92g Artifact

[four7mike]

Well I took the wife to a lfs store and of course the highest priced, worst bang for your buck, hardest to find tank was pointed out. A corner bow. 150g tall plans in the trash. So I hunted and hunted and hunted not wanting to pay thousands for a new one. Ended up paying 300 for a fresh water 2004 corner from what seemed to be some uncomfortable martial dispute I wanted no part of, except the tank. Unfortunately with the exception of my Nikon I have none of the rebuild pictures due to my SD mem card dumping 404 pictures for no good reason. I will summarize without picts pics for the moment.

Phase One
I stripped the silicone to find a break in the seal about 8" from the top so I engaged some rather risky behavior and stripped a 8 inch gap in the side with scalpels and acetone. I really didn't want to break the whole thing apart. When I resealed the interior I laid it on thick maybe 3/4 seams as well as using glass tile cut into little rectangles to double the contact across the bottom. I used 2 full tubes of black silicone. It held water fine. (Everyone cringing yet?)

Phase Two
Repaint the ugly stand. I primed the interior with some epoxy driveway seal and tried adding plastidip to level the interior base. Don't ever do that lol, it came out horrible. I also ordered a 1/8 rubber mat since it was on a hardwood floor, the seal from the weight means nothing under it, we'll see how that pans out when I move it. The scrap I used under the sump since the plastidip was a flop.

Phase Three
Drilled and plumbed a synergy shadow overflow to a trigger 20 cube with a sicce 5.0 return. I had to trim some frame on the outside to better fit the synergy overflow, about 1/4". Eggcrate across the bottom. And Bimini Sand which I never heard of but is basically what everyone mixes with Florida crush and special grade to get in one bag, it looks great!

Cycling with mollies and a few corals in QT at the moment. The near future will be a canopy and somehow finding space for the copper transfer method QT. I am looking for a 24x8 ati or radion used but they only last about 4 hours on reefcentral for sale so I might just buy new. That is all for now, I should be able to load some picts off the Nikon soon.

[leliataylor]

I can relate to Phase One. Every time I buy a used tank I strip out the old silicone and reseal it. Some of the tanks I have redone have been running since 2009 without issues, although none of them were leaking prior to being to be being redone. You are braver than I am.

[four7mike]

It was up and running when I got it, I just noticed bubbling after it had been empty for two weeks at the house. I'm aware it's a big hobby no no to partial a silicone repair which is why I used GREAT attention to detail when stripping it. Honestly I never buy used unless they look new. I told my wife I think she's just giving me a mountain to see if I'll give up the hobby lol. Never taken a break in 10yrs, no need to.

[four7mike]

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[four7mike]

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[four7mike]

Ok those are my non Nikon picts sorry about the disorganization but I'm on my phone. I'm a little heavy on the rock but it will work for this one. Not being to fancy. First fish should be up to 20 red spot cardinals off live aquaria.