I took a risk. 425 craigslist rebuild

OTp1144

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Oct 7, 2013
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Swimmin' with the fishes
So I took a risk and bought a 425g plywood tank off craigslist. Ok really I thought it was all acrylic, but without pictures, the insurance from the seller it held water, a supposed full sump system with 2 pumps, stand, top and only $250, I said let's give it a shot. Oh and they'd deliver.

Needless to say, expecting an all acrylic tank and having them show up with a huge chunk of plywood, I was a little surprised. But everything looked okay and the front piece of lexan was in prime condition as well as the sump. So we unloaded it and it's sat in my garage for a week until today....

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The stand was very wobbly, probably from missing some horizontal 2x4s on the bottom, so I went and replaced those and wanted to add even more support, so I added 4 additional 4x4s down the middle.

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OTp1144

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Oct 7, 2013
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Swimmin' with the fishes
Once that was done, it was time to turn my attention to the front. It had a bunch of 70s style diagonal slats all along it plus decorations. I hated it. So I stripped it all off.

Before:
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Mid way:
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After:
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Plan is to sand it down completely to the plywood, which is a pretty nice pine and stain it probably walnut or cherry.

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Xia

Exodon
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Aug 13, 2014
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Can't wait to see the end results, once it's finished for only the price of 250 and some additional decoration, bracing and silicone. It's gonna be an awesome budget build


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OTp1144

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Oct 7, 2013
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Swimmin' with the fishes
I'm looking forward to finishing it too. Problem is we're going to have to completely redo the filtration and plumbing, so I'm estimating a total final cost of around $500. Realistically though, being a little over $1/gallon is still an awesome price for a full set up. Especially of this size

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fishguy306

Peacock Bass
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Oct 24, 2005
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Some things to keep in mind, what kind of silicone are you using? If it is GE I or II it is junk, I would not trust that much water with that stuff, I would get some quality silicone such as RTV 103 or 108. Also, silicone does not stick to acrylic which is why you would have leaks.
 
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