Second Tank

[kcharley]

Hi all.

I'm about to set up a second tank. This one is 22 gal, 24 x 12 x 18. It is an old tank that was leaking, but it was my favorite from many years ago.

I think I did a pretty good job resealing it. Basically if I had removed anymore silicone the glass panes would have started coming apart. Cleaned the joint surfaces with rubbing alcohol, let dry overnight and then used acquarium grade silicone for all joints and for the bottom frame. After letting it sit about a week, I filled it with water. No leaks for 24 hours so I drained it. I then painted the frame, hood and lamp white. (Masked the glass inside and out so no overspray to worry about.)

The stand I've been making will be done soon. It should be strong enough. Six 2x4 legs with 1x for siding and four 2x4 "joists" held together with 3 1/2" deck screws. The stand is 32 high x 30 wide x 20 deep. I've got it pretty level so the top will rest evenly on the frame. The top is granite 2 x 34 x 19.

When I do get it going, I'm going to do a fishless cycle on it.

I do have a few questions.

First, for filtration I'm thinking either an Aqueon 30 HOTB or a Marineland C-220 canister, both are rated at about 200 gal per hour. I've got an Aqueon 30 on my son's 20 gal now and it does a good job. I do have three concerns with it though. First, I will probably have to lengthen the pickup by 6". It doesn't reach to the bottom of the 20 gal and the 22 is 6" deeper. Second, it has limited biological capacity. I did add a little by making a frame from Knex and putting it in the void before the cartridge, though I have no idea if it is effective. Third, it is a little noisy if the water level is a little low. Any comments?

Second, I'm thinking of trying to jumpstart the cycling by moving a second, old air driven filter that I have on the 20 and/or pulling the KNex frame I put in the Aqueon on the 20. My concern is if I will hurt the biological filtration on the 20. It has been running about three months now with the last three weeks holding ammonia and nitrite mostly at zero. I suppose I can try it and if I start having a problem in the 20 I can move one or both back.

Third, I'm modifying the light fixture by adding a second 18" T8 to it. It is going to be separately switched so I can run one or both lights. The one part I'm having trouble finding is a holder for the second starter. It has to be a cheap part but I'm thinking I may have to cannibalize an old flourescent shop light to get the holder. Anybody have an idea where I can find a holder?

Fourth, I'm hoping 30 watts will be enough for some low light plants like pennywort or java ferns. As I'm a newb I'd rather avoid CO2 systems for now. Any thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

 

[erk628]

Hi all.

I'm about to set up a second tank. This one is 22 gal, 24 x 12 x 18. It is an old tank that was leaking, but it was my favorite from many years ago.

I think I did a pretty good job resealing it. Basically if I had removed anymore silicone the glass panes would have started coming apart. Cleaned the joint surfaces with rubbing alcohol, let dry overnight and then used acquarium grade silicone for all joints and for the bottom frame. After letting it sit about a week, I filled it with water. No leaks for 24 hours so I drained it. I then painted the frame, hood and lamp white. (Masked the glass inside and out so no overspray to worry about.)

The stand I've been making will be done soon. It should be strong enough. Six 2x4 legs with 1x for siding and four 2x4 "joists" held together with 3 1/2" deck screws. The stand is 32 high x 30 wide x 20 deep. I've got it pretty level so the top will rest evenly on the frame. The top is granite 2 x 34 x 19.

When I do get it going, I'm going to do a fishless cycle on it.

I do have a few questions.

First, for filtration I'm thinking either an Aqueon 30 HOTB or a Marineland C-220 canister, both are rated at about 200 gal per hour. I've got an Aqueon 30 on my son's 20 gal now and it does a good job. I do have three concerns with it though. First, I will probably have to lengthen the pickup by 6". It doesn't reach to the bottom of the 20 gal and the 22 is 6" deeper. Second, it has limited biological capacity. I did add a little by making a frame from Knex and putting it in the void before the cartridge, though I have no idea if it is effective. Third, it is a little noisy if the water level is a little low. Any comments?

Second, I'm thinking of trying to jumpstart the cycling by moving a second, old air driven filter that I have on the 20 and/or pulling the KNex frame I put in the Aqueon on the 20. My concern is if I will hurt the biological filtration on the 20. It has been running about three months now with the last three weeks holding ammonia and nitrite mostly at zero. I suppose I can try it and if I start having a problem in the 20 I can move one or both back.

Third, I'm modifying the light fixture by adding a second 18" T8 to it. It is going to be separately switched so I can run one or both lights. The one part I'm having trouble finding is a holder for the second starter. It has to be a cheap part but I'm thinking I may have to cannibalize an old flourescent shop light to get the holder. Anybody have an idea where I can find a holder?

Fourth, I'm hoping 30 watts will be enough for some low light plants like pennywort or java ferns. As I'm a newb I'd rather avoid CO2 systems for now. Any thoughts.

Thanks in advance.

Only advice I can give you is keep an eye on the tank. I had a buddy give me a 90 gallon that was leaking. I did what you did but left it in my garage full of water for about a week. The night before I was going to empty it and bring it in the house it started to leak. I'm not going to give up on it thought I'll try again come spring. You may want to set it some wear that if it does leak it won't cause much water damage at least for a week or two preferably not upstairs.

 

[waterdrop]

True, if you could make yourself slow down (hard, I know) and have a longer leak test in a garage, you would also buy time for the filter media on the filters that are on the running 20G to get even more mature before you steal away some of it.

I know you have a lot of questions, so hopefully others will come along with answers. One thing I can answer is that 30w T8 light on the 20G sounds -perfect- for a low light java fern etc. plant effort. That puts you at 1.5wpg and you could make things even better presumably by a lower dosing regimen of macro & micronutrients and a liquid carbon.

200gph certainly puts you up over 5x turnover of filter flow rate, which should be good.

~~waterdrop~~

 

[kcharley]

Only advice I can give you is keep an eye on the tank. I had a buddy give me a 90 gallon that was leaking. I did what you did but left it in my garage full of water for about a week. The night before I was going to empty it and bring it in the house it started to leak. I'm not going to give up on it thought I'll try again come spring. You may want to set it some wear that if it does leak it won't cause much water damage at least for a week or two preferably not upstairs.

erk628,

Thank you. I'm beginning to realize my biggest fear is that the tank will leak --------- in our bedroom on the second floor.

I'll take your advice and set it up in the basement or garage for cycling. It will be easy to fill and easy to empty and a leak would be no big deal.

Thanks again.

WD,

Thanks for the wattage confirmation. If I can't find that one part, I may have to go entirely different bulbs and fixtures. The curse of being handy, spending hours to save a few dollars.

Even if the tank does leak and I don't make the lighting work, at least it looks good.

 

[waterdrop]

, wish I knew a supplier to tell you.. can't believe you wouldn't be able to find any and all parts related to putting fluorescents together either in some bigbox hardware store or out on the web via some specialty supplier. I'd have said to post in the hardware section but probably most all of those guys would be UK. I wonder if reading about all the starters, ballasts etc. on wikipedia and watching for differing terminology and then googling those might turn up some supplier?

~~waterdrop~~

 

[Schmill]

When you set the tank up in the garage sit it on some old newspapers. As long as when you fill it you are careful not to spill, then it should be really obvious if it leaks at any point

 

[kcharley]

, wish I knew a supplier to tell you.. can't believe you wouldn't be able to find any and all parts related to putting fluorescents together either in some bigbox hardware store or out on the web via some specialty supplier. I'd have said to post in the hardware section but probably most all of those guys would be UK. I wonder if reading about all the starters, ballasts etc. on wikipedia and watching for differing terminology and then googling those might turn up some supplier?

~~waterdrop~~

Home Depot carries everything but the holder. Other hardware stores I've tried don't carry them either. Grainger doesn't have them. Sheesh 1,300+ page catalog, 15 plus pages of ballasts and no starter holders.

I scored a broken year old strip light from the LFS tonight. I'll have to take it apart to find the starter. Maybe it is built into the ballast. I think I have an old shop light in the basement. I'll feel like Indiana Jones looking for it though.

Schmill, thanks for the newspaper tip. I'll definitely use it.

Off to the garage to set it up.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[kcharley]

Update and another question.

The new tank has been holding water for 72 hours now. Temp is at 82 and I went with the Aqueon hob filter (I wanted the canister but is cost $50 more). I tried to start the fishless cycle yesterday but did a 95% water change this morning and restarted it this morning. The surprise was that PH has been running 7.6 from the tap. It shot up in the last few days to 8.8. I drained the tank before I realized the tap water was the problem.

I know a low PH can stall a cycle but what about a high PH? I'm also concerned about the PH shocks to fish if the level is going to swing from 7.6 to 8.8. Should I be thinking about getting an RO unit?

Other update: The base cabinet is done except for the doors (being painted) and will be brought upstairs tonight.
And I finally found a starter holder (in an old style, local owned hardware store) so I can add a second tube to my fixture.

Thanks is advance for any comments on the PH.