Veng's 20L - Black Friday Madness!

[alexversa]

Honestly, I don't think there's that much risk of the tank exploding in a flooding disaster if you do it while it's filled. However, I don't see any way you wouldn't fill the tank with slivers of silicon.

 

Ya I figured that would be a problem :/

 

Maybe I could cover the water temporarily but still not worth the risk.

[Veng]

Ya I figured that would be a problem :/

 

Maybe I could cover the water temporarily but still not worth the risk.

The worth the risk part is the killer. If there's a 1% chance you lose the tank it doesn't even begin to make any sense. One of the reasons I tell people in build threads to figure out exactly what you want and get it from the beginning as it's hard to change later. Speaking of which, I should go order the 105 rimless I really want but bought a 20L instead, who cares I'd spend thousands upon thousands filling it, it's what I really want!

[alexversa]

XD

[Belac]

I have de-rimmed a few tanks now, either to repair the glass panes or because I was tying to get the glass out. I have broken glass doing it a few times, usually you brake a chunk out but I have split a pane before. For that reason I wouldn't reccomend doing it with water in it.

I keep thinking that I am going to use a heat gun the next time I do this. I always forget untill I am almost done. I think you could get hte ABS rims to bend off easily if you heated them like that.

[Veng]

Ok, so here's a new temporary FTS with the new rocks and the same light, but properly suspended over the tank. The tank hasn't settled it's still cloudy from all the water I've been moving around in and out of the tank.

Here's a couple of closer shots:

 

And here's the new temporary fuge: I evidently can't drill 10 gallons because I cracked the 4th 10 gallon (3rd while drilling) today so I'm about ready to just give up and go acrylic for the sump. I figure I can run what I've got on there for a week or two if I absolutely needed to. It's got everything a real sump needs.

 

Here's a few pictures of the light and how I did the legs. They are 1/2 conduit that was bent and cut and sprayed black.

 

 

Ok so here's the story.

 

Saturday I had commitments and end up on the other side of town. I decide to stop by a LFS with the wife on the that side of town since I hadn't been to it before. Found a really nice example of a pink/red birdsnest, some interesting new macro (I don't have a pic I'll get one tomorrow I'm tired damn it. More on why tired in a bit), and a sour apple birdsnest. I'll have good pictures probably tomorrow night or the day after. Want to give everything a chance to settle in and had a full day or two under the new light.

 

So anyways, get home with the corals I didn't plan on buying so I figure the tank had been wet for a day, no reason to put them in one tank on Saturday then move them to another tank on Sunday. Of course this thought leads to it's only 6ish, I can just go ahead and move it all tonight. So I start the process of pulling the main rocks from the old tank and putting them in the new tank. Getting all the frags off the sand and making sure I didn't miss anything I got to thinking. That thinking of course is dangerous. So I end up deciding I'll put the old 96W PC light over the fuge! So I grab the wooden holder I use to hold it over a 10 gallon and it needs just about a 1/4" more behind the tank so I go to wiggle the 10G a little bit forward and manage to crack the glass. ####! At this point I've got everything in the fuge, everything in the main tank, the old tank is nothing but a full stirred up mess of detris and probably death given how much the sandbed has gotten stirred up at this point.

 

So after some cursing, fretting, and worrying. I drain the fuge and the tank, down under the bottom of the overflow and I everything out of the fuge and put it into an old 10 gallon I had laying around. Here's all the junk in the temp tank and the empty cracked tank.

 

So I went and got another 10 gallon last night, but was way to tired to deal with it anymore so I just came home and tried to forget about it for the day.

 

Today, I went out and got the stuff to make the stand for the light, and spent a few hours on that. Then I went to drill the tank this afternoon and managed to crack it. So I went back to home depot to price arcylic (damn that's expensive, 7$/sqft!) and realized I could get a plastic tub to make a temporary sump (pics above). So I grabbed one, came home and got it all put back together with a fix that should last me a little while.

 

I think I'll see if I can layout a custom sump after work tomorrow, get a couple of quotes and figure out if it makes more sense for me to just do it my self or get someone to do it for me. I'm tired of breaking 10 gallons, that's for sure. I dunno. I might sneak one more 10 gallon home before I give up on them forever. If tailes finds out about that though, she'd be pissed.

[metrokat]

That shower caddy sump totally deserves to be in the Ghetto DIY hall of fame. I love it!

post it here

[Veng]

That shower caddy sump totally deserves to be in the Ghetto DIY hall of fame. I love it!

post it here

Now that's just mean! But so very very true.... I threw a pic up over there for you.

[metrokat]

So what, you are 4 tanks down now? You might want to have a drink before drilling the next one, that helps sometimes I've heard.

[Veng]

So what, you are 4 tanks down now? You might want to have a drink before drilling the next one, that helps sometimes I've heard.

Yep. That's 4 10 gallons I've ruined in a week. It might have driven me to have a drink or two this week, that's for sure.

 

Oh, did you see the new Vietnam Crocea Clam at LA?

 

[tailes]

That shower caddy sump totally deserves to be in the Ghetto DIY hall of fame. I love it!

post it here

 

No No Metro - it's a Redneck DIY!

[Belac]

Just a suggestion but you have enough 10 gallons that are busted to build at least one 10 without a crack. Or make a cool 5 gallon square out of the ends of all of them.

 

I tend to rescue dead tanks from dumpsters and reuse the glass.

My newest freshwater planted tank is made from two old dead 10 gallons that I cut up. I just need to get better with a glass cutter.... It still looks presentable.

[markalot]

Lots of excitement. Hope everything works out!

[Veng]

Just a suggestion but you have enough 10 gallons that are busted to build at least one 10 without a crack. Or make a cool 5 gallon square out of the ends of all of them.

 

I tend to rescue dead tanks from dumpsters and reuse the glass.

My newest freshwater planted tank is made from two old dead 10 gallons that I cut up. I just need to get better with a glass cutter.... It still looks presentable.

Well, after I busted the first two... I kind of took a hammer to them while in the trash can for stress relief.

 

The last two are sitting in the bin. One has silicon all over it, the other one I dunno. I'd say they're cheap enough, but I've spent around 60$ on them in a week, so no they aren't damn cheap enough anymore.

[Belac]

Well, after I busted the first two... I kind of took a hammer to them while in the trash can for stress relief.

 

The last two are sitting in the bin. One has silicon all over it, the other one I dunno. I'd say they're cheap enough, but I've spent around 60$ on them in a week, so no they aren't damn cheap enough anymore.

 

Welp make you a 5 cube then. Silicon comes off easy enough. At least then you won't feel like you threw away 60$. Some of those 5 gallon cubes are pretty pricey, diy it and draw a logo on it so you feel you got your money out of the tanks.

[tibbsy07]

Looks raaaaaaaaad as hell, Veng!

[Veng]

Welp make you a 5 cube then. Silicon comes off easy enough. At least then you won't feel like you threw away 60$. Some of those 5 gallon cubes are pretty pricey, diy it and draw a logo on it so you feel you got your money out of the tanks.

I should list them up in the hardware FS forums as "slightly used"

[tailes]

Whatcha think??

 

Itty Bitty Pretty Clam?

[Veng]

Wish they didn't have the minimum order stuff

[jedimasterben]

So why are you drilling the sump? Is your pump external?

[Veng]

Here's what it looked like for the 24 hours it was setup before I was an idiot and cracked it.

 

Since the 10 is so tall, I've got to drill it to let the overflow through.

[Veng]

Yeah, that's about what I decided today was to go plastic. Just need to figure out who to have cut it and then spend some time figuring out exactly what I want to do with it.

[Veng]

Holy crap! Favia was caught going nutzo crazy after lights out tonight. I guess he's happy with the new tank.

 

Even the little mystery favia was getting in on it tonight.

[Belac]

I should list them up in the hardware FS forums as "slightly used"

If you were close enough I would totally take them.

[Veng]

Well, if you want to spend 50$ on gas to come to DFW for 30$ of broken fish tanks, let me know.

[Veng]

So I was going to totally design a sump this morning. Instead I got distracted by skimmers, lights, 65/105G rimless, ATOs, and controllers. I gotta get back on target if I don't want to be using a plastic tub for a sump forever.