bacigape
New Member
- Joined
- Oct 25, 2017
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 0
- What state or country do you live in
- South Carolina
So I have always kept freshwater tanks, mostly due to cost, but also because it took less time to manage them etc... Last summer we relocated across country into an apartment while our new home was being built. We didn't move the tank due to cost and space issues. However, once we got settled in the new house something was clearly missing. I talked to my wife and we both agreed that this time we were going to go with a saltwater tank. So over this summer I started researching and reading and saving and saving. I came across a 90 gallon used setup for $300 and I jumped on it. I figured with all the expensive components it would be a great start, and something had to work. So without a lot of questions I told the person I had cash and would meet them right away. Here is what I picked up.
The sump didn't survive the ride home. I couldn't remove the bulkhead before I put it in the car and it came it slid in the back of my car during a stop and cracked the glass. Everything else survived and I set it up in my garage and I filled it with water, with a bucket under the overflow just in case. Almost immediately after filling up the tank the bucket underneath started to fill with water. I thought this was normal so I didn't think much of it and started looking on forums and asking around. It turns out this wasn't normal and I had a leak in the overflow. I know I could have repaired it but I decided to donate the tank to a turtle rescue and move on. I felt it would be better to have a warranty and piece of mind then a wet floor and stressed fish. Next step was to clean up the stand and canopy.
I ended up replacing the hinges and the bottom of the stand, and then caulking the entire inside of the stand, and lastly I coated it with epoxy paint. Here is a pic of the painted stand with the sump and protein skimmer.
As you can tell I decided the stand and canopy were worth the $300 investment and I would go new with everything else. So now that my stand was ready I added a Trigger Crystall 36 Elite with a Buble Curve 5. Next step was to wait for my new tank to come in. I decided to purchase the tank, substrate, rock and remaining parts from my LFS and have them do the plumping etc... I didnt want to mess this up and the leaky first tank gave me a reality check. Here are a few pics of that.
So now we are waiting for the tank to cycle and doing more research on lights and fish etc...
The sump didn't survive the ride home. I couldn't remove the bulkhead before I put it in the car and it came it slid in the back of my car during a stop and cracked the glass. Everything else survived and I set it up in my garage and I filled it with water, with a bucket under the overflow just in case. Almost immediately after filling up the tank the bucket underneath started to fill with water. I thought this was normal so I didn't think much of it and started looking on forums and asking around. It turns out this wasn't normal and I had a leak in the overflow. I know I could have repaired it but I decided to donate the tank to a turtle rescue and move on. I felt it would be better to have a warranty and piece of mind then a wet floor and stressed fish. Next step was to clean up the stand and canopy.
I ended up replacing the hinges and the bottom of the stand, and then caulking the entire inside of the stand, and lastly I coated it with epoxy paint. Here is a pic of the painted stand with the sump and protein skimmer.
As you can tell I decided the stand and canopy were worth the $300 investment and I would go new with everything else. So now that my stand was ready I added a Trigger Crystall 36 Elite with a Buble Curve 5. Next step was to wait for my new tank to come in. I decided to purchase the tank, substrate, rock and remaining parts from my LFS and have them do the plumping etc... I didnt want to mess this up and the leaky first tank gave me a reality check. Here are a few pics of that.
So now we are waiting for the tank to cycle and doing more research on lights and fish etc...
