I made a new thread because this goes way off track from the original craigslist thread.
As some of you know, I made a road trip today to go pick up two tanks of unknown size and condition. It turned out to be a 3 hour round trip, but the price was right; FREE!
Well, the larger of the two tanks I went to pick up for free is a 135 in very poor, but fixable condition. There are three main problems; there is a hefty chip in one corner that goes to the silicone seal, there's a crack on the opposite bottom corner on the same end that has a bad silicone repair job, and the plastic framing is missing 3 end parts, one bottom side part is off but exists, and the other end part is loose. The tank is drilled in the back on the same end as the crack and chip.
The plan:
Clean the areas that need fixing thoroughly
Apply silicone and a glass patch to cover the chip (only to make it safe not hold water)
Fix the crack in the bottom properly with glass and silicone inside and outside the tank.
Here's my magic for making the tank work. I was initially really disappointed with the larger tank until about 5 minutes into my drive home when my make it work creativity kicked in.
Other than the above repairs, I'm going to get a piece of glass cut to make a second side wall/overflow. This glass will provide the strength needed to take the stress and pressure off of the cracked and chipped end of the tank.
This tank will make up the main tank in a group of tanks that will feature trickle constant water replacement! I've always wanted to try this and this is perfect for it. I'm going to use pvc overflows to tie the other tanks in and use neo's automatic water makeup system.
The system will feature a float level kill switch for the pump and automatic float shut off for the replacement water.
The other is another weird tank. 48x18x17 I'm iffy on this one as it may have been designed just for reptiles. It was certainly used for reptiles as it has a really nice metal framed heavy screen top. The middle plastic brace on the tank has been melted in half, evidenlty by a reptile heat lamp.
All this tank needs is a center brace which I'm going to make a 6" piece of glass. I'm going to use a dremel tool to trim off the bad pieces of the rim.
I'll take some pictures soon and post them under another thread maybe titled Craigslist Tanks: Good, Bad, Ugly, and/or Free
As some of you know, I made a road trip today to go pick up two tanks of unknown size and condition. It turned out to be a 3 hour round trip, but the price was right; FREE!
Well, the larger of the two tanks I went to pick up for free is a 135 in very poor, but fixable condition. There are three main problems; there is a hefty chip in one corner that goes to the silicone seal, there's a crack on the opposite bottom corner on the same end that has a bad silicone repair job, and the plastic framing is missing 3 end parts, one bottom side part is off but exists, and the other end part is loose. The tank is drilled in the back on the same end as the crack and chip.
The plan:
Clean the areas that need fixing thoroughly
Apply silicone and a glass patch to cover the chip (only to make it safe not hold water)
Fix the crack in the bottom properly with glass and silicone inside and outside the tank.
Here's my magic for making the tank work. I was initially really disappointed with the larger tank until about 5 minutes into my drive home when my make it work creativity kicked in.
Other than the above repairs, I'm going to get a piece of glass cut to make a second side wall/overflow. This glass will provide the strength needed to take the stress and pressure off of the cracked and chipped end of the tank.
This tank will make up the main tank in a group of tanks that will feature trickle constant water replacement! I've always wanted to try this and this is perfect for it. I'm going to use pvc overflows to tie the other tanks in and use neo's automatic water makeup system.
The system will feature a float level kill switch for the pump and automatic float shut off for the replacement water.
The other is another weird tank. 48x18x17 I'm iffy on this one as it may have been designed just for reptiles. It was certainly used for reptiles as it has a really nice metal framed heavy screen top. The middle plastic brace on the tank has been melted in half, evidenlty by a reptile heat lamp.
All this tank needs is a center brace which I'm going to make a 6" piece of glass. I'm going to use a dremel tool to trim off the bad pieces of the rim.
I'll take some pictures soon and post them under another thread maybe titled Craigslist Tanks: Good, Bad, Ugly, and/or Free
