My 220 Gallon Aquarium Build

[Chockful O Phail]

Good looking tank. Someday I hope I can find a 200+ gallon tank for cheap. I recently bought a used 125 with a lot of that saltwater scale in it. I filled it and dumped two gallons of distilled white vinegar in it. 24 hours later I drained it and every bit of the scale came off with just the spray from a garden hose.

 

[bageezus]

Nice. I will be picking up a few gallons today. The tank wont be moved into the house for a little while so I am going to take my time on cleaning and gathering the rest of the items for the build. The single fx5 filters out the tank nicely. I connected it all with some tubing and connectors I had sitting around. I filled the tank with hose water, so I ended up placing some blankets on the bottom shelf due to the water dripping off the tank from condensation. So far it is working pretty good. I think I will hard pipe it this weekend. Might order a nice uv light this week also. Any recommendations. I def want an in line uv.

 

[bageezus]

Here is the temp plumbing for the filter.

 

[bageezus]

Okay so took a break at work and ran over to my local Menards and was looking at sand. I'm trying to decide if I want to go with pool sand and mix in some pebbles or just sand. I've used it before and loved it. Any opinions? What are you guys using? I'm not stuck on using pool sand either.

 

[Chockful O Phail]

For the last 6 months I've had an fx6 running on a 110. It seemed like no matter how often I cleaned it out (2 weeks to 6 weeks) could never get the water to look clean. Especially when it shuts off and restarts and blows all the crud out into the tank. It is community fish (rainbows, tetras, clowns, cories, and some others) and a fairly large bio load. I thought I'd try out a 2262 and overnight my tank looks way better. Imo, I don't believe you will be happy with the clarity or the service intervals.

 

[bageezus]

I've been really digging around and looking for some different fikters. I think I will Def add another filter to my setup. I also drained the tank last night and coversed the overflows with towels and wetted them down with vinager. I'm on my way home know and we will see if this worked.

 

[bageezus]

So the vinegar didn't do much. I did pick up some other cleaning sponges. Anyone have any better ideas?

 

[aljar8]

What is on the overflows, calcium or algae? Try heating the vinegar up in the microwave. Not too hot though.

 

[DDK]

If muriatic acid cant get it off then nothing can. Muriatic acid is usually a last resort but it works the best and will take off all the deposits. Its even so strong that it can remove the infamous white haze from glass due to calcium deposits that a razor blade and vinegar cant even touch. Its sold at all home improvement stores and I would dilute with regular water and try it. Getting it straight from the bottle usually isn't necessary, I've only taken it straight from the bottle to remove the white haze.

 

[bageezus]

The overflows are coated in calcium. The rest of the tank cleaned up nicely. I did read about the muriatic acid as a good solution. I am picking up 150lbs of pool filter sand and I guess I will have to go with the acid. I am considering just leaving it, but we'll see. The vinegar helped but could not remove all of it.