30-gallon Metaframe restore and setup

[hydrophyte]

Well I had forgotten this project for more than a year but now I think that I am going to pick it up again. The tank is still sitting in the basement and I will need to re-seal it. I have heard others suggest that old Metaframe tanks should be completely disassembled and put back together for the best seal, but I intend to just re-seal with thick seams from the inside of the tank.

To go with the idea of the vintage tank I want to try to use some sort of vintage decoration. I might do well enough looking around on the shelves of strange things at Goodwill or St. Vincent de Paul's for an old ceramic cookie jar or something like that, or I could also shop around online. A Google search for vintage + aquarium + decoration returns quite a few results. Check out this seller's page...

GoAntiques: Do you remember this?

Lots of old homely and gawdy ceramic pieces...perfect!

 

[hydrophyte]

have a good general idea for plants in mind. I want to include several largish specimen plants, mainly swords and crypts, and groups of smaller crypts for the foreground and midground. I intend to plant enverything in tank planters. Here is a shot of a Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia potted up in a tank planter.

Those C. pontederiifolia root real nice in the planters.

I don't know yet whether this will be a low-tech or CO2-injected setup. I am leaning more toward using CO2 because I would like to get it growing in and vigorous more quickly.

 

[sabbath]

So whatever happened? Ever get it up and running? I wish I could find some of those tanks in the North East area!

 

[hydrophyte]

Metaframes are pretty easy to find around here. Have you tried posting any marketplace threads or ads on Craigslist?

I mean to get back to this project real soon. I was real busy all last week with the ACA convention but now I am getting caught up again.

 

[sabbath]

I just put up a wanted ad in all of the free-cycle groups in my area. Who knows, maybe someone will have some laying around!

 

[hydrophyte]

Most definitely also try yard sales, especially in older neighborhoods.

 

[hydrophyte]

I finally made some more headway. I sealed up the tank bottom with a piece of 3/16" plate glass. It was pretty to silicone it in place.

I fixed up the old rusty stand that I found with the tank with a coat of Krylon and repainting for the plywood top.

I would say that this stand was not built to the same standards as the durable old tank and it was pretty wobbly. I was able to stiffen it up some by taking 7" off the bottom of each leg with a hacksaw. I also worried about the strength of the weld in each corner, so I reinforced along the top edge on both ends with two lengths of 1X4 pine boards bolted in place.

Here is the tank post-leak test. Everything looks good so far.

 

[bleublaze55]

COOl meta frame!! where did you get those plant pots?

 

[hydrophyte]

Those planters are manufactured by Riparium Supply.

I got water into the tank also tonight and stuck the first plant in there, some kind of sword(?).

I hope to get some vals going as background plants. I am going to get the whole layout of plants put together and then ad gravel to cover up the planters for a more natural look.

 

[hydrophyte]

I got the tank set up with lighting and stuck a plant in there too. For now I am just using a single 24-watter HO T5. This ought to be good enough for a while so long as I stay with crypts and certain swords. It was easy enough to hang this light up anyway.

I might consider upgrading to this hydroponics T5...

Pioneer JR II Grow

...that one might look pretty cool with the tank.