Possible 4Ft Tank!

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Yo!

After driving through a deprived area of brum today (there all deprived! Lol) I noticed an old glass tank sitting in someones front garden ready to be chucked and being as cheeky as I am I decided to pull over an knock on the dudes door. 2 min later it was in the back of my van.
Not sure how many gallons it holds as I ain't worked it out yet but it's an odd shape. The dimensions are 4x2x3ft. Going by the size and shape I believe it might have been an old vivarium but can't be sure.
I don't know what he kept in there but what ever it was it must've had IBS!

The tank is now in my garage full of water and I will check it in the morn to see if it's lost any. If it hasn't then I'm thinking of giving it a good scrub, rig up my metal halide, throw some sand in and salty water and once things have settled, start transporting my live rock over and eventually my fish.
I can then sell my nano and all the crap that comes with it on fleabay and use that to buy a decent skimmer and light unit.

I want to keep this as cheap as poss for now as I've spent a fortune on my nano and the missus would go spare if I cained the old wallet again.
I was thinking more than required amount of LR, very high amount of flow and a good HOB type skimmer.
I might drop my old fluval internal filter and just run rowaphos and carbon in there.

Is it worth it do you think?

I would sump it or whack an external on eventually. Probably a diy sump using a container and use a piece of Perspex I have to baffle it but it won't be yet.

I'd be ok for now with just a skimmer, providing I do regular wc and keep the stock level down or do any of you think otherwise.

I do have a plan for my cabinet using an old steel racking system and using some nice carved wooden panels with magnetic strips on the inside for easy removal for maintenance.

Overall I reckon I could get all this up running for under £100 if I get to sell my nano as I already have most the stuff in my garage.
 
what we gonna do with you :lol:

are you not gonna use the same skimmer? if not just keep up with weekly w/c as i will do. But i will try keep low stock till i manage to get one too. so you best not over stock like usual!
 
Sounds goos mate :good: chuffed for you, just make sure you consider all the options before rigging it up and wishing you'd done something different.

Is it an option to look into getting it drilled before you start on anything, for a few quid of plumbing and a bit of DIY it would give you more volume, more choice and easier maintenance?
 
Thanks for the replies guys. The nano skimmer simply wouldn't be good enough to filter this size tank plus I want a deltec as everyone raves about them.
Sump wise I might drill the holes ready and then fit some compression valves so I can sump it at any time once the tank is running.

Unfortunatly I've just been go check the tank and the water level has dropped and the one corner of the tank the seal is soaking wet so Ive drained it completely and when I get chance I'll re seal it all.

I'll have to build a weir also I think so might as well do it all at the same time.

One thing for sure, I'm not starting this project until I have absolutely everything I need.

Once I've got everything I want to be able to pick a day and say that's the day my tank WILL be setup and running.

All depends on wether I can repair this seal or not tho.

What's the best stuff go use?
 
What's the best stuff go use?

That's a pain.

How about that green and yellow tape you love so much?

I used an aquarium silicone that I bought from ebay but I know others who say you can use any normal silicone as long as it has no fungicides.
 
What's the best stuff go use?

That's a pain.

How about that green and yellow tape you love so much?

I used an aquarium silicone that I bought from ebay but I know others who say you can use any normal silicone as long as it has no fungicides.

Sorry I have no green and yellow tape as I used it all up, sending some dogdy package with some lumps of rock in to some dude down south. :hey:
 
Nice one woody!!!!! U lucky mo fo!

Cheers bud! I might need some luck to get it sealed properly!

Ideally I would have preferred a 6 footer so I can keep tangs so not sure if I'm wasting my time with it tbh. Yes I can keep more fish but it's tangs that I really want and was the only reason for me planning an upgrade originally. In my eyes I'm not really gaining anything as I'm happy with my nano.

Still I can't complain!...........................it was free! Lol

But it is a complete mess!

I would take a pic but it's just a filthy glass box! :lol:
 
when you cleam it up i expect many photo's!

I want a 6ft for a regal too! You can still keep smaller tangs though dependant on the volume?? have you worked it out yet?
 
Wow! Even with leak repair that'll surely be well worth it. ~150 UK gallons?

Just a thought since it sounds like it was a reptile tank or something; do you know if the bottom is tempered? I have heard that tanks with untempered sides exist on the other side of the pond (they seem to be virtually non-existent here, as everything has a big ol' "do not drill" warning slapped on it), but I recall in the past reading some stuff about proecting the bottom with a bit of something between it and rocks what it's made out of. Might be a total non-issue too, as I was never sure how much to trust what I was reading in that regard. Maybe somebody can straighten me out on that.
 
I'm gonna knock on the door of the previous owner today and see if I can find out any background info on it.

I've just noticed that the corner that leaks has a lot more silicone on it than the other corners. I've got a sneaky suspicion that this tank has had problems in the past.
 
Well, what a complete waste of time that was!

There I was getting my hopes up, starting to plan how I was gonna go about get bits and pieces to get it up an running and after speaking with the previous owner find out that the muppet built it himself out of normal glass. He used his own cheap nasty silicone to keep it all held together and had persistent problems with it in terms of leaks, always from that one corner. Now I know why there was a ton of silicon on it.

He used to keep coldwater fish in there but was continuously repairing it and topping up the water weekly hence why he had built a pond in his garden and chucked this 4ft square turd!

To be honest, looking at the state of his pigeon hole of a house I think he was an avid DIYer but not a particularly good one.

All this tank is good for really is to fill it with pond lining as use it as a possible future sump/refugium but I wouldn't trust it full of water.

Looks like it's back to the nano then! Lol

I do apologise to the people that posted in this topic and apologise for the time wasted.
 
Ahh no Woody! Im gutted for ya!! :sad:

There's always that 6fter in the future though! :fun:
 

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