Acrylic Tank "salvage"

[BiggTexx]

I ran across an aquarium buried under some debris in an old barn (rocking chair, lawn furniture cushions, old clothes, etc.). It appears to be a bonded acrylic aquarium with Euro bracing (?), almost exactly as shown further below in the thread (although I am not able to verify the openings on top, it appeared to be slightly narrower and possibly full length, not sectioned into two pieces). My eyes lit up and I was basically told "...if you can get it out, you can have it."
 
I wasn't able to take any exact measurements, but I was able to get a rough estimate and came up with 72" x 18" x 20" dimension and then I found this image online. Appears to be what is called a 110X or a 125L (I have seen the same dimensions referred to differently), basically meaning between 110 and 125 gallons.
 

 
 
Now, the fun part will be trying to get it out and lugging it home, but before I go through all of the hassle, I started to wonder:
 

1. What if it is cracked/leaking? Are acrylic tanks easier or harder to repair than glass?
2. The panels appear to be milky white in color (glazed?). Now, hopefully that is just from sitting out unattended for over 10 years (best guess) and would clean right up; but could this be a potential "no deal" situation? Quick searches online show that I can use vinegar or a 1:5 bleach and water solution to try and clean it. Do you have any suggestions fr cleaning acrylic without having to find commercial acrylic polish? (I can always polish it later if needed).
3. Besides a basic leak test, is there anything else I can do to test the strength of the aquarium? 

 
I took a few low-quality pictures while I was there, but haven't been able to upload them yet. If I get a chance I will update the thread as I can.

 

[DrRob]

Acrylic can be polished, some plastics can also UV degrade, depending a lot on the manufacturing process of the acrylic. If it's degraded then you've not got a great deal of hope in getting it sorted, if it's fine surface crazing that's caused the milky white look then you can polish it out.
 
You can get acrylic bonding agents, they set well. They're not cheap but they're not insanely priced, so if it does have a leak it's possible to rebond them, just might not look too pretty if it's somwhere visible.

 

[BiggTexx]

Thanks DrRob, that does give me some hope...
 
The best part is that this barn is on the property next to mine, so just a short jog on the ATV gets me back and forth with little effort. I managed to get a path cleared to the tank, just need to work on getting the rest of the stuff away from it, but I am almost there!  And boy is it hot up there!! Have you ever noticed how much stuff old country folks tend to hoard? I bet I moved no less than 40 boxes of old NatGeo magazines (moisture damaged), an antique washing machine (ceramic tub with ringer), one of the first shop vacs ever invented. I am not sure why the tank got buried under all this vintage 'trash', but I am still excited to dig through all the junk to get it out. Next up is removing the broken down screen door, lattice panels, rocking chair... 
 
Now that I am getting closer, it appears to be only 60" long, but that still makes it a decent "free" 100 gallon tank if I can clean it up enough for what I am planning on doing with it.
 

 

[DrRob]

It could, of course, simply be a layer of dust and scale. Might just wipe clean.

 

[Ch4rlie]

It could, of course, simply be a layer of dust and scale. Might just wipe clean.

 
Lets hope its this one
 
Am intrigued to see how this turn out, hope its in good condition and no leaks etc
 
Good Luck

 

[BiggTexx]

Well, it took longer than I thought to get this tank uncovered and out of the barn, but I finally did it! Once I got all of the junk out of the way, I saw another mess I had to clean up... the tank was full of junk as well! Old hunting clothes, a tarp, an old door rug and what appeared to be the remains of a litter of kittens. Wow, I have some cleaning to do!

Outside and starting to get the junk out of it:


Hauled it over to the house on a hand truck and finally started to wash it off:


From what I can tell right now, scratches are minor and the tank appears to be in really good shape (considering how I found it).

Dimensions are 60"L x 18"W x 20" tall. 100 gallons.

It just started raining, so I think I gave to cali it a day now

How do you like that background?

 

[BiggTexx]

Well, it is still raining, but I couldn't just sit around and wait for it to pass. Out to the lawn shed!
 
And then there is the moment you realize the background was siliconed to the inside of the tank... And not just a little bit of silicone, it looks like an entire tube was used!
 

 
Luckily enough it seems to be coming off relatively easy. I know silicone is not really meant for acrylic, so a bit of rubbing with a damp cloth seems to be doing the trick. Now if the carpal tunnel would just let me hold the rag long enough to get this done!

 

[Ch4rlie]

Looks good and at the amount of silicon used just for a background poster!
 
Glad that stuff appears to be coming off relatively easily. Though carpel tunel syndrome is annoying, I had that for a while, went away of its own accord
 
Tank gonna be a good one I reckon and seems to be well worth the efforts its taken so far to get this out of a junk filled barn

 

[daizeUK]

Awww were there dead kittens in it?
Glad you're getting a good sized free tank though!

 

[BiggTexx]

Awww were there dead kittens in it?

Well, let's just say there was skeletal remains of kittens...
 
For now, I have done a diluted bleach soak, 4 full rinses and then washed down with vinegar to cut the bleach and rinsed 4 more times.  Doing a full air-dry today and will move on to setup this week!

 

[BiggTexx]

Got a chance to break from work today and started picking up some supplies.
 
Since this is going to be an outside tank, I am going to put together a quick base made of cinder blocks and pine furring (as a platform of sorts).
 
Once I get this setup, I will start with laying ceiling grids in the base of the aquarium to support the river rocks I plan to use. I think I will also be using the ceiling grid to create a "background" of sorts, where plants and algae are allowed to accumulate, creating a type of plant/moss wall. (this is just an idea, it may not work out). I think the hardest part is going to be getting the ceiling grids into the tank with such narrow openings...
 
I also picked up a 300 gph  pond filter/aerator combo, as well as some additional filter media to stuff in the filter box. If the rain holds off this evening, I should be able to grab some photos.

 

[BiggTexx]

Another rainy afternoon, but we managed to get some work accomplished. The tank is now set in place, zeo-sand rinsed (that was the worst experience I ever had) and some river rocks put in.

My daughter is currently out on summer break, so she has been "supervising" the entire process so far and is always ready and willing to get her hands wet or throw out an idea. Bonding over a fish tank, what could be better?

Since she has been so involved in this tank, I decided she should have a little freedom with scaping the tank. This is not intended to be a show quality tank by any means, so why not let her have fun?

She is already wanting to change the rocks around but we will see how it progresses once we start adding plants.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Sounds great
 
 

My daughter is currently out on summer break, so she has been "supervising" the entire process so far and is always ready and willing to get her hands wet or throw out an idea. Bonding over a fish tank, what could be better?

 
love this

 

[LyraGuppi]

Skeletal....remains...
 
Looks good so far!

 

[BiggTexx]

Quick pic of some scaping she started on.