What is this black box in my tank

[haley20]

I recently bought this tank online it was so cheap I couldn’t pass it up 180 gallons for 100$ however I have no idea what this black box in my tank is for. There is no holes in the bottom of the tank, I have my filter running over top of it so I can get it going but I want to use it how it’s supposed to be. Please help

 

[Dmmz]

Welcome to R2R!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[shakacuz]

welcome aboard the r2r board. hello from PA!

 

[cdemoss01]

This is obviously a AIO. Is it possibly a DIY project that the old owner had? Maybe unfinished or theres just a lot of loose ends here. Id reccomend filling it with any type of water outside to reduce water damage possibilities in case of a leak. Also welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[stewy14]

its a sump

I posted a picture below

for an aio

 

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

Are you sure the seller was actually using this tank? It almost seems like they were building in an AIO and gave up.

My thoughts exactly

 

[CoralB]

Welcome !!

 

[VintageReefer]

Op says no return output hole at the top. And that the slots go all the way across

 

[VintageReefer]

It’s shown in this picture. This is definitely some homebrew design. What the original owner was planning…I have a guess. An all on one that is designed for a canister

My guess…is they used a canister filter but they wanted two things: to hide equipment and to gain surface skimming

I think they built a wall to wall overflow chamber to gain surface skimming. The chambers are to hide a heater and biomedia. And a canister filter would suck in water from the bottom of one of these chambers and the canister would provide the return via a U shape return they would rest on the tank frame

 

[VintageReefer]

@haley20

Can you post the listing ad and pictures from the original seller ?

I really want to figure this out and upon closer review, the entire tank appears to be home made, and, very stupid to me. I question the builders knowledge and ability to understand tanks let alone build them.

Building an internal all in one filtration system is pretty straight forward and this is a very weird design. There is no factoring for a return. The baffles all appear to be the same height. I can’t tell from the pictures but are there underwater / lower slots of spaces for water to move from chamber to chamber?

Also the framing seemed weird at first to me. I thought they just added some panels on to be decorative. I realize now they are intended to be structural. Appears they glued wood panels around the top the tank to hide a diy attempt to make their own dual euro brace.

If I were you I would be contacting the seller and trying to gain more info on the history of the tank and their intentions / design with the black chamber area

 

[VintageReefer]

@vetteguy53081

Please see post 48,49,50

Does any of this make sense ? Is this eurobrace safe?

 

[vetteguy53081]

@vetteguy53081

Please see post 48,49,50

Does any of this make sense ? Is this eurobrace safe?

Eurobrace should be on the top rim, not where located and the overflow box looks like aftermarket and would typically have overflow into the area and a return pump to return water back to tank and room for a media basket and even a mini skimmer unit

 

[VintageReefer]

Maybe it’s not a euro brace and is some type of light mount

 

[haley20]

@haley20

Can you post the listing ad and pictures from the original seller ?

I really want to figure this out and upon closer review, the entire tank appears to be home made, and, very stupid to me. I question the builders knowledge and ability to understand tanks let alone build them.

Building an internal all in one filtration system is pretty straight forward and this is a very weird design. There is no factoring for a return. The baffles all appear to be the same height. I can’t tell from the pictures but are there underwater / lower slots of spaces for water to move from chamber to chamber?

Also the framing seemed weird at first to me. I thought they just added some panels on to be decorative. I realize now they are intended to be structural. Appears they glued wood panels around the top the tank to hide a diy attempt to make their own dual euro brace.

If I were you I would be contacting the seller and trying to gain more info on the history of the tank and their intentions / design with the black chamber area

 

[haley20]

Here’s the original post, I have media in the black boxes, I thought about putting my canister filter inside of it but have no idea if that would even work. Or if I can just take the black box out I’d be down with that too.