G-man's (aka Watson) 44gal pentagon

[goalieman92]

The girlfriend sent my a lead on a free 70 gallon tank and stand, about 4 ft. long. I said sure, I'll take it, and I began planning. I had my fish list set up, as well as equipment ect. ect... I go to pick the tank up last night, and see it's a pentagon, not what I expected, but cool none the less, I get a closer look and it seems way to short to be 4 foot. I measure it up, and look online, it's a 44 gal. bummer... new fish list, new equipment list, ect... ect...

not only that, but the stand was all chewed up from their dogs, the tank is filthy, and the only piece of electrics that works is the heater, so.... it's time to get to work I suppose...

After hitting the stand with the d/a sander

The tank after cleaning behind and under the home made "overflow", and siliconing the overflow in place.

Tank background, 5% window tint (dark, cheaper then paint, and can easily be changed out later

Tank and stand repainted

tint opacity shot(you can see the air compressor in the background)

Under Stand

Seeing as nothing works, anyone have powerheads/live sand/live rock for sale local? I can't see spending $30+ on a powerhead that's only pumping out 40 gph or $10 a pound for live rock.

 

[Misled]

I really don't want to be a downer, but that overflow/drain would scare the poop out of me. First thing is how it looks like it's attached. Second it looks like ABS piping. This is normally used for drains and "may" leach chemicals in the tank.

 

[goalieman92]

nope... It's PVC, and it's snug and I know it looks wedged in there, but it's touching not the rim. only siliconed to the bottom.

In other news... After doing some water measuring, It turns out it's closer to 30 gallons... even bigger bummer...


BTW Misled... I really appreciate the concern. I sure as hell know I don't know everything, and appreciate any help/words of caution. (don't mean to sound ***, even if I do)

 

[bmiller1234]

I personally would be worried about it overflowing that piece of pipe... Those small cuts are not going to let let much water thru and its going to wash over top of the pipe and put your water level ridiculously close to the rim if you have anot more than 150 or so gph going thru those little slits.

 

[goalieman92]

yeah. I discovered that as well, except the other way around... I have remedied the situation though.

 

[goalieman92]

The idea behind the pipe was to hide as much equipment as I could, but my plans for filtration/flow has changed quite a bit coming from 70 to 30 gallons, and I will have a powerhead visible in the water... What I'm now planning on is a decently powerful powerhead(compared to the tank) one "rated" for around 50-60 gallons, place over on the left, blowing center, and then a hob protein skimmer that'll spill in on the right, and I can have it's pump in at the bottom of the tube with some filter media in the tube, plumbed to the skimmer.

Aquascaping I want to be very minimal. I want it to hug the tube as closely as I can most the way up, with an outcropping or ledge or two, and then in each corner off the glass, either a large piece, or two or three smaller pieces.

For lighting, I'll be doing a homebrew LED fixture, 80 1W ultabrights (50/50 blue/white) on an aluminum frame w/ acrylic splash guard, and a pair of computer fans(one to blow, one to suck)

tentative stock list

Algae Blenny
A pair of black/white ocellaris
3 blue/green chromis
6 line wrasse

I know.. OMG 7 fish in a 30 gallon, But they're all little guys, and if I think it's going to be a problem, I can leave the sixline out.