300 Gallon Oceanic Aluminum Frame 72x32x30 Refurbish

nolapete

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 1, 2007
2,726
9
38
New Orleans, LA
A member of our local aquarium society acquired a cracked 300 gallon Oceanic Aluminum Frame 72x32x30 aquarium from someone for free. He said the guy bought the tank new, set it on his carport, filled it, cracked it, went back and bought another one which he has setup as a reef. My friend busted his knee up and can no longer work on the tank, so I have the good fortune of acquiring it from him this weekend.

The tank has 3/4" glass throughout the sides, but evidently has a laminate bottom which the upper and lower layers are made up of acrylic? Weird, but I haven't seen the tank in person to know for certain.

I have an 80 x-high with 1/2" glass (48x29 I believe the height is) that would be a total tear apart to reseal. I tried just a internal silicone removal and reseal, but the seals between the glass are compromised and it didn't work. I knew I held on to the tank for some reason. I'm going to tear it apart and use the glass to go over the existing bottom. It'll be three pieces and I'll have to have the length of each piece cut to size. I plan to remove the overflow and cover the hole since that's where the crack originates. I'll be using ABS to make some overflow intakes.

The tank will take the place of my 210 positioned with a narrow end against the wall and the 72" front and back viewed from the living room and pseudo home office.

The 210 will be placed on a new double stack stand with a 135 below it on the wall that my 100 gallon is on now.

This is yet another project that I don't need, but I couldn't pass it up for free.Jimmy001.jpg

Jimmy001.jpg
 

nolapete

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 1, 2007
2,726
9
38
New Orleans, LA
My cousin and I unloaded the tank by ourselves and it's in my garage on furniture dollies waiting to be worked on.

Evidently Oceanic assembled the bottom using a laminating technique. They started with a sheet of what looks to be the equivalent of sheet nylon 1/4" thick. It doesn't appear to be acrylic. It's too dull and grainy. The actually bottom glass is in what appears to be 4 18" pieces the width of the tank. Another 1/4" sheet of "nylon" was laminated to the glass.

Assembly appears to have gone as follows:

Glass pieces are laminated to the first 1/4" sheet

Tank walls are built on the glass bottom

Second piece of 1/4" sheet is fitted to the inside of the tank and laminated

The seals on the tank are just between the glass. There is no silicone bead inside.

Next step is to remove the layer of "nylon" and assess the extent of the cracks, clean up the glass inside and out, and get the 1/2" glass I have cut to width of the tank. The tank has aluminum frame with angle on two corners. My cousin is going to get two more pieces for me to do the other two corners.

I think I'm going to have him weld a six legged stand for me to put the tank on. I'm going to set up 4 aquaponics tubs with plants under the tank and use the LED light squares like JohnG has on his tank for the plants.

I'll have a sump with pumps to circulate water back to the tank, through the aquaponics tubs for nitrate removal, and poret foam filter with blue bonded pads on top. Kaldnes media in moving bed will be in the section before the return to the tank.

PVC overflow type returns made from ABS black. Not the surface skimming, the ones that pull from lower in the tank.
 

nolapete

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 1, 2007
2,726
9
38
New Orleans, LA
My nephew and I removed all of the remaining black plastic from inside of the tank. The bottom is made up of 4 18" pieces of glass daisy-chained together. Three out of 4 of them are cracked pretty bad, but that won't matter since I'm putting glass over them.

Next step is to remove all the excess silicone and glass shards. I also have to tear apart the 80 x-high to get the front and back glass to use as the bottom. They'll have to be cut down to fit the width of the tank (32"+-). I have another piece of glass that will make up the difference. It'll have to be cut down to size as well.
 
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