old tank uses?

[Rich D]

I have an old tank thats dimensions are 48x21x12, I'm guessing its about 55-60 gallons. It uses a siphon instead of an overflow (what a pain) and hasn't been used for about 5 years. We recently set up a sump area in our basement and could use the tank. Would it be best to set it up as a QT, frag tank, refugium etc.? Would it be possible to drill an overflow or two?
heres a few pictures of it, it needs a thorough washing of course.
Oh and I also have 1 or 2 old metal halides (150 watt i think)

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[hawkfishman]

do whatever makes you happy!!!

 

[douglam]

do some cleaning first

 

[Rich D]

Well thats an interesting subject.... our old tank was connected to copper tubes and it somehow miraculously survived (god knows how) before it crashed due to an overflow clog, auto top off problem. There may be small ammounts of copper in it, but it has never actually been dosed with copper so I think the silicone would be safe. In the basement, it would be right next to our rubber maid tub sump so im thinking that i could hang the halides over the sump as a frag tank, and use the old tank as QT. I have absolutely no experience with quarantine tanks, What kind of filter do you use? What else would you need for a QT tank? anything along those lines i would need to find out...

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

bubbles129129,

Unfortunately I can't see the picture (darn firewall) anyway to answer a few questions, first give it a good cleaning with warm water and maybe a razor blade (assuming it's glass) for the stubborn parts.

Drilling is a fairly easy process for your overflow problem. You can buy cheap glass drill bits (that are good for a couple holes before they dull) pretty much anywhere on line. (glass holes is the one that is coming to mind right now http://www.glass-holes.com/main.sc;jsessionid=973D69611AFF56EF9C082DB72FBE1F2A.qscstrfrnt02 )they also sell bulkheads so determine what size you need ( http://reefcentral.com/calc/drain.php ) Oh and keep in mind that most tanks have tempered glass on the bottom so you don't want to drill through that.

As far as what you want to use it for that is entirely up to you, another thing to be concerned with if you decide to keep invertebrates in your tank, is to make sure that your tank hasn't been dosed with copper. (most freshwater keepers do this a lot, as well as QT tanks) and if you don't know, then the easiest way to check is to fill the tank up with RODI water, let it sit for a day or so and conduct a copper test (you can pick those up at any LFS or online) and if the test comes up with traces of copper then chances are you won't be able to use it for anything but fish or a fish QT. However, I tend to believe that you can get rid of the copper by filling the tank up with RODI and let it sit for a week and drain it and fill it up again and so on... until your test comes back with 0 copper. The theory is that copper tends to soak into the silicone that bonds the tank together and it will always be there leaching out into the tank through the course of the tanks life.

Another way to fix the problem is to dismantle the tank removing the silicone and putting it back together with new silicone. Anyway I’m rambling….. that’s more information than necessary due to the fact that you might not even have copper.

 

[jasoncw]

If it's a 55g (which it looks like it is), then the front and back glass could be tempered as well. If so, you cannot drill them.

 

[Rich D]

I dont know why my post went up there but it did, its right above sisterlimonpot

 

[drparker]

Add a gallon of vinegar to the fresh water and let it sit for a few days. This will make cleanup a lot easier. As mentioned it could be tempered, if you know the manufacture then do a search to find out. It's hard to tell from the picture but it looks like the silicone has a blue tint to it. If that's from treating I'd replace the silicone.

 

[jubjub]

i drilled my 55gal on the back...just fine..but the bottom is tempered..so dun try that.... also i would say what do you really need a QT or a sump...etc...

 

[Rich D]

well I have never used a QT but supposedly an itch outbreak can kill off the entire fish population which would then raise the ammonia and crash the tank. The sump that I have now prevents from an overflow in the basement, holds more water to stabilize the parameters, and will hold denitrifying cheato eventually. It also holds the skimmer, filter medias and pumps