detroit, huge tank wanted

leigh

leigh

Active Member
Makes sense to me--i thought he was being a lil nutsy wanting $1500 for the 120...i'm in no hurry on a bigger tank and am mostly keeping my eye out for something acrylic (just because i anticipate moving in the next couple years and glass would be more of a pain in the butt) but i would be interested in the 180--what are it's dimensions? Again, I'm in no hurry, but if you think of it please let me know when you do put it up for sale...
-leigh
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
72'' X 24'' X 24''
Yeah if you're a grad student and going to be graduating soon and moving out of state, I'd say skip buying it unless you're getting a U Haul to move where you're going. It is also a royal pain to take up any stairs. You'll need at least two big fellas to help you.
My 300 gal acrylic in the basement is lighter than my 180 glass. I think my glass tank has better clarity and is lower maintenance though. Plus if you bump a rock into an acrylic tank you gotta always worry about putting a nasty scratch in it. I think acrylic is only good for monster tanks. I'm not saying it's bad, just glass is much easier and lower maintenance, and all of those little scratches you will eventually get look horrible under metal halide lamps. There is no avoiding those little hairline scratches in acrylic. If you clean your acrylic you will get scratches, just lettin you know.
 
hookedonreefs

hookedonreefs

Member
If I remember correctly there' a 525 tank going for like 600 on electronic bay. There was a big crack in the back of the tank, but the seller got a replacement piece of glass, you just need to get a local company to fix the tank for you. It had double overflows and was real nice for the price. I still have the link around somewhere if you're interested, just e-mail me.
I think there's still a couple of days left to bid. Oh, and it was in Illinois, but I'm not sure what part.
Good luck.
 
saltydawg

saltydawg

Member
Why dont you just have a tank made for you at your local glass shop? They could drill the holes and use tempered glass and everything. You could get the plastic striping from all glass.com or the likes I am sure. This way you could make it any size you wanted . Just make sure they use 3/4" glass for a tank that size at the minimum. A friend of mine had a HUGE tank made that way. For the same purpose as well. A shark/ ray tank. I think it is 627 some odd gallons total. It has 1" thick glass though and weighs close to 500lbs with no water in it! with water in it it is over 4000lbs I am sure. 4514.4lbs to be exact just in water weight at 7.2lbs per gallon I think? With sand rock ect.... 5000 easy!
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
I think water is 8.3 lb/gal
Thanks for the info guys.
The tank is gotta be certain dimensions to make it down the stairway to the basement, so it would either have to be so big or be assembled in the basement.
Already had to pull kitchen cabinets/stove etc. To get the 300 I have now down there. It's acrylic and getting it down the stairs was hard enough with two guys, stairway is kinda narrow so you can only have one guy on each end in the stairway. 1'' glass wouldda killed us!!!LOL
Saltydawg-I would like to see some pics of your friend's tank if at all possible
tony
 
saltydawg

saltydawg

Member
EWWWWW kinda hard !! He lives in FLA and I am in ohio.
I used to live in St pete right next store to him. I dont have his email either.
I would have the peices cut and drilled then hand carry and assemble them where you want it if I were you. 1" thick glass is heavy indeed, but... thinking back It may have only been 3/4" .You have to have pretty thick glass the taller the tank is. His tank was like 4ft or 3.5 ft tall I think? It was only as long as about ummm say a 280 gallon. But was very deep and tall. I think anything over 18 inches and 30" long you have to use 3/8" glass and anything taller than 18 " but longer then like 48" and you have to use1/2" or larger depending on actual hieght and depth of the tank to be . Surface area is the thing here indeed. the larger the surface area the more pressure pushing out. Thus the need for thicker glass/acrylic. These are not exact but prety close to what I remebr him telling me when I went with him to pick it up. ( 10 or so years ago!!! LOL!) but seriously all you have to do is perform a search on the net and you will get all the info you need on custom building tanks. I mean a pile of it!
G-luck!
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
Like I previously stated
Leigh, don't feel bad that guy needs all the advertising he can get
Whatta piece, he should pay whoever takes it for putting that in their house-:eek:
 
leigh

leigh

Active Member
I'm confused--i was talking about the 600 gal i posted the info on for you? is that one a junker too?
 
tony detroit

tony detroit

Active Member
I want to put the 300 that's in the basement in the living room, which is pushing it as is with the 180weight wise. Then I want to put the new tank in the basement for the sharks/rays. Plus a 600 gal aquarium would be almost 3x of my 180's as far as weight goes. I guess you could call me addicted. I'm just running out of money for all these darn tanks. I just spent 3k on the stuff I ordered for my 300.
-Have you been to Tropicorium in a while???
 
leigh

leigh

Active Member
nope, unfortunately, i keep getting tied up on fri/sat/sun...wish they had some weeknight hours! i think you should build a sunroom with a solid foundation--no basement under it--and put the 600 in it and invite all us michiganders over to visit it :D (wow is it easy to spend other people's money, he he)...seriously, a 180 and a 300 in the living room--that sounds pretty sweet!
 
leigh

leigh

Active Member
oh, i rigged one of the 13 watt pc's into it...not enough light for sps or clams (as i'd originally hoped)...but works good for shrooms and caulerpa. i've had caulerpa in there for a week and just yanked out a handful an hour ago for my tang...put a shroom in there this morning so we'll see how it does. so what kinda sharks are you going to put in the new 300? and what's in the 180? the other 300 is a reef right? or do i have things backwards?
 
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