Cant believe this tank fell into my lap today, wasnt even thinking of getting a new tank but went to visit a buddy and found he had this thing sitting in his garage taking up space. After alittle talkin I was able to drive home with it for next to nothing! It even came with a broken (but fully operational) Eheim Pro II 2026 canister pump. Its missing the hoses and the latch is broken, but the valve assembly still latches in place and seals, so the pump should be fully operational.

The condition of the tank is questionable, Im not 100% sure it holds water. And it was pretty filthy when my buddy & I picked it up. But when I got it home, it didn't take long to clean it and fill it full of water.

This is what she looked like unloaded and resting on my workbench.


Alittle elbow grease and it cleaned up pretty nicely!








Looks a whole lot better now!!!




I stopped at the hardware store and got some clear hose for the pump, and i have enough PVC & fittings laying around to plumb up a pretty sweet filtration system.

Stay tuned! Updates as they progress....

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very nice score!


what are the plans as far as the layout of the tank to fill up how tall it is? that tank would be epic to put a rock wall as a background, only fill it about 3/4 of the way, and have the water outlet trickle down the rock wall and into the water for a sort of water fall effect just throwing ideas out there :D

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My 30 gallon planted freshwater - CONSTANTLY CHANGING

Thanks! Believe you me, i have been thinking up a STORM on how I want to decorate this tank.

I think my primary focus will to give each species of fish its own place to stay comfortable, safe & keep them all on good terms with other species. With that being said, one thing I want to try is to divide the tank into 2 halfs using a wall of vegitation, or maybe a wooden log, stump, or something. Just to break the tank into two types of terrain. Then on each side will depend.

The tank is 30" tall, it will be lower to the ground. It didnt come with a stand, so I will have to build one. I Want this tank to be lower to the ground so the little kids can get a good view from the floor.

For a shelf, I was thinking about 3/4 the way up the tank on one side and it would be made of a tree branch, or a large tree root section. It would attach to the back of the tank maybe near the corner so it appears to come from the corner of the tank and dissapear through the back.

Yeah... Like I said, i have been doing a great deal of thinking already

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Very nice! It cleaned up beautifully! (And if it has a small leak, you could probably seal it). It looks like it might be an 88g tall. I've got a 65g tall, and it looks kinda' like that - with the front to back being a bit thinner, but still being long and tall. Lots of deco' options! Ever thought of a bio-tope? Pick a species of fish you like, then do the substrate, plants, rocks, wood, water type (ex: soft, hard, freshwater, brackish), fish and even snails or shrimp all from that one area. They end up looking pretty cool. I just read a magazine article on 3 bio-topes. They were: Amazon, Papua New Guinea streams, Central American waters. (It was in the 2011 Annual Aquarium USA). I can send you info' on the substrates, plants, fish etc... on those bio-topes if you want. Just PM me.

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

Yeah Dude, that tank is gonna be sweet! I estimate we are going to have to move it at least 5 more times!

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- 10 Gallon -
1 - Spotted Puffer
1 - Dalmatian Molly
1 - Pleco
fake plants and custom fixture

- 55 Gallon Acrylic -
1 - Bala Shark
2 - Plecos
2 - Black Skirt Tetras
5 - Guppies
2 - Guppy Fry (in custom nursery box)
1 - Koi Angel
1 - Brown Knifefish
1 - Golden Lyretail Molly
1 - Black Molly
2 - African Dwarf Frogs
All live plants and a custom fixture

- 55 Gallon Glass-
1 - unknown south american freshwater fish

No way, maybe twice. Once we build a stand for it.... then once we find a final resting place somewhere inside my house LOL!

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Nice score. Could be a challenge to light efficiently for plants.

Beautiful!Its amazing how things fall into laps,hehe.You can do a riparium build with it,if you like terrestial plants.I have seen some magnificent looking rip builds all across the web.Breathtaking.

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http://bountifulbettas.blogspot.com/

"Come to the dark side....we have cookies...and filters/heaters/and water changes!"

can't believe I missed this thread, awesome score man.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel

Thanks everybody!

The next step was to test the pump and see what it can do. More research revealed the pump I have is a Eheim ProII 2026. I attached the hose and plumbed Its pretty crude right now, but I have to go back to the hardware store and get more pieces to pretty things up.

Here's what I got so far:


The pump works great. It leaks if I turn it off, which causes it to start draining my tank :( I cleaned the seal but it didnt do any good. So long as the pump is running, it doesnt seem to leak.

I came inside and started playing with MS Paint. This is what I came up with for a plumbing design.



It didnt seem to lose any water over night either, so thats a good sign too!

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Why not try to get Eheim pieces? I would at least mix them to extend the pieces if that is why you used pvc. I also would spend a little more and get clear pvc if that is the way your going. All that white won't look good on that tank, IMO. Not sure, but you may be losing quite a bit of suction by splitting it like that, especially with as long of a suction as you chose. I think what will happen is you'll have a lot of flow through the short piece and not very much through the longer piece due to the length of the suction head. I know it is rough design still. You'll also need to rig strainers on the intake pieces. An Eheim 2080 has two in outs and one out.

OooO! A riparium! And if not a riparium, than maybe a Paludarium! Both very cool ideas!

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

congrats on the new find, looks great looking forward to seeing it up and running, cool design on the filter

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What happens if you get scared half to death, twice?

I have a TON of PVC laying around for another project I was going to start (then scrapped). I might order new seals if that helps seal the canister... but Im not going to worry about Eheim specific stuff for the plumbing, all this pipe & hose work perfectly. The final result wont be white PVC (I agree, it would be hideous). I will most likely addapt the plumbing into a rock wall, or a type of shelf.

The split intake will decrease suction at each inlet. However I will restrict the inlets so there is still a good amount of suction. I am thinking by splitting up the intake there will be plenty of supplied water to the pump. It will also help circulate water, not only from one side of the tank, but the center as well.

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You could always drill it, bulkhead fittings....may actually work better with a tank that tall. Never done it, but they say it isn't all that hard.

The glass on this tank is real thick, im not trying to drill through it. I will continue to brainstorm, i was even thinking of maybe an undergravel filter of some sort.

On my visit to home depot tomorrow, i will play with the PVC fittings and see what I can come up with

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So I was daydreaming and playing with MS paint. I came up with one design idea... i will most likely do another 1 or 2 cause I am always thinking

Here's what I got this morning:


I want a large piece of wood like that to help cover the PVC pipe and all the plumbing the tank will have. There will be probably 2 or 3 air lines for airstone too that I will have to hide...

I also found an extra shop light in my garage I never got around to hanging up. It is the perfect length for this tank, and it will be much better than the busted up hood that came with the tank. I just need to come up with some ways to mount the lights and start setting things up

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Dude! Nice!

Finally making alittle progress on this tank. I felt like I was neglecting my 36gallon and I even lost a Catfish and my blue gourami got ill... so I let this 88 sit and just take a rest, while I save some pennies and take care of my fish.

I have been going to thrift stores and was looking for a solution for my tank stand. Originally i was planning on building a stand from scratch, but I felt I could find a better looking solution for not much more by shopping around. I was thinking maybe two end tables side-by-side or a decent looking dresser.

Last week I came across this. It was 44" long and 15" wide, which was perfect since my tank is 48x14 at the rim. It was also 27" tall and that would put the tank exactly where I wanted it! They were using it as a TV stand at the Salvation army. I looked all over for a pricetag and couldnt find one, the guy at the store said to take it cause it had been there for too long and he was about to move it out of there. So i said how about $20 and he took it. As we were loading it into my truck one of the doors came open and revealed a $50 pricetag!

After I got it home my friend & I set the tank on it and it looked real good. But we knew it wasn't going to hold the tank with water in it. So I set off to home depot and picked up some 2x4 and other nifty pieces of hardware and spent this morning reinforcing the stand!




Here is the stand dissasembled and ready to be worked on.



This is the front beam built and finished.



both beams finished. The 2x4 at the top is just a hair higher than the original board on each end. This way the top will force most its weight on the center legs and not the cheap pressboard stand.



This is the center removed. I am hoping this wont fail me and i dont find my 88 on its side anytime soon.



The cabinet in the center was screwed in place orignally, but I felt it would be a much better opening to fit my pump thru. So with some additional hardware we made it so the center hinged downward. The pump fits perfectly in the center of the skeleton.



The orignal top was scratched and peeling pretty bad at the corners. So I took some leftover canvas i had in the garage, and wrapped the top before we put it back on the stand.



Here's the stand complete and in place!



Didnt take long to set the tank on and see what things would look like! Here are all the doors open.

Next step is to place the pump and plumbing in there, also to install all the electrical and wire everything propperly. I will be using some PVC for the plumbing and some clear hoses. I need to see if any of the spraypaint i currently own will be safe in the aquarium. Once the pump is in place i plan to fill it with some nasty water I have been storing to help cycling the tank easier.

Look forward to more progress soon!

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Woohooo! Keep it coming man, doing a great job.

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100G->African Cichlids:Kribensis-2,Bumblebee-2,Red Zebra-2,Elec. Yel. Labi.-2, Acei-2, Elec. Blu. Johanni-2,Peacocks-2 / Community: Australian Rainbow-3,Turquoise Rainbow-4,Dalmatian Mollies-2,white molly-1,Dojo Loaches-1/Cleaners:Chinese Algea Eaters-5/Murderers: Dinosaur Bichir-1And lots of other tanks,2-Gourims,6-Rams,1-Arrowanna,6-FW Flounder,1-Farlowella CF, 1-Spiney Eel