140 Gallon project

[Neesmo]

I have picked up a 140 gallon tank recently from Kijiji. Got it for a good deal and hope to move my Red bellied Piranhas into it within a couple weeks. Right now I have 6 RBPs ranging from 4-12" in a 80 gallon which is too small and it requires mass water changes.

Tank is 72L x 19W x 24H
Glass is 12MM 1/2" thick
Tank is rimless top and bottom. Bottom being 3/4" inset on bottom

This is how the tank sat when I came to look at it.

When we decided to purchase the tank we knew that we would need to do some bracing to the top and make sure to support the bottom considering there is no trim to hold the bottom pane securely in place. Last thing we need is silicone giving way.

I started the project by having 4 pieces of glass cut to 18" x 6" to use as braces in the the top. Braces in inset 1/4" so the lids will sit nicely in the top.
Glass is 10mm as I couldnt find 12mm locally, but should hold nicely.
Took me about 1-2 hours to clean the tank up as it was used as a salt water tank previously and had some minor deposits around the top. Also had to remove a lot of silicone from the top and bottom where the trims were previously held on

I held all the braces in place with celfort and 2x4s to keep them from moving while the silicone set up. First I only siliconed the top of each piece and then after 24 hours I removed the supports and siliconed the bottom portions of the braces. I used tape at ~5/16-3/8" down from the brace to make a clean edge of silicone. I pulled the tape after doing all the siliconing and had a straight edge, as you will be able to clearly see it when tank is complete.





After all the silicone was on it looks almost ready for a stand



The stand is already started as you can see in some of the pictures. I will continue to work on the stand over the next week or so as I really dont know what I want to do with the inside of it yet. I know I will have the power bar and some shelves setup inside. Along with building in a stand for the filter I will be running on this tank. Im looking for a good deal on an FX5 but will likely end up running a Fluval internal and a Rena XP4 as I think it would be a better setup for Piranhas and their messy foods.

Also might mount the 10 Gallon hospital tank into the face of the stand and only have 1 good sized door instead of 2 doors. I only need access to the filter as I store all my foods and filter media in another tanks stand

Will keep posting updates as I gain progress

Let me know any ideas or thoughts

Kyle

[Nicklfire]

That's a very exciting project.

Why not run a sump undernearth it, and just drill it? That way you could put like a 55 gallon tank undernearth it, increase your water capacity, then X the fluval or FX5 and just do all sump media.. then you can hide your heater in it... etc.

I think it would look pretty good drilled with bulkheads.

Unless it's tempered glass


other then that, that should be a sweet tank, nice and big, i'd love to get a big one like that one day

[Neesmo]

I run a Hydor ETH inline heater on the Piranha setup so the heater is hidden no matter what. It is plate glass sides with tempered bottom (Im assuming anyways) am really considering the sump idea actually. I have a 40 gallon tall that would be perfect for it but I got it new about a year ago and would rather buy a used tank and set it up. I plan to look on Kijiji for a good deal on a 40+ that would fit nicely in the stand.

I dont know very much about setting up a sump so I would need to do a lot of research. Does anyone know of a good guide on building a simple sump setup?

My major issue is that for Piranhas I will need mass mechanical filtration and still a decent amount of bio filtration. Sumps, from what I hear lack in the mechanical area.

Thanks for any advise

Kyle

[Grover]

If you build your own sump you can add as much mechanical filtration as you want just by adding compartments. Your project looks good so far! Good luck.

[Neesmo]

Im pretty sure that Ive decided to drill the tank so that its ready for a sump but I will likely run a FX5 or a couple XP3s for the first little while. After I can setup a sump Ill just use the canister on one of my other tanks

Kyle

[Neesmo]

OOOPS. Got a little rammy trying to straighten out the tank on my stand.


Need to get a 12 mm peice of glass custom cut now..

Kyle

[Neesmo]

Thinking about cutting the whole bottom out now and installing the bottom flush to the bottom of the side glass. Would that be a bad idea?

Kyle

[Neesmo]

cut the side out and found a new one locally after making 20+ calls. $50 for the 12mm I needed. Not bad

Kyle