In at the deep end

[King Arthur]

Hello Everyone.

New member here from Israel. Glad to be on the forum.

I've wanted a planted tank for ages now, but finances and other obligations meant it just wasn't feasible.

However, I was on my way home yesterday when something caught my eye. I'm always on the look out for useful trash and this seemed to be interesting. On closer inspection I found a huge aquarium. It's all glass, about 330L, roughly 77cm by 77cm by 57cm high.

Looks professionally made and it was too good to pass by, so I got some old bits of wood to act as skis and hauled it home. It now sits in my garden and so I'm here, about to take the plunge in a far grander style than I had been imagining.

As a complete newbie, I need a little advice. Is this too big to start off with? I had always imagined a low tech setup, with more of a carpet of simple plants rather than anything extravagant. I liked the idea of the central piece being a large stone tall stone. I'm not a fan of large fish and always imagined a small shoal of tetras or similar.

The tank has a corner that has been boxed off and split into two compartments. Looks like it was designed for a filtration system. One of these compartments sits over a neatly drilled hole in the bottom of the tank. If anyone could enlighten me as to what this is for and how the filtration may work I'd really appreciate it.

Well that's it. I should start a journal when I get the kit together to make a start.

Thanks!

Richard.

 

[ian_m]

Before starting anything, fill with water and leave...you might end up finding the reason it had been thrown away 😉.

The two compartments and hole in the bottom would be for a drain to a sump, sounds like this was a marine tank.

The water overflows into the compartments and out the hole in the bottom into a sump tank underneath where it would be filtered and pumped back into the main tank. The purpose of the two compartments is to limit the amount of water that drains from the main tank in the event of power failure.

Yes can be used as a planted tank, means all the filtration/heating/dosing etc can be done outside the main tank. Biggest issue is outgassing of injected CO2 as the water sploshes and gurgles down to the sump. Many people have achieved great results with sumps, by either injecting excess CO2 and settling for large losses and/or designing clever overflows and drains that minimises sploshing keeping the CO2 in the water.

Here is an idea to prevent gurgling.
https://www.dursostandpipes.com/

This is another quiet one.
http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx

http://gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/

With this tank you would need a fairly "clever" (ie expensive & strong) stand with suitable holes for piping and space for sumps, as well as storage for all the other equipment required CO2, dosing pumps , bottle storage etc.

 

[kadoxu]

Hi and welcome!

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

Hi Arthur, I'm liking your style but you may find the tank is more trouble than it's worth. Insofar as having to buy equipment to make this particular tank work for you with minimal cost. It is dooable however. You could block the sump hole corner off. Have you tried classified and stuff in the local papers? The problem with this hobby is nobody has any patience and often don't fully understand the requirements. This often leads to people giving away or selling their equipment cheap often just to make room in their garage 😀 That's a benefit to people like us, let them pay the retail price of ignorance. 😉 I should know, I have about three tanks in my garage donated by these very same people for free.
Make a few more posts and have a look into how all this works, get an understanding of the basics and work out what you want/need. Then you'll be able to go into the sale/swap/wanted section of the board. Let people know where you are and I feel sure someone will have a tank for you. Just build your equipment up a bit at a time. Don't get dazzled by the tanks you see in here and feel you have to have £££££ of equipment to make that a reality. Some of the people in here are pros, if you just want a simple setup with some nice plants and a shoal of fish you need tank/light of any desrciption/heater and a filter and you're good to go.

Welcome to the board.

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

But on the other hand...I've just realised you are from Israel. Things might be a bit more difficult on a UK based Forum just checked you out in case you were near me, you could have quite happily took one of these tanks off my hands.

 

[King Arthur]

Hi.

Thanks for the great replies. I really appreciate it, and the offer of the tank AverageWhiteBloke! I'm sorry I can't take you up on that.

I am originally from the UK, so I naturally join UK forums for things that interest me. There's no language barrier and the drawbacks are minimal.

I am very much a fan or waiting and seeing what I can find cheap/free locally. Like I say, I've wanted a tank for years and knew if I waited then an opportunity like this will arise. I'm aware of the investment in time etc that I'll have to make and that's fine.

So, here's where I am at the moment - I'm thinking that I can do away with the idea of a sump. From what I've read there are advantages and significant drawbacks. Being a newbie, I can ask the stupid questions. What is stopping me getting rid of the compartments in the tank corner, adding a pipe through the hole in the tank so that the entrance rises above the level of the substrate and use that to draw water below the tank into a filtration system / heater etc. That could then be returned over the top of the tank in a discrete manner. Unless I'm missing something significant, this seems quite do-able to me?

Once again, thanks everyone for taking the time to reply.

Regards,

Richard.

 

[AverageWhiteBloke]

No problem, I have seen some people who have pre drilled tanks that want to not use a sump get a piece of glass cut and silicone it over the hole.