# My 240 gallon chronicle



## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

I decided to start a new thread to follow my slow journey of setting up a 240 gallon tank. It's a 4 year old 8'x2'x2' with starphire glass front and sides that used to be a reef tank. I bought it local from the doctor that had it set up in his office until he moved offices. It has 13 holes drilled in it. 4 in the bottom at the front of the tank, 2 in the bottom of each overflow, and 5 in the back glass. It needs a lot of cleaning up, but it's nearly scratch free, and the ones it does have are minor. I may even try to buff them out, but probably not.
As you can see from the pictures below, I've got a lot of mineral deposits to clean up, and a lot of silicone to scrape off of the bulkhead holes (which were all siliconed inside and outside the tank.)










































I also have two 40breeder tanks that I am going to use as sumps. I'm modeling this set up after fmueller's. So I've ordered two 1800gph pondmasters and four sheets of poret filter foam. The plan is to sandwich the filter foam together in each sump so that I can do maintenance without having to take the entire wall of foam out, since I'll also be using the sumps as growouts. I also plan to plumb the setup to my house plumbing for easy maintenance. More on that later. I think I've covered enough for now.


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## spotmonster (Nov 23, 2006)

Why in the heck does it have so many holes? Is that popular in the reef community?


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

I don't know about popular, but it is done. It was some kind of closed loop setup with returns in the front bottom and back corners. But I never saw it fully set up and I didn't ask him the details. I just said, "Wow, that's a lot of holes."


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

FedEXguy said:


> I just said, "Wow, that's a lot of holes."


 :lol: The fact that it has that many holes still makes me laugh..

How are you planning on patching the what.. 10? you don't use? :roll:

Looking forward to seeing this project come together! :thumb:


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

CjCichlid said:


> How are you planning on patching the what.. 10? you don't use? :roll:
> 
> Looking forward to seeing this project come together! :thumb:


I'm not 100% sure, just yet. I may find a use for all of them, but I'll probably end up capping at least a few. To cap them, I'll probably use a bulkhead plus a capped piece of pvc. I think I'm going to put strainers on the two end bottom holes and use them as drains for water changes. Just depends on how well I think I can hide the strainers with decoration. At least a few of the holes on the back I'll plumb with lock-line returns, so that I can adjust where poo flows around my tank. But I don't want a torrent of water movement like a reef tank, so I've got to figure that out. I guess I'll plug the smaller holes in the overflows, as well, and just use the larger for my standpipes. If I cap the the larger hole in the back, it could function as a cave, maybe.


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

You can use PVC plugs to "cap" them so they lie fairly flat on the bottom. I've got some extra holes in my 180 that I did this with, you waste a bulkhead (or you have a permanent bulkhead plug if you are a positive thinker), but it's simple and it works and bulkheads are pretty cheap online.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Is a pvc plug a thing I can just buy? Or is it something I fashion out of a capped piece of pvc, because that's what I was planning on doing.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Well, I scraped all of the silicone off of the bulkhead areas last night and started working on the mineral deposits a bit. Took hours, but thank goodness I set the tank on 4x4 blocks, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to (just barely) get a hand under the tank for scraping the bottom. The overflow covers (not pictured) have been cleaned, as well, but I can tell it's going to take another pass or two to get the hazy look out of it. Anyone have a better idea than Mr. Clean magic erasers for that?


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Plugs can be slip or threaded. The slip kind slides into an actual fitting(90, coupling, etc.) of the same size pipe, and not the pipe itself.
http://www.homedepot.com/b/Plumbing...PVC-Pipe-Fittings-Fittings-Plugs/N-5yc1vZbuwz
I'm guessing lilscoots is just using an appropriate sized plug that fits snug into whatever hole he's covering.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Cool, thanks. I've obviously not done much plumbing in my life


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

Yeah, I had a hole for a 1" bulkhead and a hole for a 3/4" bulkhead that I needed to plug, so I put in slip bulk heads and cemented in PVC plugs. You could get threaded bulkheads and a threaded plug and you could at least reuse the bulkhead if you ever needed to.


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)




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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Awesome, thanks! That's what I'm going to do, then. I think I'll keep the overall plumbing pretty simple and just cap most of the holes.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

I'm toying with the idea of adding undergravel jets as the return for my pumps. Have any of you all used that in conjunction with overflows? I'm wondering if all the detritus will make it up to the top of the tank, or will I just have constant swirls of poo floating mid-water?


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I put them in my 90 gallon and liked the way they kept the detrius moving so it made it's way to the overflow. I didn't like they way they looked.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

So, would you do them again? Or would you just do the occasional gravel vac?


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

If I could hide them and have it still look "natural" I probably would, that being said, I did not put them in my 180 and removed them from my 125 after I got sick of looking at them and trying to hide them without it looking obvious I was trying to hide them. and mine were very low profile, they were plugs with slits cut into them, not the protruding flattened sections of pipe. I went with a full tank spray bar in my 180 and it pushes all the stuff to some hidden "dead" spots that I vac every week.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Yep, sold me. I know that if I kept seeing them peeking out of the substrate, or getting uncovered, I'd probably hate them pretty shortly. I think I'll just stick with the vacuuming. Thanks for the input!


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

I literally never vacuum my sand. I just keep the filters going during water changes and it blows everything around into the filters..


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## skurj (Oct 30, 2011)

Don't wish to derail but **** poop! my 180g with the 2262, fx6 and 110 has poop accumulatin at the end the 2262 is working. The reason I guess is that the spraybar from the 2262 points across the surface. Thankfully its adjustable in 5" sections or so, so trying 3 up 2 down sorta thing.. swordtails are worse than any pleco IMO for being turdproducers


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

CjCichlid said:


> I literally never vacuum my sand. I just keep the filters going during water changes and it blows everything around into the filters..


That won't work with overflows.


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

Ah.. very true. Well perhaps a couple well placed powerheads/wavemakers?


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Yeah, I'll use some regular returns and see where I have dead spots, then add powerheads accordingly. If I can get it down to accumulating in just a couple of spots, that'll be fine with me.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

I made a post about it in the DIY forum, but here's why I haven't updated in awhile:


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

I'm going to reply on this one to your question about fixing this on the other post you started to keep things uncluttered. If the glass piece sits on top of the bottom pane it will be easier to fix...you wouldn't have to remove the bottom trim at least. It looks like the top trim is in pieces and appears to be more decorative than structural? The glass eurobracing is what seems to be providing the structural strength at least what I'm seeing in the photo. If that is the case, you can pull the end piece of the top trim off and remove the cracked side panel. Get a glass shop to cut you a new piece and silicone it in. and replace the trim.

If however, the bottom pane is between the sides and not under them, you'd have to remove the bottom trim. If it is also in pieces as the top appears to be this would also make it easier.


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

I couldn't really tell from looking, so I asked the manufacturer and they said the side panel rests on the bottom panel. I didn't ask about this, but I would imagine the trim is mostly decorative on the top since the tank has cross and euro-bracing. They also told me that likely I now own a terrarium


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

Uhhh.. what the heck happened?!


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Well, we had a lot of sleet, more than expected. My driveway slopes down to the garage, and I was parked outside of it instead of at the top of the driveway. Had to call in to work because I was stuck. Figured I'd wait until the sun helped me out. Spread a bunch of salt and dug around. Got up extra early the next day to find I'd pretty much ended up stuck in a solid sheet of ice. Never had a driveway that didn't slope away from the house, before, so I was not expecting this outcome. After unsuccessfully digging out, I tried rocking myself out. Didn't shut the garage door, even though it crossed my mind. Ended up throwing a rock out of my treads (I guess, don't know exactly) straight into the side of the tank. Watched 240 gallons of water full of glass shards fill my garage. Thankfully, it slopes out, so I didn't have water damage to worry about. Punched myself for being an idiot, called in to work again, and went back to bed.


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

FedEXguy said:


> I couldn't really tell from looking, so I asked the manufacturer and they said the side panel rests on the bottom panel. (


That's good news and you don't own a terrarium, yet. I would remove the top trim piece on that side and cut that piece of glass and all it's shards out, a bunch or thin razor blades and a very thin putty knife will help you there, some people have used thin wire or very strong fishing line to get between the panels but I've not had luck with that, the fishing line always got cut by the glass edge and I couldn't fine wire thin enough. Like previously stated, you will have to cut out the old silicone from the bottom and side corner fillets and remove all the residue, get a new piece of glass and reseal the thing. It will be pretty time consuming, but worth the time in my opinion. If there's eurobracing in the corner, you'll probably have to remove the piece that hold the front and back together to have enough flex to properly silicone in the new piece.


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## CjCichlid (Sep 14, 2005)

FedEX, although I chuckled a bit at the story.. THAT freakin SUCKS! But hey.. what's one more "hole" to plug? 

So what are we thinking here.. some sort of amphib or reptile.. time out box for small children.. or taking a hit and selling it to start from scratch?


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## Iggy Newcastle (May 15, 2012)

Sorry about your tank. That is a wild story. I'd imagine that rock would have had to be traveling insanely fast. I've heard of baseball bats bouncing off tanks like that.



> some sort of amphib or reptile..


An 8' planted dart frog tank. That'd be more expensive than stocking with fish!


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## FedEXguy (Feb 24, 2005)

Honestly, I'm only assuming it was a rock. There's no evidence of it, though. But considering there were glass shards halfway UP my driveway, I can only imagine how far a small rock would have ricocheted. And Iggy, that's what I told my wife when she was consoling me over my loss. I said, I probably couldn't have thrown a baseball hard enough into that panel to break it.

Anyway, I do plan on trying to fix it, as soon as I can make some daylight hours time to work on it (makes it a lot easier to see all the little slivers of glass.)

Lilscoots, thanks for the confidence boost! Question: If it's so tight between the panels that it's hard to find thin enough wire (it is) how am I supposed to get silicone in there when I put the tank back together?


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

If you remove the eurobracing at that end at the top, lay a bead first where the pane will go (bottom and sides), you can GENTLY wedge the top at that end apart just enough to slide the pane down into position, put some silicone on your finger, and shove it into the joint, you can see from the front/back/bottom through the glass and see the silicone between the panes and if there are any air bubbles, continue to put more silicone on your finger and push it into the joint until you've pushed out any air bubbles... it will be a horrible mess that you'll let cure, cut the excess out, clean it up, and reseal when you reseal the entire inner fillet. it won't be easy, but it's doable.


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