120 Gallon Tank Restoration

[ray0266]

Three weeks ago I picked up a 120 gallon tank at a great price. It came with a stand, canopy, sump, 2 pumps and a SCWD. The tank had lots of scratches, the stand and canopy were starting to rust, and the piping was patched up pretty good. I decided to restore the tank and spent the last three weeks doing so.
Here are some pics as I went along. I will post more pictures once the tank is completely done.

Before...

During Retoration...

And Finally After...

 

[jjk_reef00]

Wow looks great.
Can't see it that well but looks like all/most of the scratches are gone.
What did you use?
What procedures did you take (type of sand paper etc...)?

I have to buff an old tank soon so any tips would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ray0266]

Hi, I used a kit called Rainbow Lifeguard Acrylic Scratch Removal Kit 72000 (same stuff used in the aircraft industry to remove scratches from windows). It comes with 8 grades, from 1500 to 12000 and then a polish (the haziness u see is the final polish which just needs to be wiped down). u can use the polish on the outside only, if u are going to use it under water. Some of my scratches were too deep so I started with a 600 grade and moved to 1000 and so on. As I mentioned, this kit can be used under water as well. I know some people have used it on a stocked tank with no problems. But I have to warn you, it takes a lot of time and patience to achieve the maximum clarity. If you are going to use the kit under water, u can also use an inlet of a canister filter next to the place you are sanding to suck up all the dusty water. In that way the water won’t get cloudy.

 

[philblumenfeld]

Great Job!

 

[ynnhoj86]

wowzer! that looks good dude! ya more pics please lol

 

[ray0266]

thank you guys...

 

[ray0266]

Update,
Ok, here is some more pics for u guys. My canopy and MH lights are going up tomorrow. I am also adding 2 power heads and a third external pump to get more water movement.
Today I found a small scratch on the inside of the tank and had to get rid of (not sure how I missed it). The water got a bit cloudy but my magnum canister filter running next to the place I was working on, took care of most acrylic dust and everything stayed open. Most of the LR is from my 55 gal tank (I never let them hit the air while transporting). My sand was in a tub with SW and a power head for a while. All water parameters are real good and everything seems to be fine.
Next week, I will be doing the wood trimming

 

[ynnhoj86]

ray those are some nice true percs., where did you get those at? if you dont mind me asking. looks good with all that rock in there too!

 

[ray0266]

Johnny, check PM.

 

[ynnhoj86]

cool! i love true percs. anyways you should get these clowns


http://www.liveaquaria.com/diversden/ItemDisplay.cfm?c=2733+3&ddid=55412

lol

 

[ray0266]

ahhh.. nice..

 

[ray0266]

Here it is. I still need to do some wood work and work some bugs out.

 

[ynnhoj86]

the tank looks awesome ray! you guys gotta see it in real life, its so clear, and the halides gives it a shimmer. All the clowns in there are unreal how they dont fight-good work man

 

[Tanque Verde]

That is an AMAZING restoration job. very impressive.

 

[cerreta]

Nice work on the buffing. I tried using that kit on an acrylic nano and created a lot of hazing. I think it was due to the thinner acrylic. It sure was a lot of work.

This looks like Saurita Mike's old tank. I think he sold it to Sondra. Is that so?

 

[ray0266]

Thanks Scott.
Yeah I think this tank is been around the block a few times but not sure who…!
I saw some hazing when i didn’t crisscross all the scratch patterns(horizontal to vertical). Or did a circular buffing. The hazing started to disappear on higher grades, 6000 through 12000.

 

[cerreta]

If it was Mike's old tank he custom built that stand and worked some kind of magic to accellerate the rusting process. I never saw the tank in person.

Did you paint the stand? It looks painted. I'm interested in knowing how you prepared the metal for paint.

You should open a biz for tank restorations. It gives hope for a lot of people like me, that would have just thrown that acrylic tank in the trash.

Scratches have always annoyed me. Acrylic is too soft. That is why I prefer glass tanks.

Again, great job.

 

[ray0266]

Scott,
The stand had lots of rusting, eating through it and some thick paint on other places. It sure looked like a homemade job. I had to get rid of some of the “extra” welding in corners and flush it a bit.
I started by sanding the stand and canopy until I got to the actual metal. That took me a while. I tried 2 methods, sanding and using paint remover. The paint remover did not do a good job. It got gooey and almost impossible to sand it as the goo clogged the sand paper (even though I removed the paint remover real well, there was still enough left on the metal).
So I cleaned it real good and used an electric sander to get rid of all the old paint.
Then, I used a spray primer and added 2 coats of that. After that, I sprayed the stand and canopy with 2 coats of textured paint. After drying it for a day, 2 coats of the final color you see.
Led that dry for a day and finished it with 2 coats of crystal clear enamel. (all rust-oleum stuff.)
To make sure the acrylic wont come in contact with the stand and the canopy, I used some door and window epdm rubber weatherseal strips.
This has made it so if water hits any of the metal parts, it will just slip away and there are no chances of rusting.
I hope this helps.

 

[cerreta]

Wow, that's a lot of work. Don't you have a job?