NOooooooooo!
I'd leave it exactly like it is and just admire it for its pristine condition.
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Joel's 175 Gallon Re-build
- Thread starter jkapit
- Start date
NOooooooooo!
I'd leave it exactly like it is and just admire it for its pristine condition.
LOL! That's one way to never have aptaisia and Dino again!!
Next up is the stand and canopy refresh/touch up. Going to sand down the water damaged areas in the stand and top of the canopy re-stain and clear coat the areas. Then reinstall the new gear. Mainly installing the Apex for lighting control, fish feeding, and Tunze power head control.
Since I have a basement sump, not too much equipment in the stand but I still managed to make a mess out of it!! Will tidy it up when I put it all back together.
Before
Now, before I start to refinish it.
Since I have a basement sump, not too much equipment in the stand but I still managed to make a mess out of it!! Will tidy it up when I put it all back together.
Before
Now, before I start to refinish it.
Replaced the background with one from bluelifeusa.com
It's like an automotive vinyl wrap. Wet the back of the tank with water/soap solution. Peel the backing off the vinyl wrap and spray it down with the water/soap solution as well. Once placed on the back of the tank you squeegee the air bubble out and let it dry. Came out great and I recommend this product.
It's like an automotive vinyl wrap. Wet the back of the tank with water/soap solution. Peel the backing off the vinyl wrap and spray it down with the water/soap solution as well. Once placed on the back of the tank you squeegee the air bubble out and let it dry. Came out great and I recommend this product.
Getting close. Hard to believe it was so much work to take a tank down and start over. I'm optimistic it will be all worth it.
I think it's going to turn out great....so far it looks awesome
Looks great man
The project continues. When I drained my tank I noticed the front seams were compromised by algae growing into the seams. I asked a number of people for advice and watched a few repair videos and decide to take the following approach to repair the tank. Also, the top plastic braces are broken, so going to repair them as well.
I like my setup, especially the bow front tank and did not want to replace it. I figure I'll be in my house another 10 years so if it could be repaired I could get another 10 years out of it, Otherwise I would need a custom tank to fit my stand which would run $4k plus or get a rectangular stand and tank from one of the local shops, but would only go this route if I could not repair the tank.
So the following posts show some info on how I went about fixing the tank.
First off here are the seams.
I watched a video from Carl's aquariums where he installed a new seam inside the tank. So I went about trying to get glass stick beveled to the angle of the front corner, but no one would bevel the glass. So I bought some glass pieces cut by glasscaages.com and decided to bevel the glass myself. They did a nice job cutting and shipping the glass at a reasonable cost.
here are pictures of the glass pieces I need to fix the tank...
Now I needed to bevel the rods to fit flush into the front corner of the aquarium. I bought a cheap wet tile saw from harbor freight and that did the job. Cuts glass like butter.
Came out pretty good, beveled glass for the front seams and curved pieces for the top braces....
I like my setup, especially the bow front tank and did not want to replace it. I figure I'll be in my house another 10 years so if it could be repaired I could get another 10 years out of it, Otherwise I would need a custom tank to fit my stand which would run $4k plus or get a rectangular stand and tank from one of the local shops, but would only go this route if I could not repair the tank.
So the following posts show some info on how I went about fixing the tank.
First off here are the seams.
I watched a video from Carl's aquariums where he installed a new seam inside the tank. So I went about trying to get glass stick beveled to the angle of the front corner, but no one would bevel the glass. So I bought some glass pieces cut by glasscaages.com and decided to bevel the glass myself. They did a nice job cutting and shipping the glass at a reasonable cost.
here are pictures of the glass pieces I need to fix the tank...
Now I needed to bevel the rods to fit flush into the front corner of the aquarium. I bought a cheap wet tile saw from harbor freight and that did the job. Cuts glass like butter.
Came out pretty good, beveled glass for the front seams and curved pieces for the top braces....
Time to glue the new seams in...
Putting in a clear seal next to the overflow and black seal for the front seams.
Masked up the area...
Clear silicone goes on..
Smooth it out and take the tape off....came out nice
Hers is a picture of the front glass rod fitted into the front seam..
Now the black RTV Silicone
Now install and clamp the front glass rod into the seam...
Need to leave it clamped for a couple days then silicone in the top braces.
All in all I am happy with my decision to fix the tank rather than get a new one. Probably spent under $150 repairing it vs. buying a new tank. That is as long as it holds together!
Putting in a clear seal next to the overflow and black seal for the front seams.
Masked up the area...
Clear silicone goes on..
Smooth it out and take the tape off....came out nice
Hers is a picture of the front glass rod fitted into the front seam..
Now the black RTV Silicone
Now install and clamp the front glass rod into the seam...
Need to leave it clamped for a couple days then silicone in the top braces.
All in all I am happy with my decision to fix the tank rather than get a new one. Probably spent under $150 repairing it vs. buying a new tank. That is as long as it holds together!
Next up, cleaned up my halide/VHO lighting system. Was thinking about going LED, but figured it would be very expensive due to this being a 6 foot tank so I stocked up on some bulbs from Hamilton lighting for the next 24 month, they had a good sale on 20,000K 250 Watt bulbs so going to go with what I have for now and revisit in a couple years.
First thing I wanted to do is replace the exhaust fans. The original unit had two AC fans and it sounded like a helicopter was taking off!! Way too loud so installed two 1200 RPM DC fans which were much quieter. Since they have been running for about 8 years I figure I'd swap them out for some new ones. Better safe than sorry. Turns out these new fans with liquid bearing are even quieter than what I was running so turned out good.
Here is an old S-Flex fan...
Here is the new Cougar fan, very quiet....
This fixture also uses 6ft VHO bulb for the actinic, I've been using a 454nm Bulb which is a very blue bulb which I like for dawn and dusk. I've used more purple bulbs which show the iridescent colors a bit better but they don't light the tank up much so I went with the 454 which to me looks great with the halides off.
Put it all back together, fans working great but looks like the VHO ballast is dead. I opened the case up and saw the model number of the ballast and ordered a new one for about $45. Not too bad. Just a little more work.
Here is the the tank fired up with the three 20K Halides, no actinic until I get the ballast replaced. Looking good...
First thing I wanted to do is replace the exhaust fans. The original unit had two AC fans and it sounded like a helicopter was taking off!! Way too loud so installed two 1200 RPM DC fans which were much quieter. Since they have been running for about 8 years I figure I'd swap them out for some new ones. Better safe than sorry. Turns out these new fans with liquid bearing are even quieter than what I was running so turned out good.
Here is an old S-Flex fan...
Here is the new Cougar fan, very quiet....
This fixture also uses 6ft VHO bulb for the actinic, I've been using a 454nm Bulb which is a very blue bulb which I like for dawn and dusk. I've used more purple bulbs which show the iridescent colors a bit better but they don't light the tank up much so I went with the 454 which to me looks great with the halides off.
Put it all back together, fans working great but looks like the VHO ballast is dead. I opened the case up and saw the model number of the ballast and ordered a new one for about $45. Not too bad. Just a little more work.
Here is the the tank fired up with the three 20K Halides, no actinic until I get the ballast replaced. Looking good...
I also had a chance to install the electronics back into the cabinet this weekend. Installed my remote Apex power bar, VDM module to control my 4 Tunze Stream Pumps, SEA Swirls, and Apex Par Meter Module, hallide ballasts, VHO Balast, and UV Unit and Balast, and a battery backup for one of the power heads. Tried to keep it neat, but still a ton of wires.
The stand with the old setup. Had a Tunze controller on the right door and lots of timers for the lights.
The new stand...Added the Apex and tried to tidy things up....
The remote Apex power bar, hooked up to the power bar will be the three halide lights, actinic lights, UV and the LED moonlights. The Tunze, seaswirls, canopy fans will all be on the other power bars since they really don't need to be monitored or switched.
The stand with the old setup. Had a Tunze controller on the right door and lots of timers for the lights.
The new stand...Added the Apex and tried to tidy things up....
The remote Apex power bar, hooked up to the power bar will be the three halide lights, actinic lights, UV and the LED moonlights. The Tunze, seaswirls, canopy fans will all be on the other power bars since they really don't need to be monitored or switched.
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Coming along nicely
Well, I am not really sure yet since this is the first time. It turns out that since I am now using the Apex controller for the Tunze it won't work the way I planned. If I was still using the Tunze Multi-Controller it would have worked fine, but with the Apex, I will need to find a way to power the Apex unit and the VDM module during an outage.
At this point I need to put a little more thought into how to approach it.