12 Foot Monster Acrylic Setup

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
asteele.19 said:
Do you mind sharing what you paid for the tank? I like keeping track of large tank prices in the great lakes region.
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I paid in the ballpark of $2000. That also included 3 FX5s, a wet dry, (12) 36" leds, about 500# of holey rock, all the fish including 8 Moba Frontosa, a skid of Carib Sea substrate, Ampmaster pump and a bunch of other assorted stuff. I had to take an extra 4'x8' trailer to pick that stuff up. I kept a lot of it and made just shy of $1000 back. The tank was certainly not in new condition but structurally it's fine. I originally priced building an acrylic tank and couldn't have even bought the 12' front panel for that.
 
Here's the first stage of sanding. I started with an orbital sander and 220 grit paper and as soon as I saw the first hint of acrylic I went to 220 wet dry. I would've liked to use the wet dry the whole time but the paper gummed up quickly.
 
Some progress. I found that the acrylic always looked worse before it got better. I worked all the way up to 2000 with the wet dry before buffing.
 
I did 2'x2' squares of the tank in a crosshatch then diagonal pattern to make sure I didn't leave grooves from the sandpaper. This was especially important with the courser grits. It was amazing how you knew when you were done with one grit. The paper just glided if wet appropriately. I dipped the sanding block every other pass and sprayed the tank constantly with a water bottle.
 
I used a drywall block from lowes and marked any deeper gouge I saw with a dry erase marker. When the market was gone so was the scratch.
 
Looks like the tank is shaping up. You can do a lot with a 12' tank. Love the Buckeye flag
 
awesome tank and progression! wanna come sand and buff my tanks? lol i get so lazy to do it lol
 
Here's the uaru I got from my buddy Mark at Jonahs Aquarium. They're growing out in a 40 breeder. I was surprised how social they are and already have pretty big personalities.
 
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