Reviving my 40 long

Alice B

Fish Herder
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Fort Worth, TX
I bought the 40 to fit under my 55 on my iron stand in 1995. Because I decided to paint it before putting water in it, I was able to take my time. It consistently had fish in it until 2020, when it went outdoors under tarps to let me refinish my floors. My oceanic 55 is still out there. It's so darn heavy I am debating on whether it's worth doing seals on.

Anyway I stripped inner seals on the 40 carefully, cleaned the glass and put nice wide seals in the corners in August or September this year. Did water test, it passed, got help and brought it in, to sit on my credenza for a month while I contemplated the paint damage creatures had caused while it was outside. I finally got around to touching up the paint Friday night. I didn't spend enough time looking at the inside before doing some of the blue areas, I didn't mix light, I mixed the dark, so it's not a perfect repair by a long shot, but with fish and plants in it, I think it will be ok.

Picked up gravel yesterday, decided 3/4 will be undergravel filtered, air driven, and the right 1/4 will be sand bottom play zone for my julii or whatever they are corydoras.
Initial stock - 13 Buenos Aires tetras that were quarantined in the 29 in my fish room, I drained 20 gallons of their water into the 40 and put the sponge and corner filter from their tank in here.
I haven't gotten air connected to the lift tubes yet, but fish are in, a little plant that was in my little shrimp tank is hiding behind the left cave, it's an anubias nana, it will grow. Need to get some fertilizer and more plants in, but for finishing at midnight, it's ok. Catfish can go in when I'm sure there is zero cycle going on
 

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48 by 12 (might 12.5, in the middle of doing something right now.) I had it special ordered because I wanted to stack tanks and I couldn't service a 55 under the existing one, so this is shorter but same footprint. Part of why I did seals- AllGlass made this tank and they've been absorbed by Aqueon, which is Central Garden & Pet. Aqueon also bought up Oceanic and closed their Dallas plant about 20 years ago. I have no idea what is still made.
 
It is a "I hate to buy from them" system. So I bought silicone and redid my seals instead. I used to get Oceanic aquariums from Oceanic in Dallas with a token stop at a wholesaler before this all went down. That wholesaler was Central Garden & Pet. In addition to shutting down Oceanic, they shut down their corporate offices in Houston and moved to Dallas, thus costing my favorite sales rep her job.... And that's how they roll. I buy pond tubing on Amazon for a cheaper price than I can get it wholesale from Central.
 
Old thread - All my tanks were from ALLGLASS except for one small HAGEN. Cheap and good enough. I went looking for them when I resumed the hobby and was saddened by their demise.
 

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