First 30 gal restoration project

TheMetalReefs

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Just picked up this 30 gal for 40 bucks. Looks a little rough but hopefully i could polish it up. Any tips or tricks for bringing tanks back from the dead?

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That is a nice size and shape for the tank so there is potential. The stand looks like it is particle board that appears to have water damage so you may consider replacing that. Are you able to disassemble the plumbing in the overflow so you can let it soak? With the Herbie-style drain it may not be the quietest but it should work well enough (the biggest issue is that you don't have redundancy for the drain). What are you plans for the sump?
 
That is a nice size and shape for the tank so there is potential. The stand looks like it is particle board that appears to have water damage so you may consider replacing that. Are you able to disassemble the plumbing in the overflow so you can let it soak? With the Herbie-style drain it may not be the quietest but it should work well enough (the biggest issue is that you don't have redundancy for the drain). What are you plans for the sump?
Thanks! yeah, all the plumbing came off easily and was able to soak and scrub it a bit. I was planning on converting one of my spare 10 gal tanks into a sump if i dont find one on OfferUp. The stand is a bit concerning. It feels secure but im not digging all the water damage.
 
Day 3 update:
The seals looked dried out and were lifting in some parts. I decided to reseal the tank. Never resealed a tank so fingers crossed here is what it looked like before and after i took off the silicone.
 

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It's not as hard as it seams.

Use a lot of tape, clean every mating surface with acetone. Mind the gap that needs to be present for the silicone. It's not like gluing wood together.

Please keep us updated. That looks like a Great tank to display some top down gems
 
Day 5 update:
Cleaned off all the old silicone and hit it with some acetone to get it as clean as possible. Taped up the edges with painters tape and applied some black silicone i picked up from the lfs. i tried to add a good amount and then smoothed it out with my finger. looks pretty good to me. as for the stand, it looks rough but ive put some weight on it and its sturdy. trying to see if i find a better stand.
 

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Update*

found a stand that fit perfectly with the tank and gave it a paint job. Got the plumbing done. looks nothing like my original idea hope everything is water tight. waiting for everthing to dry and filling it up with water.

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got some water in the tank today to check for drips. No leaks found. Time to scape this baby. Any suggestions for this shape tank? Thanks!

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update*
Finished building what will be my aquascape. I liked the idea of having a central piece and also liked the nsa style. Bought some marco rock from BRS, used gorilla glue to glue it together and StoneFix from aquaforest. This is the result. kinda hard to see it fully in the picture. im pretty pleased with the out come. lots of swim throughs and little caves.
 

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Finally got the sand and scape in. Had to use a big rubber maid to mix salt in two batches. turned out being 25 gals(ish) in volume. For sand i used the agro alive special grade, added api starter bacteria, micro bacter 7. was going to add some live rock from my existing tank but then ill take the only cover my gramma has. dosed ammonia to 2ppm. now to play the waiting game.
 

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After about 4 months the time has finally come to transfer the livestock. Both tanks match temp, so just drip acclimating everything and doing the transfer. Hope all goes well!
 

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So its about a year since ive posted about my 30 gal. Had a baby this past year so my attention was else where. So heres a quick recap:
-Was battling the uglies, and kinda forgot about it and it started to clear up until they finally went away.
-Added a few fish (Pj Cardinal, 2 clown fish and firefish) Both clownfish died along with my existing royal gramma. Only cardinal and firefish survived.
-Corals actually started to grow. (Gsp started growing like crazy, Magicians growing pretty quick, Radioactive dragon eyes still kinda slow.)
-Recently (in the past month) had to move. Moved tank and ended up messing up the plumbing so had to re plumb.
-Now that tank is set up, starting to buy more corals. (Mostly zoas!)
-Noticed Alk has dropped a bit (from usually 9ish to now 7.) Ph has always been pretty low (maybe 7.8-7.6) so decided to start dripping Kalk. (Started today)
 

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Been dripping kalk for a couple of weeks now, first started with Brightwells Kalk+2 but switched to Mrs. Wages. Looks like it brought PH up to about 8 (using api test kit so i cant get an exact number.) Using a gallon jug and an acclimation dripper to drip the kalk. Dripping at about 1 drop per 3 seconds. Also added some new corals, Purple people eater, a mushroom, eagles eyes, a very small piece of cyphastrea, and white zombies. Noticed what looks to be hydroids on the base of the eagle eyes so i chipped away as much as possible and fragged it on a new plug.
 

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