Monster tank? (1 Viewer)

[KarenHorn]

Once again I'm asking for everyone's input. The 75g deal fell through and we went to look at an older tank with the dimensions of 78x21x24. It has a brass frame and a brass hood with lights that work. It has a decent stand and an Oceanic wet/dry filter. The person is selling the whole thing is going for $150 with no guarantees. They were given it and have never set it up. I felt like for that price it would be worth the risk. Also, how do you calculate the exact gallons that it would hold?

 

[darrin]

brass= metal... metal +saltwater+inverts=bad news..


duuno if you want to use that tank for saltwater... i know metal of any sort in a reef tank is really bad..

 

[KarenHorn]

Would that apply if it's just a frame on the outside? There's no metal that would actually touch the water.

 

[HolyBanana]

sounds like a 150 G tank. Then again I could be wrong.

 

[ScubaMedic]

It's a 170.

http://www.exotictropicals.com/encyclo/information/calculate.htm

 

[Guest]

Sounds like a good deal. I would probably get rid of the hood and maybe tear off the brass trim if it came off easily. I don't think there's much risk of it contaminating the water if there's no contact, but I think that the brass would be in pretty bad shape in no time with all the water you'll spill/drip on it doing maintenance.

BTW, to calculate volume, it's very easy - multiply the length, width, and height together (in inches) and divide the total by 231.

 

[KarenHorn]

Thank you for the calculations! I was wondering how to do that :? I had already planned on getting rid of the hood because I'll want to upgrade the lighting, but was unsure if the brass around the tank was part of the integrity of the tank. In otherwords, when I put water in it will it fall apart if the brass frame is missing?

 

[aqua-nut]

Karen, if the tank leaks (what is called a "holiday"), it's easy to fix.

Put the tank in your garage and fill it up to the very top to see if it leaks. If it does, let it sit there until it stops and you'll know where the leak is. If it stops half way down, you have a pinhole leak in one of the four sides. If it drains the whole thing, you have a leak in the bottom.

If you find you have a leak of any kind anywhere, I'd suggest using a sharp razor blade and cut out ALL the silicone inside the tank. Clean the glass so it's nice and clean, being careful of which chemicals you use...

Then go to home depot and get a couple tubes of Clear Silicone I. Silicone II has a anti-mildew additive that will kill your efforts. Put a generous amount of it along the bottom seams and run your finger through it to get it in there good. Them do all four sides vertically.

You'd be surprised how easy this is to do. I had some glass partitions made for a 55 I had lying around my warehouse area and turned it into an eco-sump. It's really easy, and when you keep your head in the tank while applying the silicone you'll get a slight buzz. Be sure to play some vintage Zepplin while working on this weekend project.

 

[Brad]

I always preferred Pink Floyd or Bob Marley to Zepplin. JMO

 

[Guest]

I always preferred Pink Floyd or Bob Marley to Zepplin. JMO

Floyd > Zeppelin 8)

 

[Guest]

yea man, Obscured by Clouds. i loved to lay down and nap to that.

 

[ScubaMedic]

Pink Floyd and Counting Crows when I sealed my 90.

 

[Guest]

Calculating gallons

To convert tank measurements to gallons:

Length (in.) X width (in.) X height (in.)/231 cubic inches/per gallon = gallons

Or

Measure the length, height and depth (in inches) and divide by 231 to give you the number of gallons of the tank.

 

[KarenHorn]

Well, I did it. We made 2 trips down to the Medical Center and picked it up. As it turns out it wasn't brass around the tank, but brass colored plastic. Needless to say I was thrilled. The hood is still metal so it's getting tossed. The stand needs some help so my better half will be working on that. It came with an Oceanic sump, but we'll need to buy a pump for it. I'm pretty sure it was last used as a freshwater tank since an air pump was included.

The glass is scratched a bit on one end. Is there a way to polish the scratches. There's also a couple of nicks in the glass on the outside. It's purely asthetic, but I'd like to fix that too if possible.

All in all it needs a bit of work, but hey a 170g with stand for $150 I can't complain.

 

[Guest]

new tank

Karen and Karen,

Congratulations on your new BIG tank!

Mike

 

[KarenHorn]

Thanks Mike! Some how our idea of starting with a 55g just "grew" LOL

 

[Guest]

There is no such thing as too big. Congrats on the find. Great deal. I had to completely break down my "Free" 200 gallon I got from my boss. That was a pain. You can sometimes find leaks by visual examination of the seal joints. Look for bubbles or cloudy places where the glass panels join together.

Have you decided on Fish only or a Reef system?

 

[KarenHorn]

Thanks for the tip! We've decided to go FOWLR for now and down the road as we can afford better lighting we'll do mini reef. Our boys are all excited now that they can each pick out a fish. Before I was telling them we might not have enough room for what they wanted

 

[Guest]

Even though it will be 4-6 weeks before you can start adding fish, you might want to go ahead and make a list of the fish you want and post it here. Then we can make suggestions on compatibility and in what order to add them.

Also, think about if you want to convert this tank to a reef later, or maybe setup a separate smaller tank for your reef. The reason to consider this now is because if you will eventually converting this tank to a reef, you want to avoid adding any non-reefsafe fish (unless you want to get rid of them later). Unfortunately, that means no triggers, puffers, angelfish, or butterflies, which are the groups that tend to be some of the neatest fish for larger tanks, but will be a problem if you convert to a reef later.