Tacit Blues
Aquarium Advice FINatic
So come close and listen to my tale of woe...
Ok, not woe, exactly, but I do have a bit of a story and I'd love to hear any advice you aquarium people could give me.
I have an old Oceanic aquarium that I had as a kid, bought used at a yard sale, that's around 55 or 58 gallons (it's 36x18x21.5, or so), with holes drilled and an overflow box installed, with an Amiracle trickle filter down below (I think it was a saltwater tank before I got it but I always had it set up as freshwater). When I went away to college in 2006, my parents gave away my fish and it's been sitting empty since 2007. Recently I got bit by the aquarium bug again, so I went out to the shed to look over the old guy.
It was... well, it wasn't that pretty. The lid was broken, a lightbulb was missing, and the glass was pretty roughed up all around, enough so that they would still be visible in if it was filled with water. In a fit of curiosity I pried out the old black backdrop that was siliconed on the inside (what's the worse that could happen?) that I had never liked. In doing so, of course, the seals around the seams were beat up a bit.
One thing lead to another, and pretty soon I had the caulk removed from half the back and was contemplating removing the overflow box to keep going, because my research led me to believe that once you start removing caulk you have to do the whole thing. When I found myself reading about how to polish scratches out of glass and pricing buffing compounds, reality set in and I decided that maybe I should look into a new aquarium before I got into a project that would preclude ever having, y'know, ACTUAL FISH.
I figure that hey, even if I buy a new aquarium, my old one will still be around to tinker with!
But this, of course, presented me with a new problem. The "shiny new toy" problem. The "should I try to find something that will work with my current stand and filter" problem. I find myself still rather in love with the overflow filter, but you can't really find many tanks with the same footprint of the Oceanic stand that are drilled for the overflow filter, at least, not local (or affordable) as far as I can tell. Seems that there are 40gallon breeder tanks that would fit on my stand, at least, but they seem short and lack the "presence" of my taller tank.
Otherwise I seem to be left with going for a completely new setup. One of the local Big Box Petcomarts had a pretty sharp looking 46 gallon bow front combo, or a 27 gallon cube tank that would fit in the space I have in an interesting and aesthetic fashion--and of course, there's everything else in between. If I go the "new" route I'd like to stick with something not too much smaller than my old tank, but still like it to have some sort of the aforementioned "presence" beyond a simple rectangular standard tank. And if anyone had ideas for somehow using the filter I already have rather than having to buy a new HOB or something, I'm all ears.
So I guess that was a pretty exhaust(ive/ing) way of explaining where I'm at. Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear any thoughts!
TL;DR version--Is it worth trying to fix up the old beat up Oceanic, are there any recommendations to replace it completely, and is it worth trying to figure out how to use its old overflow filter and/or stand with a new tank?
Ok, not woe, exactly, but I do have a bit of a story and I'd love to hear any advice you aquarium people could give me.
I have an old Oceanic aquarium that I had as a kid, bought used at a yard sale, that's around 55 or 58 gallons (it's 36x18x21.5, or so), with holes drilled and an overflow box installed, with an Amiracle trickle filter down below (I think it was a saltwater tank before I got it but I always had it set up as freshwater). When I went away to college in 2006, my parents gave away my fish and it's been sitting empty since 2007. Recently I got bit by the aquarium bug again, so I went out to the shed to look over the old guy.
It was... well, it wasn't that pretty. The lid was broken, a lightbulb was missing, and the glass was pretty roughed up all around, enough so that they would still be visible in if it was filled with water. In a fit of curiosity I pried out the old black backdrop that was siliconed on the inside (what's the worse that could happen?) that I had never liked. In doing so, of course, the seals around the seams were beat up a bit.
One thing lead to another, and pretty soon I had the caulk removed from half the back and was contemplating removing the overflow box to keep going, because my research led me to believe that once you start removing caulk you have to do the whole thing. When I found myself reading about how to polish scratches out of glass and pricing buffing compounds, reality set in and I decided that maybe I should look into a new aquarium before I got into a project that would preclude ever having, y'know, ACTUAL FISH.
I figure that hey, even if I buy a new aquarium, my old one will still be around to tinker with!
But this, of course, presented me with a new problem. The "shiny new toy" problem. The "should I try to find something that will work with my current stand and filter" problem. I find myself still rather in love with the overflow filter, but you can't really find many tanks with the same footprint of the Oceanic stand that are drilled for the overflow filter, at least, not local (or affordable) as far as I can tell. Seems that there are 40gallon breeder tanks that would fit on my stand, at least, but they seem short and lack the "presence" of my taller tank.
Otherwise I seem to be left with going for a completely new setup. One of the local Big Box Petcomarts had a pretty sharp looking 46 gallon bow front combo, or a 27 gallon cube tank that would fit in the space I have in an interesting and aesthetic fashion--and of course, there's everything else in between. If I go the "new" route I'd like to stick with something not too much smaller than my old tank, but still like it to have some sort of the aforementioned "presence" beyond a simple rectangular standard tank. And if anyone had ideas for somehow using the filter I already have rather than having to buy a new HOB or something, I'm all ears.
So I guess that was a pretty exhaust(ive/ing) way of explaining where I'm at. Thanks for reading, and I hope to hear any thoughts!
TL;DR version--Is it worth trying to fix up the old beat up Oceanic, are there any recommendations to replace it completely, and is it worth trying to figure out how to use its old overflow filter and/or stand with a new tank?
