Sukie & Wudan's 90gal thread - Tear Down

Alrighty ppl . . . the holiday season has been long over. . and you know what, it's time for us *wudan & I* to set up our 90gal tank! wo0T!!  I'm just too dang excited!! (if you don't know. . we've had this tank for months and funds were holding us back from setting it up)

What's the first step?? 

Well I should probably clean the tank out, seeing how it was "Some Dude's Sump" - yeh the dude had like a 210 in his living room or something to that nature. 

Here's a picture of the dirty tank - yucky!! 




My rule of thumb is buy things used for cheap unless you can find a better deal. . . (Go ahead and call me a penny pincher. . . I won't deny it). 

So I'm going to be using vinegar for the tank. . . to get all the salt creep off.  And a good scraper for all the silicon.

Please if you have any advise on the way - feel free to let me know.  As I'm still a newbie!


Edited by sukie - August 07 2009 at 11:07am

Use a new sharp razorblade. Wet is probably better than dry. I thought I was being careful on mine but I still scratched the glass. I have never removed the silicone from a tank and resealed it but I have heard that new silicone will not stick to old.

Only a dozen razor blades?    Go buy a box of 100 at Harbor Freight! 

Looks like Greenanemone and I both have you to blame for getting us into this! 

Andrew

That was someone's sump - and it's already drilled..nice.  If you can lay it on it's side and put about 1/2 a cup of heated vinegar on each of those patches of salt creep for about 10 minutes, it will come right off with a sponge and you won't have to scrape it.  I do it all the time with used tanks.  Vinegar is great for salt creep, coraline algae, dirty powerheads, etc. 

Amie that's great information.  I have a powerhead intake that's gunkified in all sorts of nastiness.  I didn't want to scrape because of the thin plastic and all.  I think I'll try dipping it in vinegar.

Amy, you'd probably do that anyway.  :)

Who? Dan?

I've been working on a 3d model of the tank stand:

Since we'll be getting a 55 gallon tank to work as our sump, this prompted some very interesting design considerations.  In each corner are 3 2x4s, and 2 2x4s run the 'length' of the stand.  The stand itself is 2 ft 'deep', which means theres a 6 inch shelf behind the tank for putting the closed loop pump on.

The surface for the actual shelf is kinda high, I think on the only other stand I build it was just 31 inches, not sure on this one but it's higher.

I'd really appreciate any suggestiions, since I'm pretty sure I'll want to have some center posts as well.  The sump will be 'slid in' through a door on the side of the stand.

Will Spencer wrote: You 2 still need to make it over to my place.  Your design seems very much like one of mine.  Feel free to come over and see it one evening.

Yeh for sure!! 

That's actually from Blender, a 3D modelling software that's fairly easy to use, once you get around the very interesting interface.  My other hobby is 3d math + video game development (er ... and video game playing!), which has proven useful in a lot of areas.

If you really want to be cutting edge, take a look at Adams ideas on linear flow.  It will change the way you have it drilled.........