John Michael
New Member
What up Reefers!!!!!!
About 4 months ago, I was on YouTube and went down a rabbit hole watching. All types of videos and came across “52 weeks of reefing” from Bulk Reef Supply. I watched the entire series and then started watching videos of display tanks. I was hooked. I spent 3 months of just purely watching YouTube videos and ready a bunch of articles on saltwater tanks. So now I’m ready to give this a try! The first question was; what size tank to get? I’ve seen allot of people start with 40gallon breeders up to 120 gallons. But mama didn’t raise no *****! So I knew I wanted larger.
While scrolling on FB market place I came across a listing of a tank!
In the picture it didn’t seam large but decided to send a message asking for dimensions. The person replied a few hours later saying it was still available and the dimensions are 72 1/2 X 24 1/2 X 29.
I went to customaquariums.com and plugged in the size of the tank and see how much they would charge for one.
So $1900 brand new for a very similar size to the size the guy on Facebook was selling.
Ouch!
I become very suspicious on the Facebook add. Something is seriously wrong.
These are all the faces I made looking at this add. . Something is wrong for sure!!!!! But I decided to entertain this and asked him a question. What’s the conditions of the tank? Cracked? Seals blown? Anything wrong with the tank?
The gentleman repolied the next day.
“The tank is in perfect shape no need to worry at all” “ I recently bought my house and realized the this tank wasn’t going to fit so I down sized to a 125g tank to fit better in my living room. I just don’t need this tank anymore and want to let somebody enjoy it as much as I did. So your new to the saltwater addiction? If you come get it and bring a buddy to load it you can have it for $350.” Holy crap balls, is this guy serious?
I drove 2hours north to go check this tank out. I was expecting to see something wrong! I looked and ever seal seam every piece of glass. I was looking for bubbles or or a chip or a crack! Not a daem thing!
I handed him $350 bucks and loaded it into the truck and drove back. One heck of a find!
Next day I deiceded to clean the tank remove the blue paint on the back and scrape off the calcium off glass and fill it in my garage and see if it was gonna hold water. Sure enough! Like a champ! I inspected this thing from top to bottom! Looks like I got a heck of a deal on this. Lucky me!
Ok, so now I need a stand. Should I buy one? Should I have somebody make me one? Should I just build one?
I watched a few videos online on how to build one!
I drew out a stand design on a piece of paper and figured out all my measurements and how much wood I needed. I went to Home Depot and decided to purchase (6) 2x6x20 Douglas fir timber for $12 a piece and then needed a few more pieces so bought (1) 2x6x8 same material flr $8.50.
I went over to the wood cutting station and to get the 20ft ones cut to fit in the truck.
I get to talking with the guy and asked me what I was building. I told him a DIY Reef tank stand. He pulls out his phone and starts showing me his tank and corals and all sorts of cool stuff. He built his stand and asked if I had my design and measurement. I actually did. So I showed him and he said he would be willing to cut all the lumber to size I needed for free. He did great .
Went home and build my aquarium stand!
I decided to not put a center support on the front for easy sump area! I’m gonna go get some ply wood next week and treat it and seal it then then skirt my whole stand and perhaps Formica the panels i want all of them to be on magnets so I can take everything off! It’s gonna looks great. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.
This is where I am so far:
Next few steps:
Skirt the tank
Plum the overflow to bottom with gate valves and check valves close it up.
Purchase 200lbs of Reef saver Rock from BRS and about 120lbs of live sand.
Aquascape the tank and then begins the cycle process.
Once that’s going I’m going to just put a Power head and HOB filter on it just to keep clean intill I set up my sump area.
Still haven’t found a good priced sump that I like. Any suggestions?
I’m calling this Build the JR220! So -#JR220
About 4 months ago, I was on YouTube and went down a rabbit hole watching. All types of videos and came across “52 weeks of reefing” from Bulk Reef Supply. I watched the entire series and then started watching videos of display tanks. I was hooked. I spent 3 months of just purely watching YouTube videos and ready a bunch of articles on saltwater tanks. So now I’m ready to give this a try! The first question was; what size tank to get? I’ve seen allot of people start with 40gallon breeders up to 120 gallons. But mama didn’t raise no *****! So I knew I wanted larger.
While scrolling on FB market place I came across a listing of a tank!
In the picture it didn’t seam large but decided to send a message asking for dimensions. The person replied a few hours later saying it was still available and the dimensions are 72 1/2 X 24 1/2 X 29.
I went to customaquariums.com and plugged in the size of the tank and see how much they would charge for one.
So $1900 brand new for a very similar size to the size the guy on Facebook was selling.
Ouch!
I become very suspicious on the Facebook add. Something is seriously wrong.
These are all the faces I made looking at this add. . Something is wrong for sure!!!!! But I decided to entertain this and asked him a question. What’s the conditions of the tank? Cracked? Seals blown? Anything wrong with the tank?
The gentleman repolied the next day.
“The tank is in perfect shape no need to worry at all” “ I recently bought my house and realized the this tank wasn’t going to fit so I down sized to a 125g tank to fit better in my living room. I just don’t need this tank anymore and want to let somebody enjoy it as much as I did. So your new to the saltwater addiction? If you come get it and bring a buddy to load it you can have it for $350.” Holy crap balls, is this guy serious?
I drove 2hours north to go check this tank out. I was expecting to see something wrong! I looked and ever seal seam every piece of glass. I was looking for bubbles or or a chip or a crack! Not a daem thing!
I handed him $350 bucks and loaded it into the truck and drove back. One heck of a find!
Next day I deiceded to clean the tank remove the blue paint on the back and scrape off the calcium off glass and fill it in my garage and see if it was gonna hold water. Sure enough! Like a champ! I inspected this thing from top to bottom! Looks like I got a heck of a deal on this. Lucky me!
Ok, so now I need a stand. Should I buy one? Should I have somebody make me one? Should I just build one?
I watched a few videos online on how to build one!
I drew out a stand design on a piece of paper and figured out all my measurements and how much wood I needed. I went to Home Depot and decided to purchase (6) 2x6x20 Douglas fir timber for $12 a piece and then needed a few more pieces so bought (1) 2x6x8 same material flr $8.50.
I went over to the wood cutting station and to get the 20ft ones cut to fit in the truck.
I get to talking with the guy and asked me what I was building. I told him a DIY Reef tank stand. He pulls out his phone and starts showing me his tank and corals and all sorts of cool stuff. He built his stand and asked if I had my design and measurement. I actually did. So I showed him and he said he would be willing to cut all the lumber to size I needed for free. He did great .
Went home and build my aquarium stand!
I decided to not put a center support on the front for easy sump area! I’m gonna go get some ply wood next week and treat it and seal it then then skirt my whole stand and perhaps Formica the panels i want all of them to be on magnets so I can take everything off! It’s gonna looks great. I’ll keep you posted on how that goes.
This is where I am so far:
Next few steps:
Skirt the tank
Plum the overflow to bottom with gate valves and check valves close it up.
Purchase 200lbs of Reef saver Rock from BRS and about 120lbs of live sand.
Aquascape the tank and then begins the cycle process.
Once that’s going I’m going to just put a Power head and HOB filter on it just to keep clean intill I set up my sump area.
Still haven’t found a good priced sump that I like. Any suggestions?
I’m calling this Build the JR220! So -#JR220
