Link to before and after shots and video.
When I bought this thing it was trashed. Leaked and stand was falling apart. I started off scraping off all the silicone and trying to remove as much hardwater as possible then resealed the tank. After that I was off to fix the stand. Had to replace a pretty good amount of rotting and twisted 2x4s. After that i gave it a nice paint.
After leak testing for a week outside I decided to start building the lighting. I made a mount frame for lights out of 2x4 and gave it a quick coat of paint before attaching it to the stand. I then found and painted some light domes and wired them together with some large led outdoor daylight bulbs. After that I moved on to overflow and filtration.
The tank is bottom drilled but the glass overflows that where on the tank where trashed and I scraped them when I redid the silicone. So what I came up with was to use 2 inch pvc stand pipes with a low profile strainer as my overflows. I measured to hieght and sprayed them black before install. I did much the same creating a tank long spray bar for the return
Next I moved on to the actual filtration. I had 2 quite old 20 gallon sumps for salt water(i am doing fresh) that i decided I'd loop together. I had to remove the built in protien skimmers section as well as find the correct media. I was able to use filter socks in the now empty skimmer section. The water then moves to a sponge and filter floss section followed by a nitrate removal section with pothos, lastly before the return it goes through 10 liters of hydroton[expanded clay pebbles) before hitting the return pump.
Finally once I had it done an set up I decided to find a topper before filling due to humidity concern. I made sliding glass tops for quite cheap using lowes cut to size service.
All in all this project took about 50 hours and costed roughly $550-$600. Not bad considering for just the tank alone you will pay $1750 new.
If you have any questions on the setup or anything reguarding diy feel free to ask. Cheers I enjoyed sharing my work
When I bought this thing it was trashed. Leaked and stand was falling apart. I started off scraping off all the silicone and trying to remove as much hardwater as possible then resealed the tank. After that I was off to fix the stand. Had to replace a pretty good amount of rotting and twisted 2x4s. After that i gave it a nice paint.
After leak testing for a week outside I decided to start building the lighting. I made a mount frame for lights out of 2x4 and gave it a quick coat of paint before attaching it to the stand. I then found and painted some light domes and wired them together with some large led outdoor daylight bulbs. After that I moved on to overflow and filtration.
The tank is bottom drilled but the glass overflows that where on the tank where trashed and I scraped them when I redid the silicone. So what I came up with was to use 2 inch pvc stand pipes with a low profile strainer as my overflows. I measured to hieght and sprayed them black before install. I did much the same creating a tank long spray bar for the return
Next I moved on to the actual filtration. I had 2 quite old 20 gallon sumps for salt water(i am doing fresh) that i decided I'd loop together. I had to remove the built in protien skimmers section as well as find the correct media. I was able to use filter socks in the now empty skimmer section. The water then moves to a sponge and filter floss section followed by a nitrate removal section with pothos, lastly before the return it goes through 10 liters of hydroton[expanded clay pebbles) before hitting the return pump.
Finally once I had it done an set up I decided to find a topper before filling due to humidity concern. I made sliding glass tops for quite cheap using lowes cut to size service.
All in all this project took about 50 hours and costed roughly $550-$600. Not bad considering for just the tank alone you will pay $1750 new.
If you have any questions on the setup or anything reguarding diy feel free to ask. Cheers I enjoyed sharing my work
