked the fish survived going from that to the clean water of my tank, although, the 60-minute acclimation I did probably helped that.
Once we got it unloaded from the truck and into the garage. We tilted the tank onto its front so I could get the bulkheads removed. The tank itself had to be transported to my house while resting on furniture dollys and strapped in so it wouldn't move. There were 4 bulkheads to be removed, 2 1 inch, and 2 2 inch. None of which would budge using pliers. After using a multi-tool saw, a pipe wrench, a hack saw, some brute force, and no small amount of prayers, I was able to get the nuts removed from 2 of them, and break the other 2 into small enough pieces to push it out of the hole in the tank. I HIGHLY recommend NOT trying this at home. If not for the PVC bottom on the tank, I'm not convinced the tank wouldn't have given up on me.
- Progress! Yay
As it currently sits. The garage is full of crap that I have to sort through and clean. The tank itself is full of water and about 8 pounds of citric acid, as well as the return pumps and skimmer to circulate the water, to break down the organic material on the glass and make cleaning easier later this week. The stand is in pieces, waiting to be cleaned as well and then painted. 99% of the water from the sump is finally out, but I've got a long way to go with cleaning that (2 more pounds of citric acid, yay!). I do have some photos that I'll get posted tomorrow when I manage to upload them. I've historically been terrible at build threads and posting updates, so let's see if I can do better this time around.
- Some backstory on the origins of the new tank.
I live at home still and had a 75 gallon planted freshwater tank on what was originally a stand for a 300 gallon tank. The 300 gallon tank ended up being a nightmare. I cracked the bottom pane, to begin with, and got it replaced and rebuilt, only to have the rear pane shatter. The 75 gallon looked nice enough for the stand, but my father wanted a tank that fit it. I told him he had to buy the new tank if he wanted it, not really expecting him to go for it to be honest, and, low and behold he did. Originally, the plan was to get a new 210 Aqueon tank and drill it myself because it would fit on the stand perfectly. And then Facebook happened. $2500 later and here we are!
- New tank! Yay!
Found a tank on Facebook, 300 gallons, stand, sump, radeons, MP40s, a full apex system, and 4 lovely fish. Pair of black clowns, Purple tang, and long nose hawkfish. I went earlier this week and picked up the fish, and they are chilling in my 75 gallon right now as a holdover tank until the big tank is ready.
- What a long freaking day
Today, 9 AM, picked up a U-Haul and headed over. Per usual, I have a terrible sense of how long things will take and we spent the next 4 hours emptying the tank, disconnected everything from it, and loading it all into the back of the truck. It's finally home now, sitting on the floor of my garage. I've done used tanks in the past and they always need some degree of cleaning and TLC. The stand for this tank is in fairly decent condition. The bottom trim pieces need to be re-attached and I've been informed I have to paint it to match the decor of the house better. The tank, however.... is one of the nastiest I've dealt with. I was informed it has sat, un-cared for, for the last several months. The 4 fish got fed every time the man's wife would walk by the tank. I was shocked the fish survived going from that to the clean water of my tank, although, the 60-minute acclimation I did probably helped that.
Once we got it unloaded from the truck and into the garage. We tilted the tank onto its front so I could get the bulkheads removed. The tank itself had to be transported to my house while resting on furniture dollys and strapped in so it wouldn't move. There were 4 bulkheads to be removed, 2 1 inch, and 2 2 inch. None of which would budge using pliers. After using a multi-tool saw, a pipe wrench, a hack saw, some brute force, and no small amount of prayers, I was able to get the nuts removed from 2 of them, and break the other 2 into small enough pieces to push it out of the hole in the tank. I HIGHLY recommend NOT trying this at home. If not for the PVC bottom on the tank, I'm not convinced the tank wouldn't have given up on me.
- Progress! Yay
As it currently sits. The garage is full of crap that I have to sort through and clean. The tank itself is full of water and about 8 pounds of citric acid, as well as the return pumps and skimmer to circulate the water, to break down the organic material on the glass and make cleaning easier later this week. The stand is in pieces, waiting to be cleaned as well and then painted. 99% of the water from the sump is finally out, but I've got a long way to go with cleaning that (2 more pounds of citric acid, yay!). I do have some photos that I'll get posted tomorrow when I manage to upload them. I've historically been terrible at build threads and posting updates, so let's see if I can do better this time around.
