My 250

nailbender

nailbender

New member
OK. Its official. I got her highness's royal permission. I am the proud owner of a used 250 gallon custom acrylic tank. It comes with a 3) 250 watt metal halide fixture, sump, and pump. When I'm ready to set it up he'll fill it with salt water and sand. Steve at Sea Schor practically gave it to me. Oh and he'll deliver it too. It needs a stand, but I think I know some one who can build it, but he has to build a TV cabinet for said highness first. Its 72" long, 30" high, and 24" deep at the ends 30" deep at the middle bow front. I can't wait to get it up and running.
 
Awesome news man! Her highness can just have an Ikea fiberboard tv cabinet! U need to build a stand asap! :-)
 
Nice Pickup! Steve has had some interesting used tanks the times I have gone in there. I am looking forward to seeing this come together. Take the time to clean it and to buff out any scratches it has. I did a lot of buffing... and my tank turned out great.... still some scratches. But nothing compared to what it had.

Find some Novus and a orbital polisher.... That is what I did.
 
i got a quick question, would i be able to buff my tank from outside? it has some long scratches... while the tank is still full?
 
Rick, im sure you probably have one already, but if you need, you can borrow my porter cable 7424 to buff and polish the tank. I have no need for it for a few more months anyways until its time to give the cars a good washdown and polish for spring.
 
Good question on whether you can polish the outside with the tank full.... I would say yes as long as you can make sure none of the Novus polish can get into the tank or sump. When I did my inside and outside... the mess occurred most from polishing the outside. I got it everywhere....and all over me. If you can seal the top and the stand to then protect the sump... I think you could do it. The other thing is to do it by hand. Which will take a little elbow grease.

The best solution is to have Steve deliver the tank...let you work on it and get it cleaned up and buffed out. Then have him come fill it. I am sure he will accommodate you. He is a good guy!
 
So my wife wanted to see the tank before Steve delivers it Monday. We stopped in at Sea Schor and her comment was
"Holy Crap, that thing is huge!"
 
OK. I've had vinegar soaking for a couple of days. Just about have all the old crud scraped off, sump is clean, took apart the pump and cleaned it up, borrowed some bulbs the lights work, 3 250's light it up nice, wish it had electronic ballast, but you got to start somewhere.
So the next step is to drain it and buff out the scratches, inside and out. have never done that.what is the procedure?. I have a 5" orbital sander and a ryobi car polisher. I'll see about setting up a photobucket acct. so I can get some pictures up
 
Use the orbital buffer and make sure you buy lots of the lapping compound to make sure you don't buff the tank dry.
 
my%2520tank%2520250.jpg

Here's the tank when I brought it home
 
How hard was that? It's an amazing change and definitely makes me feel like an ugly used tank can be brought back from the dead (craigslist is looking like a better future upgrade option).
 
Herbieace said:
How hard was that? It's an amazing change and definitely makes me feel like an ugly used tank can be brought back from the dead (craigslist is looking like a better future upgrade option).
Click to expand...
actually it was really pretty easy
I filled it with water ~ 250 gallons added 5 gallons of vinegar put in a heater and a pump to stir things up, then waited a day
Then I used a plastic scraper that came free from an order from premium aquatics and a Kent scraper for acrylic tanks and it came right off. almost scary easy. There are some scratches I have to buff out but when I'm done it should be like brand new
 
Your tank is awesome! I used Novus 1 & 2... and I think they make a 3. I used a griots garage orbital and used a lot of leverage.

@ Herbieace.... yes... if it is acrylic and not too badly scratched.. you can make it look brand new.

I am looking forward to watching your build. Great Looking Tank....!
 
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