Project 180

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
haxjester

haxjester

Gambusia
MFK Member
Jul 11, 2007
320
0
16
Toledo, OH
Found a 180g acrylic tank on craiglist and now i can finally get back into fishkeeping!

Tank (water testing):
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Back of the stand i built for it:
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1.5" overflows. still need to install the check valves at the top to remove air, and paint them black.
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barely started 50g wet/dry. im going to add more supports in the middle for the light diffuser, drill holes in the acrylic drip plate, put 2 pieces of glass in for baffles, and make lids out of acrylic. im going to use a mag 24 pump for the return, havent decided if im going to use a spraybar or not yet.
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The access holes on the tank were about 1/8" too small to fit the 1.5" pvc so i had to route the holes and **** what a mess it makes!
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It came with a black acrylic canopy. ill have pics of that next time i update. going to use ceramic tile for "substrate" with one centerpiece driftwood for decoration.

I plan on using this as a growout tank for the next 2 years for the following stock list: 1x silver arowana, 1-2 florida/spotted gars, 1-3 lima shovelnose or 1 jurenese catfish, 1-3 motoro rays, and several bichirs of various sorts (i like em all!)
 
OK, need some opinions on how to do this correctly please...

If you look at the pictures (in the first post) of the overflows I made, and the tank they are going in, you can see that its an acrylic tank with access holes in the top. The holes are large enough to pass the PVC through, but once it's all together it will be permanent (which I don't mind). I played with the idea of using threaded unions somewhere in the mix so that I could cement everything then install, but they are too bulky and would offset everything and take up valuable space.

I'm going to paint the overflows black with Krylon Fusion so that they blend in with the back of the tank.

I've cemented all the PVC joints that are not necessary to installing the overflows. I'm assuming that I should paint the PVC after it's been put together as the cement is probably made to bond directly to the PVC and not to the paint I'm using (or maybe it bonds to the primer but I'm not sure about that). So the questions are...

What order should I put these things together:

paint, but tape off areas that still need to be cemented, then cement those once its installed in the tank...

cement all joints not submerged underwater, paint everything, install and not cement the parts that will be underwater...

put in place permanently cemented, and paint once it's installed in the tank (taping off the inside of the tank)...

paint it as is (meaning paint the parts that still need to be cemented, including where it needs to be cemented), then install and cement inside the tank...

or any other better idea that someone has as I'm not sure how to go about this...


Also do the baffles on this look like they'll work out? They are 2" apart, and the distance difference between the bottom of the first baffle, and the top of the second baffle is 2 3/4".

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Thanks!
 
Got some more done this weekend. Figured out how to solve the overflow issue. All the joints except one on each overflow are cemented. It's a joint at the bottom of the inside loop underwater so it shouldn't cause any issues, and allow the overflows to be removed. Went with a spraybar like design for the return.

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And 300 holes later.......a drip plate.
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