Hello everyone!

My friend gave me an old aquarium recently and I am trying to
get it back in working order again and now I have a few questions I could use some advise on, thank you in advance for reading this/helping me.
-I was thinking of going over the old seals, can I(my hubbie) just use ordinary silicone to do this?
- the tank I got came without a hood, were could I source one?
- would anybody reccomend a good LFS in the west dublin/kildare area?
- How do I find out what size of tank this is ( i know the measurements, but have no idea how many liters of water it holds!)
These are all the questions I can think of right now, but I might be back with more in the not so distant future.
Thanks
Astrid

Hi Astrid

I was thinking of going over the old seals, can I(my hubbie) just use ordinary silicone to do this?

NO!! First check if it is leaking, do a fill test in the garden, leaving it full for at least a day. If it needs to be resealed you must use silicone suitable for aquarium, regular silicone has fungicide in it that will kill fish. If it needs resealing the old silicone much be removed with a sharp knife first.

would anybody recomend a good LFS in the west dublin/kildare area?

My geoghraphy is not great, but there is one in Celbridge, part of a garden centre whose name escapes me at the moment.

the tank I got came without a hood, were could I source one?

I would not bother, purchase a light that sits over the top of the tank, I will post a link to a picture later. I think they look better and will be easier to source than a hood to fit an exisitng tank, depending on the make and how old, of course.

How do I find out what size of tank this is ( i know the measurements, but have no idea how many liters of water it holds!)

Measure the inside of the tank, post the three measurements here in cm or inches and we will tell you.


Welcome to the forum



Daragh

Welcome Astrid. I can't really add anything to Daraghs reply except the garden centre in Celbridge is called the orchard.
What size is the tank?

Just a bit of a short addition to the other two lads' advice.
Before you do your leak test in the garden it would be best to explain, just in case you aren't aware of this that a tank needs to be laid onto a flat surface (concrete,paving slabs or even wood) and would benefit greatly from a sheet of polystyrene (Aeroboard) between it and whatever you are placing it on - likewise when you come to actually place your tank in its final resting place the same sheet would be most useful...this is to make up for any slight unevenness of whatever the tank is laid upon. I once set a tank, admittedly a good bit larger than your one, on a wooden sheet with no aeroboard and because it wasn't evenly spread the tank base broke, distributing many gallons of water onto the carpet. So if you're going to fill the tank even outdoors first you really need to ensure the whole of the bottom of the tank is supported, as much so as when it is set up where it will 'live'.

The other quick suggestion is that you might get Mr FP to make up a wooden hood for your tank...it really isn't very complicated to do.

John

Hi Astrid/Mrs Fishpatrick!

Welcome to the forum!

- would anybody reccomend a good LFS in the west dublin/kildare area?

There also is Aquatic Village in Brittas, it's not too far from Naas.

Valerie

Thanks everybody that replied,
This is definetly usefull info I am going to follow,
I will try to get some aeroboard to put the tank on outside
for the day.
And thank you for telling me not to use ordinary silicone, I really wasn't sure.
I know the orchard garden centre allright, I'll be passing there later in the day.
And as for the hood, i might get a somebody to fabricate a hood for my tank, i didn't know could you buy spares or not.
I will post the measurements of my tank in a while and if someone could tell me what water it holds I would be very gratefull as I am diabolical at doing maths. (that's why I still cant convert cm's in to inches, and I am here for nearly 7 years )
Thanks again
Astrid

Okay,
I measured the tank and here goes
w75x h36 x d32 cm's
I hope someone can tell me by these measurements what amount of water this tank will hold (if it's not leaking )
thanks
Astrid

Hi Astrid, the Fish Bowl at Rosse Court, Lucan is another LFS you could visit. The guy there is quite helpful.

"Okay,
I measured the tank and here goes
w75x h36 x d32 cm's"

Hello again,

I've sort of calculated this and your tank is (approximately) 30"x14"x12"...near enough 18 UK gallons...which would, I think, equate to 80-ish litres.

Obviously you will never completely fill the tank to the brim and you will have some water displacement when you put in both rocks/gravel/ornaments etc so you could reduce the actual water capacity by approximately 10-15%. I think if you work on it holding around 70 litres you'll not be too far out, I reckon.

I hope this helps you, and you're very welcome to the Forum. Ask as many questions as you want - there is always someone (well almost always) who'll be able to answer them for you.

John

Hi there
I am after taking your advice(johnH) and filling up the tank outside. It looks like she is staying dry, wich is good news.
and I kept an eye on how much water i fit in there, I think I got around 70 liters in there, so you are on the ball with your calculations.
Do I need to buy a proper fish tank stand for this or should a sideboard hold this much weight.
All these questions, My 2 toddlers are dancing inside the backdoor looking at the tank ouside going fissies fissies! they propably think I will go to the shop now and buy some fish. Poor them, they'll be looking at a few plants in there over the next couple of weeks, if they are lucky
Have to get something to put the tank on first.
Thanks everybody for your help
Astrid