Extreme Makeover: 55g Tank Edition

Hi guys, on friday I was looking to maybe pick up a second hand tank for my girlfriend because she has absolutely fallen in love with white and black platys and wants her own tank.

So in looking on Craigslist I found a guy nearby that was selling a 55g tank with stand for $50. Thinking that was a great deal I set out to look at it.

When i got there I found that not only was the tank OLD (over 10 years old easy) it was in pretty bad shape. It had a few leak repairs and by looking at the extremely small beads of silicone I knew I would end up doing alot more. Also the stand was also in pretty bad shape. It was covered in rust.

I figured that fixing up both the tank and the stand would take way too much time (not to mention money) so we decided to pass.

Then later that night I received a call from the owner stating that since i was a "fish" person he would give me the tank for free in exchange for some advice on his brand new 110g setup. I agreed.

So because I have never "refurbished" a tank or stand before I figured I would share this experience with all of you.

So here we go...

THE EQUIPMENT AS GIVEN...

- 55g Wood Look Tank
- 55g Iron Stand
- Glass Canopy Pieces
- 1 Strip Light
- 1 Heater
- 1 Filter (AquaClear 500)
- 1 Thermometer






The first heater i have ever seen with no name.


I know nothing about this filter except that when i immersed and tested it, it worked.




Here you can see how bad the silicone was. Hell I was able to pull most of it out by hand. It was dry and cracked everywhere.



Well thats enough for now... my next post in here will show you the "NEW" tank stand after I fixed it up.

"The Stand Makeover"

Ok so as you can see above the stand was not in the best of shape. So my brother and I went out to ACE Hardware and picked up...

- 1 can of Rustoleum Black Glossy Paint
- 1 paint brush
- Pack of razor blades
- 1 Metal Sanding Bit
- 4.5 Amp Cord Drill (my cordless would be useless for this)

TOTAL COST: $50.00 (gotta love sales)

We got home and began sanding the stand with the drill to remove all the rust. It took us just over an hour to get every piece of rust and most of the original paint off (sorry no pic).

Then we began painting.


AFTER THE FIRST COAT:






AFTER THE SECOND COAT:






Dramatic improvement don't you agree?

Total time working on the stand was 1 hour or so for sanding, 30 minutes for the first coat, 2 hour wait for drying, another 30 minutes for the second coat.

So 4 hours total not including the final drying time.

BUT THATS NOT IT! During the drying wait I did work on the tank itself. Pics and info will be in my next post.

And Now The Tank...

During the drying time for the stand I went ahead and scrubbed the inside of the tank with a sponge, soap, and water about 3 times (gotta love the python for this). I then placed my upright fan to blow directly into the tank for about 15 minutes which dried it out completely.

I then scraped, pulled, and cut out all existing silicone inside the tank. Once done I washed and dried another 3 times to remove all residue.

After all that, I added the new aquarium silicone. Here's what it looked like.







Now I let it sit overnight. I know it doesn't look pretty now but I'll clean it up once its all dried.

When I get home tonight I plan on doing the final cleaning and fill it up with water to see if it holds.

Squawkbert said:

Suggestion: Glass centerbrace - just Si it in at both ends.

Looking good!

Click to expand...

Would the centerbrace be necessary? I know my 46g has it but it is a bowfront. The tank glass is over 1/4" thick.