5 Feet, 110 Gallons of Fun

[Llorgon]

The tank came out looking awesome! How long did it take to do all the sanding? I bet doing the inside and the corners were a pain.


I like your stand design. Having the extra space at the front of the stand will be nice. I had a old freshwater tank with a similar stand and I found it helpful to be able to just put something down on the stand when working on it.



Let me know how you like the ice cap sump. I have a 20 gallon tank as a sump for my 75 gallon and it's a real pain to work with. I have been thinking of going with a pre made one when I set it up again. Where did you get it from?

[cvrle1]

I spread it out around 1 month or so, but I only did few hours a day, and not every day. I would say each grit took 2-3 hours to do, so about 10-12 for sanding. For buffing, 3-4 hours per Novus, so around 8 hours. Total I guess around 20 hours +- few

I got that sump from Coralvue Outlet eBay store. I was going to build my own out of 40g breeder, and figured tank + baffle kit would be around $200. I saw 36xl sump for $275, as manufacturer mucked up and used some sort of yellow glue in few seams. Because of that they couldnt sell it through regular store at regular price. I figured for $75 extra I may as well get much nicer and bigger sump, and not mess around with building my own.

[LifeIsGreat]

Wow, great work! I did a bit of car buffing when I was in high school so I know how hard it is to get a nice polish. Waxing the outside of the tank might get the clarity up a bit too, and hide the buffing swirls, just don't do the inside due to the chemicals.

[bauder1986]

Man this tank is going to be stellar! I'm looking forward to the next few months of this!

[cvrle1]

Originally Posted by LifeIsGreat

Wow, great work! I did a bit of car buffing when I was in high school so I know how hard it is to get a nice polish. Waxing the outside of the tank might get the clarity up a bit too, and hide the buffing swirls, just don't do the inside due to the chemicals.

Truth be told I couldnt see swirl marks from buffing. I was using Dual Action polisher for it, so maybe that helped. I think that once water goes in, it will be crystal clear. When I got it, back was horribly cloudy, but it wasnt visible with water in it at all. Will have to wash it out with bleach/water mix, to get all novus residue out, so will see how it will look at that time as well.

Originally Posted by bauder1986

Man this tank is going to be stellar! I'm looking forward to the next few months of this!

Hope you are right haha. It will be slow and steady sort of a build I hope. I am doing this in my townhouse garage, so it is cold in there now. I cant spend as much time as I would have during the summer. May have to fire up a heater to extend some work hours. With garage getting cold, I may only have 6 months timeframe to run QT tanks as well, as I am not sure if heaters will be able to keep water at correct temp when garage will be at like 0C during winter.

[bauder1986]

Originally Posted by cvrle1

Hope you are right haha. It will be slow and steady sort of a build I hope. I am doing this in my townhouse garage, so it is cold in there now. I cant spend as much time as I would have during the summer. May have to fire up a heater to extend some work hours. With garage getting cold, I may only have 6 months timeframe to run QT tanks as well, as I am not sure if heaters will be able to keep water at correct temp when garage will be at like 0C during winter.

Hmm....you should test it out. Put a big ass heater inside of a Rubbermaid with good circulation and a temp monitor. See if the heater and water flow can keep up to the cold temps. I'm thinking maybe at least 600 watts to 20 gallons of water to be sure. If that doesn't work quite well enough then entertain insulating the bottom and sides of the tank/container with styrofoam to trap the heat.

[cvrle1]

In all honesty I think it may be a blessing in disguise, as it will force me to take things slow, and not add a lot all at once. It would give me 6 months or so after putting things in to leave it be, monitor and see how things go before I can add more.Of course that is just in my head, and when push comes to shove it may all go down the drain and I run QT tanks 365 days a year

[bauder1986]

Originally Posted by cvrle1

In all honesty I think it may be a blessing in disguise, as it will force me to take things slow, and not add a lot all at once. It would give me 6 months or so after putting things in to leave it be, monitor and see how things go before I can add more.Of course that is just in my head, and when push comes to shove it may all go down the drain and I run QT tanks 365 days a year

If you can be that patient then you have one up from me. I'm not as patient haha. Where there is a will there is a way I say.