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rajdude's "house of horrors" tank!

15K views 86 replies 20 participants last post by  rajdude 
#1 ·
Hello everyone!
I just acquired a new tank, a nasty looking Craigslist special. When I brought it home my lovely wife was totally horrified by the looks of it!>:)
Hence the name of this thread!


Check out the photos below. It was used as a saltwater tank. I am planning to convert it to freshwater planted tank. I always wanted a tank with a sump setup, so this is like the ultra poor man's cheap Ferrari for me! Excited!! :grin2:

But, I gotta clean it first! Any cleaning tips for that nasty crusted algae on the weir?


Here is what it looked like, in the Craigslist listing:






By the way, it is a 75 gallon, not 90 gallon as the seller says in the CL listing.





Horrifying, right? Only a fool like me would go get it! >:)


Anyway, after bringing it home, it is sitting on the deck. Took these photos as I started to spray some water on it...





It has a "proper" Durso overflow!



Came with a sump



Protein skimmer, not sure if it is usable/working though. It may be useful later on......when I want to get Discus fish.




Came with a couple of pumps, I tried plugging them in, both seem to be dead


More soon!
 
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#2 ·
#3 ·
Congrats on the score! You don't need to worry about coraline algae containing palytoxins. That's a concern for when fragging the live animals, but I've never heard of any surviving dry. Mostly what you are up against is calcium based algae. It's a real shame the owner of this didn't at least clean the tank and give it a good wipe down when he broke it down. As for cleaning, it can be a beast getting caked on coraline off of glass. I generally use full strength vinegar soaked in a towel for an hour or two at a time. Just turn the side down you are working on and let it soak, it will eventually break up and release its grip. You want to be very careful not to scrub too hard because the shards of this stuff can scratch things up if you aren't careful. Muriatic acid might be needed if vinegar can't cut it.

I'd clean up the skimmer and put it on CL and recoup some of your spending. They aren't effective in freshwater, it's just too thin to get much of a skimmate.
 
#5 ·
if you put the vinegar into a spray bottle you can 'spray fix' kitchen towel sheets onto the vertical glass, (if you can steal an electric steamer from the kitchen while the wife is out too you can put that inside and cover the tank then power it up occasionally to humidify the air to delay the vinegar soaked sheets drying out )
 
#6 ·
Update

Thanks for the tips guys! I appreciate it!


Here is the latest status:
This morning I sprayed everything down with a garden hose. I was surprised that most of the gunk on the glass came off easily. Then I scrubbed it with a brush and now this is what it looks like:


Tank:




Sump:







Why is the weir double walled?




The problem child:



The skimmer...I think it is missing parts.




The overflow pipes setup
 
#7 · (Edited)
Vinegar treatment:

I soaked a towel in vinegar and wrapped it around the weir. So far, it doesn't look like it's going to free up or dissolve any of that buildup from the weir.
Maybe I should wrap the tank with a tarp and leave it overnight.



Yes vinegar worked well for the glass. I brushed neat vinegar, with a little bit of scrubbing most of the deposits came off. Now very little white spots are still left on glass ...



I brushed neat vinegar on the inside of the skimmer, then soaked the skimmer in a dilute solution. Hoping to get it reasonably clean.

 
#8 ·
Coming along nicely! Skimmer seems to be missing the pump, pump attachment and lid. Might be worth a message to the person you got the tank from to see if they have it still. Near worthless without, seeing as sourcing those would cost as much as a new mid-range skimmer. If that was an H&S or Bubble King, I would say otherwise. Let the vinegar sit for a long time, it never really stops working unless it dries or is spent. It will never eat through the glass, so even if it's 48 hours, it beats scrubbing it off and potentially scratching glass.
 
#9 ·
Thanks

I have the pump for the skimmer, it's shown in the bucket of water in the first post l. I plugged it in, doesn't work. It does have the air sucking mechanism attached to it.

Lid? Hmmmm, can you please check the photos of the skimmer in the second post above. Does it seem like the lid is there?

Shouldn't it have anything inside it? Like a mechanism or something?

This skimmer doesn't seem to have any marking on it. I was expecting a make and model somewhere on it.


Also, I wonder if vinegar will affect the tank's silicone.

Sent from my H8314 using Tapatalk
 
#15 · (Edited)
Yes, I am crazy! :grin2: and like my lovely wife loves to say, too cheap!
Money saved? I like to think so...it was 100 bucks for everything.



I was planning to drill my existing 60 gallon for an overflow. Just the overflow box I wanted is around 130 dollars. Sump, pump, plumbing etc would have costed much more...so I think this is a better bet. Plus I like this tank's dimensions and aspect ratio better.


PS: The cleaning (so far) was surprisingly easy. The tedious part is taking off the crusted coraline algae from the black plastic weir. :frown2:







Sent from my H8314 using Tapatalk
 
#16 ·
The double wall on overflow box is a high/low flow balanced design so water is pulled into all the slots on outer wall equally.

When you get tank clean set on garage floor or outside on a level surface, shim if needed and leak test for few days to make sure all the seems are solid and don’t burst. You don’t want that happening in your house.
 
#17 ·
The double wall on overflow box is a high/low flow balanced design so water is pulled into all the slots on outer wall equally.



When you get tank clean set on garage floor or outside on a level surface, shim if needed and leak test for few days to make sure all the seems are solid and don’t burst. You don’t want that happening in your house.
Thanks for this info on the overflow box, Dave. It's a curious design. I used to think that weirs are supposed to skim water from the surface of the tank, so that it stays clean of the buildup we sometimes see in our tanks.

Also I read that co2 setups benefit from water skimmers, I forgot what their point was though.

And yes, I do plan to set this tank up on it's stand in the garage for a few days. Wanna make 100% it doesn't leak. The seller insisted that it doesn't leak, but when I went to pick it up, I noticed the carpet under it was wet. I pointed that out to them, but didn't get a satisfactory answer.

Maybe the two bulkhead fittings leak. I do plan to change those washers/seals with brand new ones.

Sent from my H8314 using Tapatalk
 
#18 ·
When you get to water testing with pump float a little flake food in front of those lower slots and you’ll see it suck it and upswell in the slot sweep it up and over that inner wall rim.

We were building tanks with those type of overflows late 90’s early 2K era so they’ve been around for a while.

You basically need enough pump to fill all the slots with decent water flow. If you want to go with lower output pump it wouldn’t be hard to modify that inner wall but still get good surface extraction.
 
#19 ·
Clean tank!

All right folks! I got the tank and the overflow super clean. The towel soaked in vinegar got almost all of the overflow clean. It dissolved almost everything there into a toothpaste type thingy.


So I got excited and went out and bought some Muriatic acid for the internal baffle of the overflow...it still had tons of deposits. But the acid did it :grin2: Man it fizzes and releases the bond almost immediately. Now the overflow's inside is squeaky clean!









I have set it up in the garage to check for leaks. Check out the pics:


Filling it:



I cannot get rid of these smudges in the glass, presumably made by the wavemakers



and




Overflow looks pretty big after filling it with water


 
#20 · (Edited)
Bummer!

Uh! oh! Bad news...

I discovered some pretty obvious scratches. Looks like someone tried hard to take off something. Too bad the glass is scratched right in the middle of the viewing area. These were not obvious when I was cleaning the tank. Only after I filled water in it they became apparent. They are pretty visible when the tank is lighted up. I taped the background back, temporarily to see if I can live with the scratches...I guess I have no choice at this point :crying: They are hard to photograph....but pretty visible in person.


I'm pretty disappointed! :frown2::crying:

Check it out...





I do not think scratches on glass can be repaired or reduced, right?


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#22 ·
oh nooo, what a bummer!

yeah, I've googled it extensively and came up with the answer that polishing the glass was going be a fruitless effort. I have a scratch on the center of my tank as well and it's pretty deep since I can feel it with my finger nail. Several reef sites tried to suggest that using cerium oxide could get them out but it left a big hazy spot around the scratch and made it more visible.

To be honest it is a pretty nice tank, you've already put the effort into cleaning it and once you have the tank scaped and with fish the scratch shouldn't be super visible in the grand scheme of things.

sucks to have found it at this point but if it doesn't leak then I would move forward and keep setting up the tank.

Option b. would you consider plugging up the drilled holes/removing the overflow and turning the back glass into the main front glass?
you could set up the tank with filter pipes that come over the sides like normal?
 
#25 ·
#24 ·
Leak?

Thanks guys. I think I am going to keep moving on with this project. It is definitely not worth trying to fix the scratches...just like you said,....and I also read a lot of stores on the internet. As for using it back to front...well, the whole point of getting this tank (personally speaking) was the built in overflow.
I think I can live with the scratches for now.


But wait! Is this a leak?

For two days, I have been watching a dark, slightly damp patch at the corner, in the wood...labelled as "1" in the photo. When I used to touch it, it felt damp. No drips on the floor, it did not spread, but that area stayed dark and damp. Only today I notice that it has dried up.



I do see a tiny dark area ..labelled as "2" . But I cannot determine if "2" is damp today. Maybe it is merely coloring of the wood.


Would it take two days for a wet area to dry out in a hot garage?


 
#27 ·
Well, it has those bulkhead fittings jutting out from the bottom of the tank. Those prevent it from being setup on a flat area, like the floor.



I wonder if I could just remove those fittings and not fill it all the way up...........so the inside of the overflow stays dry.......that may allow me to set it up on the garage floor......right?
 
#28 · (Edited)
update

Wow, about one and a half month has passed? Too many things to do, too little time. Hence progress on this project is rather slow.
Here is an update:


I managed to finish painting the cabinet and tank's trim white.


Along the way, found some water damage to the bottom of the cabinet. Replaced that plywood with solid wood. Then scraped and filled in the other water damage. Finally primed and painted it. Used Rustoleum Epoxy for appliances. Here are some pics













Makeshift paint booth in garage.....bad idea! got over spray even 15 feet away!



Cabinet's photo, I think this was taken before the final coat.



I sprayed the trim white, this looks good to me! Sooo much better than than old fashioned fake oak wood finish.

 
#30 ·
A little update

Hello world!


here is an update on this project.


I spent a couple of weeks designing and building the sump. There is a seperate thread about that, seen here:
https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/9-equipment/1309419-please-help-design-rebuild-sump.html


Now I am doing the plumbing. Here is what I had planned for:





The PVC parts were bought from FlexPVC online. The box was big, heavy and expensive to ship like $35 shipping!




There are a lot of small things which need to be done. Like the glass canopies wont fit, too small. So I removed the original middle support and installed some glass strips, like this.



Here is how the canopy now sits on the top:



Then I installed the black background. It was surprisingly easy to do. Hopefully the massive, ugly overflow box will blend into the background.




I have been plumbing it for the past 2-3 days. Here is what the whole thing looks like today. Still gotta do the vertical plumbing parts. Off to do that now...



PS: I know, I know......too many elbows there! But I was out of space. Needed to leave space for CO2 cylinder on the right side and needed enough length for the manifold. Plus, if I moved the sump all the way to the right, the durso drain wont fit easily with 45 degree PVC pipe fittings. More details on all those thoughts later.
 
#31 · (Edited)
Plumbing done!

Ok folks, here are some photos of my plumbing work. There is a manifold which will be connected to the output of the return pump. There are two outputs in the manifold. Both outputs have unionized ball valves in them, making it easier to control the water flow in each output. The third valve is to cut off water flow back fr They will be used for:


1. Moving the moving media
(instead of using an air stone)


2. Providing water flow through an inline CO2 diffuser


Overall view:



Close up view from right side:




Close up view from left side:




Did some testing on the sump and its pump. Details in the sump build thread here:
https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/...-help-design-rebuild-sump-2.html#post11361139


Still pending tasks:



  1. Still waiting on the soft silicone tubing to arrive. It will connect the pump to PVC pipe (via barbs). That will insulate the PVC pipe from the pump's vibrations. Those PVC fittings are also not glued in, I may need to adjust lengths.
  2. The U shaped exit using PVC fittings (for accommodating the CO2 diffuser) are also not glued in, I may need to adjust lengths. Will be done on the day this tank goes into production.
  3. The Durso drain's drain pipe's PVC fittings are not currently glued in. Gotta experiment with that. I heard a lot of noise the last time I tried it, in the original setup. Was thinking of drilling holes but I may want to start with just taking off the 2 end caps in the vertical drain pipe. Hoping that by the time water leaves the bottom of that tube, the air bubbles will rise and exit through the tube on top of that 45 degrees Y fitting. I saw that suggestion somewhere on the internet.
 
#32 ·
another update

Wow, time flies! Almost a month has passed from the last update I posted here?

Well, here is another update...


I have been working off and on on this project. Progress is very slow :-(
Here is what was done:

  1. Installed some power strips. They have all outlets switched. Pretty expensive at $30 each.
  2. Added wire management channels to keep all wiring neat and tidy.
  3. Installed LED light strips on the inside of the cabinet.
  4. Found a nice place for the LED light switch, it fits well behind the door. And hidden when the door is closed.
  5. Added some adjustable shelves.
  6. And finally, installed the doors back on. They have nice soft close Blum hinges now.

Check out the photos below.
Our beloved doggie was very curious about what is going on, while I was taking the photos.

Completed cabinet:



Lit up interior:



Showing LED strip lights



Switched power strips and wire management



Shelves



Light switch





Still pending tasks:



  1. Build light stand
  2. Aquascaping design
  3. RO water setup
  4. Plumbing for AWC+ATO
  5. Fire it all up!
 
#34 ·
Thank you and yes, I totally agree with you. I am the same, I hate these rims....I drool over rimless tanks big time! :grin2:
For this project, the tank was cheap, it was there. Now I am thinking, if it all goes really well, I may want to replace this tank one day, with a rimless. Of course that may get expensive real fast. But then again, I have spent a TON of money on this project.



By the way, the inspiration for this project is here:


https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/...planted-tank-adventurama-21.html#post11328119


Tank-lights-cabinet...wow....I love that look!


Mine would be a super poor man's version of that.
 
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