Project Log - 95 Gallon Hexagon Aquarium

[kris2341]

This tank has been around me since I was pretty small, before I even turned 7 or so, and it was one of the things we had that I enjoyed greatly before I could even pick up a jug of water. This tank has been in our family for longer than the entire duration that I decided to get into fish keeping and has quite a bit of story surrounding it.

The Story:

At some point, we wound up moving from our old house in Van Nuys to our new house in Winnetka because it was freshly built and my mom liked it better. We still own both houses, but we wound up renting the old house to some people we got to know recently because they seemed like nice people.

Sadly, they only SEEMED like nice people, they were actually scumbags, the beautiful house we rented out to them was done on the cheap, I believe that we gave them a contract for less than half the mortgage value in exchange that they take care of the yard, feed the outdoor cats, and take care of the fish to the best of their ability. They had done none of it, we essentially paid for half the water bill, and brought them cat food, and maintained the pond regularly ourselves only for them to NOT water the plants. All our lush green grass died so the yard turned into a giant dustbowl, all the cats gone away because they never fed them so vermin moved in, the catfood bag was not even open. They also destroyed one of the bathrooms due to negligence and FINALLY, they had the audacity to give/sell the 95 gallon hexagon aquarium that was in the living room to SOMEONE.

We were able to let everything else go because we just considered them to be a bunch of lazy people and just came to the conclusion that some people shouldn't have nice things or have responsibilities pushed on them even to their benefit, but to sell something that was NOT theirs got us all seriously upset. After awhile, they announced that they would be moving within 2 months, by this time, the fish in the hexagon tank had long since died and the tank was moved into the garage. When they announced that they were going to move, I decided to pay them a visit to look at the yard, I also went into the garage to see some things and was considering taking the hexagon tank back. LO AND BEHOLD, IT IS GONE!

When I asked the man of the house where it went, his expression went stiff for a good minute. He then said that he didn't know and that his wife must have moved it somewhere. Having already went through the entire house and yard, I already knew that it wasn't on the property. I simply told him that they needed to get it to me before they move or they will have to get us a new one and that it was a $1000 system. Long story short, I talked to their son, turns out the wife gave it to her brother sometime ago and a few days before they left, it turned back up in the garage.

My god, when I saw the state it was in, I just wanted to punch someone. The tank was in the hands of a true idiot. Stain was applied to the outside of the tank stand and canopy without removing the original stuff, so it looked hideous and came off just by chipping at it with my fingernail, the stain underneath had been weathered so badly, it looks like it was withstanding the elements for months...

The inside of the actual tank looked like someone had taken some sandpaper to it, probably had used an algae scrubber meant for glass and had their way with it. Not willing to give up the tank that was near and dear to my heart and childhood, I invested a whole lotta money and time to fix it up.

I lack pictures of the very beginning and of the tank's sorry state, but this was the beginning of the project.

Because of how far I have come in this hobby, and the many, many fish I have killed due to negligence or being unprepared, or equipment failure, I had felt that rebuilding the system utilizing all my experience and knowledge I have gained to date and using 100% handmade and/or top class items under the mindset of money no object was the best way to honor them.

Revitalizing the woodwork:

1. First thing I wound up doing was stripping everything off of the stand and canopy, the hideous coats of crap were too much to bear so I wound up using a whole lot of chemical stripper to clear off everything, and inadvertently get some stains on the masonry ground of our current house. This process took at least 3 weeks.
2. Then there was the restaining, this took about an hour every day for about a week to get done properly. The tank once had a natural stain and seal, this time I went with a dark stain to closer match all the dark stuff in my room.
3. And finally, the application of the varnish, this was done during the course of a weekend.

And that was it for the stand and canopy exterior! Next up on the to-do list was the tank. The tank was awful, it was so bad, I had burnt out one of the Ryobi buffers I was using to remove the scratches. I initially bought a little set of Novus acrylic polish, those little 8oz bottles. THEY DIDNT LAST LONG even with using a bit of water to get more life outta what I coated the tank with. I wound up getting gallon jugs of each polish and that managed to be enough for everything. I wasnt able to get all the deep scratches out but I was able to get rid of the scrubber-caused haze that was on the acrylic and all the deep internal scratches were buffed until they were translucent, hard to see.



Refurbishing the tank:

1. 2-3 weeks of body cramping polishing... attaching the buffer to a clamp to reach the bottom
2. ESPECIALLY SINCE ITS A FRIKKIN HEXAGON TANK! I CAN'T JUST REACH IN THERE EASILY!

Eventually the tank became beautiful again, the stand was leveled to the best of my ability and everything seemed good. That led to the next issue, but this was no longer a rage inducer like the other two, PLUMBING the tank. What did I want in the tank? I eventually decided that I wanted an overflow and sump/refugium for the system. But how to get these items into the compact footprint of the tank and how did I want to do it? Mainly I wanted the tank to have as much of a self-contained view as possible but did not compromise on system performance. I wanted the tank to be planted, I wanted CO2, and I wanted as few pipes obstructing my view of the interior as possible. I also wanted the system to manage without mechanical filtration due to the fact that critters tend to get stuck in the padding as an all natural tank. I considered what the tank already had and what the tank needs from my vision. It had 4 bulkheads at the bottom but these were old and I did not trust them. So I widened the holes and put new ones in. The 4 outputs on the bottom were something I had to work with and eventually came to accept. I eventually came up with a robust system using a carefully made pipe system connecting quite a few things.

Plumbing and Sump checklist:

• Plumbed CPR overflow
• Plumbed bottom outputs x4 (yes outputs on the bottom, making the taboo plumbing idea a success is what I truly wanted to do when it came down to it)
• 2x 1 inch Hayward true union ball check valves for main pump loop
• 2x 1/2 inch Hayward true union ball check valves for CO2 reactor loop
• Eheim Compact 5000+ pump for main sump pump
• Eheim Compact 3000+ pump for CO2 reactor sump pump
• 20 Gallon High tank as the biggest tank that can be contained in the stand.

This system had the advantage of allowing up to 1500gph flowing through the main tank without it being very disturbing.

To be continued... takes a long time to type

[rickztahone]

You are a busy bee kris. I may have to go check out your operation lol

[kris2341]

These are all completed projects, this one however was by far my most costly one. I think the whole thing set me back about $3000 and being a hexagon tank, it is just a natural pain to maintain. Though I find it looks absolutely lovely when properly set off, though I still have much to learn about planted tanks as there's a bit of algae growing on here.

These project logs are essentially my active systems that are either complete and on display somewhere in the house, or are in progress or planned.

To summarize THIS particular tank as it is now, it is a 95 gallon densely planted tank, with about 150w of a custom LED array built into the canopy, a 20 gallon refugium with miracle mud + its own LED array, and a 2 stage CO2 regulator from Green Leaf Aquariums on a PH controller. The tank is home to a number of Blue Rams, Otocinclus, Sterbai cories, Cardinal tetras, and its own steadily growing population of Ghost Shrimp.

I feel like I probably should have quarantined the cardinals for longer than a few weeks because it appears I have a bit of a parasite problem in this tank, they had no symptoms and were treated with Paraguard but all of a sudden, I see these worms on some of them, which then spread to my Rams. Treating the tank with Prazipro and then API general cure didnt do much but slow down the spread.

A bit of a shame but it does show that a real quarantine REALLY needs to be for a LONG time...

heres an image of the tank that I took just now, a you can see, the bottom has a fair bit of dead leaves! sure is hard getting the leaf litter out without disturbing the aquasoil...

[kris2341]

Planted tanks are too hard for me.... and I just had to use the hardest style of tank as my very first planted tank huh? algae is merciless...

I am thinking of jamming this down my overflow pipe: http://www.aquaultraviolet.com/produ...lizers/skimmer

I wonder if it will damage the ABS pipe and bulkhead... but it LOOKS like I would have plenty of flow with it inside still. Chinese UV sterilizers are made from ABS so it shouldnt be TOO bad... right?

To do list:

1. Find a means to control algae
2. Find a means to control disease outbreaks and stop the random deaths of rams
3. Find a means to clean the bottom of the tank thoroughly without relying on a siphon tube.
4. assess the possibility of integrating a purigen reactor into the system.

The UV sterilizer i linked can probably handle the first 2 issues, but the 3rd one is interesting. I can probably use a canister filter that would sweep around the bottom of the tank but that means i need to make custom intakes and outputs as well as long pipes to do so.

Sadly, the UV is a fairly expensive piece to afford but i can do so in a few weeks. I always wanted to get a UV in here but couldn't use any external models due to space constraints

With the flexible nature of my aquarium, i can raise flow to 1200gph or i can lower it to a trickle. assuming my overflow pipe makes for a good UV dwell chamber, I can get level 2 sterilization at 400gph or so, a good amount of flow for this tank, while at 800-1200gph I may be able to get level 1 sterilization and definitely can get algae clarification.

[musicmarn1]

I too, have been through algae fires of hell and brimstone and come out the other side, so i feel for you Kris ! but I will say its usually about imbalance and yes UV is great for algae! but its really better to get the system in balance then add uv for good measure, because the fish as you have found, can get the consequences of the imbalance pretty darn quick and no one dies quicker than a discus! lol im kidding but it feels that way sometimes doesn't it?

phosphorous wont hurt a discus but ive personally, in my humble experience as a planted tank learner, found a super imbalanced planted tank to be good for them or have them do happy in it, i waited for EVER for my 90g to be balanced, ugh it pains me to think about that now, i had my discus though QT and it was not ready i ended up doing this and being done with that particular tank, not that id do that with yours !!! it looks beautiful if you can just clear up the problem

phosphorous is the normal algae contributor, its usually too much nutrients in your soil, too much light, not enough co2 to make plants grow quick enough to out compete algae or ....well thats where i gave up when i had $800 in plants covered in hideous black beards.....lol the discus i tried to put in, even after the tank had been going 9months and had injected co2 was cleaned daily had beautiful T5H0 lighting .....yeah it failed and is now a bare wilds tank lol. ill try again with a bigger tank next but for now all my low tech planted tanks keep me very happy, I will get a 240g planted discus tank one day soon i swear it!

[kris2341]

my 60 gallon in the living room is probably going to be a low tech tank that will have a playsand bottom and maybe some fert tabs for vals and amazon swords. I was initially thinking dirt tank since it is only going to have a huge group of cardinals, but I would rather keep it simple and would rather just do daily water changes so i just got play sand.

Lighting is a beamswork LED fixture and I decided to keep the filtration simple with an Aquatop CF500 canister. It has a 9w UV sterilizer that should be sufficient for keeping algae at bay. I will be loading this canister with pouches of purigen as well.

[Disgirl]

Hi Kris, quite a tank you have there. But I just want to let you know that UV light will only kill the free floating, pea soup kind of algae. The algae has to actually go through the light tube for it to be killed. All the different algae that is attached to glass, leaves, wood, etc. won't be affected by the UV. Large water changes to lower the nitrates in your water will help eliminate the algae in time. Been there and done all this too. Good luck!
Barb

[kris2341]

yea the water changes and scrubbing will be done too, I also know how exactly to get rid of it, though temporarily. and once that is done, it should have an extremely hard time coming back with a UV installed.

[ericNH]

Beautiful work on the tank refurbish. But you might want to shim up one of the bottom corners - your tank's not level.

[kris2341]

its actually not the tank that is not level, its my entire floor LOL

the stand is extremely old so it has a very slight angle on the tank platform, but it put as many shims as i could to fix that.

beyond that, the floor itself in the area where i put my tank is just not level, its an issue with the foundation itself.

[kris2341]

UV sterilizer purchased, 57w Aqua Ultraviolet retrofit purchased for $180, not bad for name brand!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/57-watt-UV-c...vip=true&rt=nc

now to devise a way to use a canister filter to stir up my substrate and suck up the detritus at the bottom, the plants are too dense for a gravel siphon. I have a rena XP3 sitting here that I will probably use for the job, now I just need to build long 32 inch intakes and outputs from PVC to get to the bottom to stir everything up and suck it out. will probably do this weekly for now.

And finally, I still have to learn to properly balance light, co2, and nutrients!

[rickztahone]

xp3 will do the job well. I also believe the stock outflow should suffice for agitation. I've never used UV sterilizer's, not even when fully hi-tech planted tanks, but I see why some people would like to use them. Thanks for the progress report.

[kris2341]

the canister is actually going to be used as a replacement for a gravel siphon to get the junk out of the bottom, not a full time filtration system (there is no space inside the cabinet for it) so its basically, get the tubes and strainers to the surface of the substrate, turn it on to generate a current at substrate level and suck everything out into the canister.

Once that is done to a good enough level, a 70% water change will be done.

I will be adding a phosphate and silicate remover to the tank to put a stop on the algae growth for a time, this stopped it in its tracks before but I didnt want to buy more every single time... hopefully i can balance it so I wont have any more algae on the surfaces themselves

[rickztahone]

the canister is actually going to be used as a replacement for a gravel siphon to get the junk out of the bottom, not a full time filtration system (there is no space inside the cabinet for it) so its basically, get the tubes and strainers to the surface of the substrate, turn it on to generate a current at substrate level and suck everything out into the canister.

Once that is done to a good enough level, a 70% water change will be done.

I will be adding a phosphate and silicate remover to the tank to put a stop on the algae growth for a time, this stopped it in its tracks before but I didnt want to buy more every single time... hopefully i can balance it so I wont have any more algae on the surfaces themselves

I believe that may be doing more work than is needed. Simply use a hose and remove detrious as you do the water change. Scrub glass walls, and do your water change as normal and you will be good. If you want agitation, turn on a low power powerhead or something and siphon all the debris. Done.

[kris2341]

Thats also what i considered but was concerned about getting the stuff under the top layer of substrate, Aquasoil allows for all sorts of things to settle in it!

since the tank is so deep, I cannot easily place a powerhead inside to keep the substrate level circulating, unless i can find a powerhead i can stick to the wall and point straight down...

though i do need a good strainer either way to keep the shrimp from being sucked out whether or not i go canister or straight siphon

the detritus also settles pretty quickly once the circulation is turned off so i thought a canister would be the best way to go to cover all the above points while keeping the shrimp and tetras safe. If they happened to get through the strainer, i could get them out of the canister just fine. A canister i can also run all night until things are spotless on the substrate.

I will see what i can do to simplify this, but I am trying to avoid buying any new stuff, bought the UV, bought a 100 pack of cardinal tetras, and I am to buy your turqs! much money...