The BIG Tank

March 5, 2007 - Bryan posts to the GPAS.org forum that he wants to find a new home for his Paratilapia Bleekeri. I immediately fall in love with the pictures and start researching the fish. The fact that I have already started thinking of names for him is a bad sign. I do not have a big tank for him at this time.

March 6 - I sell an expensive telescope accessory and find my self with some cash burning a hole in my pocket

March 7 - I have been watching the ads on CL for a big tank for George, my severum who is crowded in his 55g tank. A guy in Portland re-posts his 110g tank, 8 ft long, with cabinet stand and topper. He had posted it a while back but it was too much money for me then. Now he has re-listed it at exactly the amount of money I sold my telescope piece for.

March 8 - I go over after work and check out the tank. 8ft is a LOT of tank! George is going to love this. The guy says the tank was a display tank at a saltwater shop in Gresham. There is a lot of saltwater corrosion, and the stand is made of MDF which has water damage in places. He says the tank does not leak. He says he broke it down because he is moving and does not have room for it anymore, but it was set up and being used until just recently. I put money down on it.

March 9 - I call my friends hoping to find some help to bring it home. I have a full size Ford van, and I know that won't be enough. Suddenly everyone I know has a bad back.  Martha and Ernie offer their help, and volunteer their son Kyle's strong back.

March 10 - we head over there bright and early with their pickup truck and my van. Carefully we load the tank into my van, and the cabinet into their truck along with the topper. No one gets hurt and nothing gets damaged. So far, so good.

We get it home and unload it into the shop so I can clean up the stand and leak-test the tank before moving them into the house. Again, no one gets hurt, and nothing gets damaged. Very good news. Though it does fill Dave's work area in the shop.

The cabinet

Here is the cabinet with the topper laid on top of it. It is just over 8ft long. There is a rim around the top of the cabinet to hide the bottom edge of the tank.
 

Inside the cabinet is a sump, pump, and some piping. The power strips are very rusty.

Inside the topper are a couple big tubes, and an 'Icecap' ballast.

Looking at the top of the stand from the back, you can see some of the water damage around the hole where the filter piping went through the top.

Same on the other end. Lots of salt residue as well.

The tank is 8' X 14" X 19" - which comes out to 110 gallons!

The tank has three braces across the top. It has wood trim all around, but it is badly corroded. The glass is about 1/2 inch thick.

So I just need to determine what needs to be done to the stand and tank to clean them up, and test the tank for leaks. I don't think I want to use the sump. It's a siphon type with a hang on the back inlet, and I cannot see how I could set that up to be foolproof. Sumps worry me that they will malfunction and flood the house. I will have to read up more about them.

Then I will have a work party and we will move it into the house.

3/25/07

Last week I found time to fill the tank and test it for leaks. No leaks!

Darol came over and examined the stand. He says the oak on the front looks good, and there is no water damage to the supporting members, so he though that the best course was to just to level the MDF and protect it from further damage. This was what I was already thinking, so I was glad to have him back me up on that. The part that is damaged is not actually a weight bearing part of the tank stand, it is between the support members. He suggested I take a belt sander and flatten it out, and then lay on a couple coats of shellac to protect it if water gets on it again. It only took a couple hours total. I knocked down the worst of it with a surform plane, and then used the belt sander to smooth it out.

I have also removed the rusty power strips from inside the cabinet, and discovered that the sump was apparently inserted into the cabinet before the back was put on, because there is no way to get it out of there. I have been told they are great filters, and when set up right they cannot flood the house, so I guess I will learn how to use it.

After further examination of the topper I see the plug for the icecap is cracked and broken, so I will need to replace that as well before I use it. I did carefully plug it in though, and it works - both bulbs light up.

Now, I just need to get it in the house. We brought the topper in to test and see if the stand can make it into the house through the front door, which is the shortest distance, and the only way to get the topper in was to back into the hall closet - it's very tight, but I think we can make it.

April 4,07

We spent our afternoon wrestling the stand into the house. It required two dollies, lifting straps, tie downs (to tie the dollies to the bottom of the stand), and a lot of thinking. Neither of us are exactly bodybuilders, and we had to outsmart it, as it was WAY too big for us to move through brute force.

But we won, and here it is in it's new spot in the living room.

Now we just need to get the tank inside.

April 21, 07

Finally we were able to arrange some help and three families showed up to help move the tank inside. To my surprise it only took two strapping teenage boys trash talking each other about who was stronger to lift it from each end and bring it right into the house while the adults guided them. Within minutes it was done!

That evening I filled the tank and setup the magnum with the bio-wheels. Not sure how much good the bio-wheels are filtration-wise, but they make a nice rain sort of noise, and must be good for some aeration as well.

I found a replacement 8ft power-tool cord at the hardware store, and spliced it on in place of the cracked cord that was on the hood lights. Simple fix.

I had filled the tank and set up the heaters, and was across the room pulling the magnum off of George's tank (it had been running there the last few weeks side by side with the existing magnum), when I heard a splash and turned around to see Mighty IN THE TANK - DOGPADDLING! For just an instant she struggled in the water, then burst out, splashing water EVERYWHERE! It was on the front and back of the tank, puddled on the stand, the floor, the walls, even the ceiling! And that was one wet cat!

First occupant of the new tank.

First duty tomorrow, get glass lids for the tank!

April 25

Silk plants, a few plastic logs, and the big real logs from Georges tank, and the tank is looking pretty good. The tank also got some gravel from George's tank to help jump start the bacterial cycle, and the Magnums were from George's tank as well, so they already have good bacteria going on.

I slowly moved in the 'disposable' fish from Beeker's tank (tetras and gourami) and gave them a couple days to settle in, then today I moved the rest of the fish in.

Bleekeri

George the Severum, and Beeker the Bleekeri

Clown Loaches and pictus cats

One of the pictus cats got his fin caught in the net, and he was getting stressed out as we tried to untangle him, so we finally cut the net. I guess we'll just see what happens. I have a feeling he'll get it off himself. BTW - did you know Pictus cats growl? They both growled in the net, and I have heard them growling at each other when tussling over territory in the tank.

April 26

Someone asked if I was using the sump. Well, sort of...

Makes a nice leak-proof container for the Magnums to sit in.

Beeker (eyeballing the camera)

George (without and with flash)

I am a sucker for Clown Loaches with incomplete or oddball stripes. I already had three of these guys, and yesterday at Family Pet I found three more - two with saddles and one with a puzzle piece on one side. There were lots with saddles, but only one puzzle piece, so I had to have him. I can't believe I made the poor kid catch one specific clown loach out of a tank of about 50! Glenn just laughed and said it was good practice :-) So I brought home my three new little clowns and put them in the big tank with the three bigger clowns, and they were all just happy to see each other and have been traveling in a pack ever since. Nothing is as fun to watch as a pack of happy clown loaches! Of course 'puzzle' wouldn't hold still for a picture. Maybe I can get him later.

5/13/07

Things are looking good. Everyone is settled in, and Beeker and George seem to have settled out their differences after Beek spent two weeks in hiding.

I also received the parts for my Bio-Wheels from Marineland today, so I can set up the 4 7" wheels evenly across the back of the tank. I'm going to route the full output of the magnums through them.

Oh, and the big pictus cat finally got the net off his fin, without any further intervention from us - yea!

June 10, 07

There are two magnums on the tank, and the output from each magnum is split to go into two 7" bio-wheels. So that makes for four bio-wheels, spaced out across the back of the tank. It seems to be working very well. I was afraid there'd be too much back pressure, forcing the output through the bio-wheel spraybars, but it comes through pretty well, and because of the Magnum's construction, I don't think backpressure has any effect on it. And by golly, those bio-wheels are spinning pretty fast! The output pours into the tank like four waterfalls. It agitates the water, makes a nice sound, yet doesn't produce enough current to annoy the fish. I like it alot!

Dec 3, 07

Everyone is doing fine. I just added a section to the convicts page regarding their attempts to breed in the big tank. I also snapped a few nice pics of some of the other residents.

George, and Beek on the right between the log and the glass.

Beek and some of the congos, moving too fast for the camera

The big convict

rainbowfish I picked up with a couple clown loaches. I really like this guy, I'd like to have a whole tank of these, they're beautiful.