280 gallon acrylic peninsula reef build

[gatohoser]

Hey all. I am just getting back into reefing after a financial/school induced half decade long hiatus. I have scored a 280 gallon custom acrylic tank measuring 88"x24"x30". It's an unusual design with 2 viewable sides, front and back, and black sides. The stand comes around the two sides to hold up the open-top canopy. The tank is in pretty darn good shape minus a crack on the top between an unused bulkhead and the center hole. The stand is quite interesting with black lacquer finish and some interesting large wooden triangle trim. Pictures to come soon. The tank came with two separate 36" 250w HQI / PC supplemental lights, a bubble magus NAC9 with a vertical crack up the side which I will have to repair, a calcium reactor I have forgotten the brand of, CO2 tank with solenoid and pH probe, two 40w UV sterilizers, a 250w main return pump which I have forgotten the details on, and a large sump I need to get the digits on. I got all of this for $1k :O. I sometimes suspect someone stole this and was reselling it but how do you steal that big a tank? LOL. I'll give more info on the forgotten details in the future when its not too freezing to head out to the detached garage where it is awaiting a place.

We just got our house this winter (our first!) and have a room which we are making plans to turn into our family room to house the tank. In buying a house, having room for a fish tank was a huge part of the requirements and while we have the square footage, I am struggling to find a great spot to place it and allow for water storage tanks and a frag/quarantine system without them sitting next to a couch

Now I love DIY but am young and inexperienced but built a basic stand back in high school, built external overflow boxes and similar projects. I also like to plan/scheme a lot, especially while funding dictates a slow pace As I am basically building the room around the tank, I am attempting to DIY the interior design/architecting of the room. I have been playing with a website called floorplanner.com and have some ideas.

My big plan is to utilize the two-faced nature of the tank and make it a pseudo room divider. I'd just hate to have one viewable face since I can have two! Then I thought, wouldn't it be nice if you could actually use the tank as furniture rather than just a divider. And I came up with putting a counter around one long and one short edge of the tank, to make a breakfast bar of sorts. Here's how I imagine the tank might look (this is actually what the room layout looks like from one view).

So here's a link to the floorplan I made: http://pl.an/92clnt
And here is a link to how I sort of imagine the tank looking.

To accomplish making the stand into a bar, I imagine I will build a different stand for it. This also solves a problem with having the canopy float above the tank rather than sit on the side pieces of the lower stand as it does now.

This will be a slow build unfortunately as I have to redo the room and do the flooring, windows, etc before I can build it up but planning is always fun too!

I'm hoping for any feedback on the idea and also I couldn't really find a tank/stand with a bar the way I described. If anyone can link one that'd be awesome!

Glad to be back amongst the reefers instead of lurking on the tank of the month page while waiting for the resources for a tank!

 

[maynor]

Welcome back!

Congrats on your set up and keep the pictures coming this way.

 

[gatohoser]

Thank you maynor! Its nice to have a new excuse to be here.

OK here come the pictures! Here is the room that we are getting ready to completely revamp. We basically don't live in it currently and it has been used to throw our desks and computers and not much else. It currently isn't heated or well insulated minus the old fireplace in need of replacement. The tank will stick out from the back wall in the picture in the shorter direction of the room.

And here it is in all its dirty glory. I need to do some sanding of the acrylic to bring it back to life and am hoping for any pointers or guides on how to do that efficiently on a large tank (power tools baby!).

Here is some damage on the tank. There is a crack between a bulkhead on the top which will perhaps go unused and the access port on the top of the tank. I plan to seal this with some acryweld just to make sure, but I don't believe this is really a load bearing section. What do you guys think?:

There are also some bubbles or joints that look like they may need repair. What do you guys think about these joints? Do they still look okay? Sorry for the quality I will see if I can figure out a way to show the joint better.

 

[gatohoser]

Now for some of the equipment. Here is the sump and Aqua UV sterilizers:

UV sterilizers:

An interesting junction box they built into the stand:

Some scratches on the canopy:

 

[gatohoser]

More equipment:

The main return pump is a Blueline 100. It's specs listed look different than what I search up from Champion Lights here http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=18059&cat=1209&page=1. Does anyone know what this might be? Is it a low pressure model?

Then the Bubble Magus NAC9 Skimmer:

Here you can see the vertical crack in the body. I imagine I can just seal this up with acryweld as its not much force pushing out on the body. Feel free to tell me otherwise:

CO2 cylinder and solenoid:

Used to drive this Hydor Calcium Reactor Performer 1500 rated up to 396g tanks:

 

[gatohoser]

I got two big old Sea Swirl 1" models:

Two 36" Coralife 250w HQI dual 96w PC supplemental lighting:

That is all the gear for now minus an XL MagFloat acrylic cleaner. Let me know what you all think about the promise of this setup minus the dirtiness of it all. I hope to get some free time this weekend to run it all through with some vinegar. Has anyone tried cleaning with muriatic acid? I bought some of that pool muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid, HCl) for cleaning stuff that has serious lime buildup but wonder about its residue if any.

Now off to work. I'm an hourly worker and I believe writing this post and taking pictures just cost me a few pounds of live rock! :eek2:

 

[gatohoser]

Sorry for the week delay. There has been lots brewing in the planning phases. We are still going to be preparing the living room in which this goes for quite some time but I'm trying to lock down what I can to get this planned perfectly. I caught up last night on the two new styles of overflow plumbing. Well they aren't new but last time I was serious with reefing there was only the durso! I'm out of town on travel but after looking at my overflow in the above pics I can't see an easy way to move towards the Herbie system I think I would prefer. I essentially have two boxes with a dry space in between but the boxes are narrow and predrilled with 1" drains. Any ideas on quieting this down? I was considering a bulkhead from the center return piping box into the overflows allowing for a second drain pipe. Has anyone seen that?

Meanwhile we hope to be flooring this month so we can have christmas in the fish room! I was planning on terra cotta tile but the maintenance looks daunting especially considering this room is our pathway to the backyard. Now I think I found some good alternatives that are equally waterproof but much warmer and requiring less maintenance: Armstrong Luxe plank vinyl flooring

. It's waterproof and looks basically like laminate or hardwood flooring and comes in planks you just stick together as you lay them out.

 

[brianfarkas]

tagging along i picked up a 240 with the same problems and would love to know how to fix the tank before setting it up. sweet score

 

[gatohoser]

Update: Flooring is in as well as the heating for the room so it is time to begin some effort on the tank itself! I'll need to polish it and seal that crack with some acryweld. Anyone have any good advice for polishing a tank of this size inside? I am wondering how I can work on it easily with it being 30" tall even if I were to lay it on its side. The bottom corners seem like they will be tricky to reach.

 

[maynor]

Looking great there!

I had a 30" deep tank polished for me and the outcome was a brand new looking tank. The gentleman used a 6" diameter car buffer/polisher from Home Depot, about $30, 3 polishing pads, and NOVUS 123. I must say, he was very patient and had a very steady hand.
If you are going to do it, go easy on the Starbucks before working on the tank.

In terms of the crack at the top, that is no big deal. That has happened to me a few times. I have reinforced it by using Weldon and an acrylic plate/belt on top.

Right now that you are in the planning stage, it may be worth considering moving the overflow box towards the rear wall of the tank. If you do it yourself, it may take you the better part of a day, but you will be very happy down the road. Just a thought.

In terms of the " bubbles" at the seams, I would use Weldon and attach a thick piece of acrylic which would make contact with both panes.

Take care!

 

[gatohoser]

Thanks maynor for the advice! Can I ask why you would recommend moving the overflow to a wall? I do plan to use this tank in a peninsula layout where three faces are visible (though unfortunately the two short sides are black probably because the stand encases it). So there is no "front" or "back" in my plan. Is it just hard to make look nice?

 

[gatohoser]

Here's a picture of the flooring during the install. This stuff is called Trafficmaster Allure Vinyl Plank tile and this is in Cherry. It is vinyl so it's waterproof and pretty durable (though it marks easy). I chose this so that the tank wouldn't destroy the floor. We will see how it holds up. We got the whole room for under $500 during a black friday sale at home depot. We had decided it was what we wanted earlier in the week and going to bed on Thanksgiving night I got an email saying it was a deal the next day so I showed up at a normal time of day and they had exactly the number of boxes in the color we wanted. Pretty darn lucky! We installed it ourselves with a box knife, a carpenter's square and a measuring tape including a circular bend around a fireplace. Pretty easy to do. Took two full days.

 

[gatohoser]

Just finished cleaning and finally got a measurement on the sump. It was 48x18x18 or around 68g. It's quite a bit cleaner now as is the Bubble Magus NAC 9 skimmer. Now to set up the room for a month of polishing and I will be getting close! I have to figure out how to fix the coat on my stand which looks like a sprayed on black gloss finish perhaps with a clear coat. I'm afraid the only solution is to strip and paint it again.... What do you guys think?

 

[maynor]

I am sorry. I should have been more clear.

The reson why I mentioned moving the overflow is because it would give you an unobstructed view on both of your long sides.
I was thinking of moving the overflow set up against the short/black side (left side as you face the tank when sitting on the bar stools).

This is just an idea, and what matters is what makes you happy.

One way or another, you are going to have an owesome area in that room.
When you are all done, I may just have to hire you to come do my place too.

Keep up the good work and happy holidays!

 

[gatohoser]

Maynor, thanks for the kind words! I would love to hear more about moving an overflow as I'd really like to be able to do a BeAnAnimal if I can since this is the living room. If you have any resources I'd love to check it out. I suppose I'd have to remove the box, patch over the current holes and build in a new one. Wonder how hard it would be to remove the box since it's wedged between the top and bottom.

 

[gatohoser]

Well I just was doing some reading on buffing out scratches and came across some info I was not aware of when purchasing the tank. I read what a big concern bubbles in joints are.

A common type of irregularity in the seam on the top:


For perspective the same joint:


The biggest problem spot I have seen and the one I showed earlier in this thread:


Close-up of same one:


This is looking through the top pane onto the joint with the front:


Another one with some interesting spidering or something like that growing from the corner of the joint inwards:


Another view on some spidering:


Some bubbles in the joints:


A bottom corner:


This whole joint of the front to the sides is weird with bubbles on the outsides of both edges. I apologize for the bad shot here; my camera died as I was shooting and it is low-light in the garage. Will get better when the camera recharges.



Well what do you guys think is the deal here? Is this salvageable, or for the dump? I won't be destroyed I suppose if I have to buy a new tank as I will still have gotten my money out of the deal with the other gear to some degree. Do you suppose this is an old tank that is just way past its prime? Was it faulty construction?

Maynor, I know you suggested a strip of acrylic to span the bubble I showed but what do you think now considering the extent of the irregularities?

 

[gatohoser]

On the bright side, here is the Bubble Magus NAC9 all cleaned up and rearing to go...

 

[merfish101]

build

build

Looks like its gonna be a nice build. Im following along for ideas

 

[swk]

I have a small amount of similar looking areas in my 180. Been set up for years w/o any issues

 

[gatohoser]

Yesterday I had a neighbor of mine who is a 40 year professional aquarium installer come look at the stuff and help me think through next steps and he confirmed my fears that this tank should not be used...

So I am considering going down a new path and getting a custom tank built to do an in-wall tank. My wife is inboard and is pushing me to build the tank I really want if I'm going to go big. I will probably not go quite as big as this current tank. I disliked the height as I'd need tools to reach the bottom. I also didn't like the sump being in my living room and the fact that the overflow could at best be made into a durso. The black sides also made a 3 sided peninsula a little goofy.

Anyways what this means is much more construction as I prepare the laundry room behind the wall to be become a fish/laundry room. I'll be cutting a hole in the weight bearing wall and putting up a beam. I'll also be moving a door and generally doing some major work like moving the dryer. It should be entertaining none-the-less but it won't be done as soon as I hoped!

Does anyone have suggestions on tank manufacturers? I think I will go one sided starphire with a coast to coast overflow with a BeAnAnimal overflow. Dimensions I will initially quote out will be 72x24x24. You can PM me if posts in this topic aren't allowed.