Post by AlanM on Dec 9, 2012 19:01:38 GMT -6
You may recall several months ago there was thread on the forum about a homemade chrome aquarium on the Bowling Green Craigslist. It was advertised to be a 100-gallon and it came with a large “allergy eater.” The woman I bought it from had been told that her grandfather built the aquarium and stand at home. As it turned out, the tank was a 55-gallon 1960s/1970s Metaframe and the “allergy eater” was a huge synodontis catfish. The tank was filthy dirty and may have never been cleaned but it was in pretty decent shape overall and didn’t leak. I made a deal for the aquarium and stand and passed on the “allergy eater.” It’s been sitting in my garage ever since. Well, I’m finally ready to set it up. Here’s what it looks like with no cleaning having been done yet:
In case you are not familiar with them, Metaframe aquariums have a slate bottom and stainless steel frame. They were built in the 1960s and 1970s in many different sizes. The company had a full line of accessories and stands for them, too. There were similar tanks in the same time frame made by a couple of other companies. Mine came with what Metaframe called a “hinged hobbyist hood” which incorporates the hood and light reflector, but the light had been removed. Here is a picture of that:
I (OK, my wife) prefer that all the cords and tubes, etc. be as hidden as possible since my tanks are in the house in my home office. I decided to forego using the black metal stand the aquarium came with and get a black cabinet style one instead. I bought a Perfecto Majesty stand from Aquatic Critter using my 10% discount I get for being a card-carrying MCAA member (and saving more than the price of my membership in the one transaction). The stand:
As it turns out, the Metaframe tanks are about ¼ to 3/8 of an inch larger in both directions than modern plastic frame tanks. Translation: I either had to rout out the rails to accommodate the Metaframe’s added girth or raise the tank resting surface up 3/8 of an inch to level with the rails. I chose option B. As luck would have it (good luck this time) I had a couple of pieces of 3/8 plywood in the garage from a shipping container I had received some art in (another of my expensive hobbies). So I whipped out my trusty 40 year old Black & Decker saw and cut out some pieces to fit. Measure twice, cut once:
Then I went back outside and recut one of them to really fit this time and painted them black to match the stand. Measure twice, cut twice:
So the stand is ready. In the next installment of this saga, I’ll clean the tank and check it for leaks. I have an extra Eheim 2217 canister filter that I bought awhile ago and I plan to use it, though I’m going to try to figure out some intake and outlet tubing for inside the tank that’s not Eheim green. Stainless, black, or clear would be the desired choices. The plan for this tank is to make it a discus tank and I’d like for it to look as close to the era that it was made as possible. I hope I can find a light that will work in the original housing in the hood.
I’m also going to do a parallel thread on this forum on a vintage NEW 20-gallon Metaframe I’m setting up.
In case you are not familiar with them, Metaframe aquariums have a slate bottom and stainless steel frame. They were built in the 1960s and 1970s in many different sizes. The company had a full line of accessories and stands for them, too. There were similar tanks in the same time frame made by a couple of other companies. Mine came with what Metaframe called a “hinged hobbyist hood” which incorporates the hood and light reflector, but the light had been removed. Here is a picture of that:
I (OK, my wife) prefer that all the cords and tubes, etc. be as hidden as possible since my tanks are in the house in my home office. I decided to forego using the black metal stand the aquarium came with and get a black cabinet style one instead. I bought a Perfecto Majesty stand from Aquatic Critter using my 10% discount I get for being a card-carrying MCAA member (and saving more than the price of my membership in the one transaction). The stand:
As it turns out, the Metaframe tanks are about ¼ to 3/8 of an inch larger in both directions than modern plastic frame tanks. Translation: I either had to rout out the rails to accommodate the Metaframe’s added girth or raise the tank resting surface up 3/8 of an inch to level with the rails. I chose option B. As luck would have it (good luck this time) I had a couple of pieces of 3/8 plywood in the garage from a shipping container I had received some art in (another of my expensive hobbies). So I whipped out my trusty 40 year old Black & Decker saw and cut out some pieces to fit. Measure twice, cut once:
Then I went back outside and recut one of them to really fit this time and painted them black to match the stand. Measure twice, cut twice:
So the stand is ready. In the next installment of this saga, I’ll clean the tank and check it for leaks. I have an extra Eheim 2217 canister filter that I bought awhile ago and I plan to use it, though I’m going to try to figure out some intake and outlet tubing for inside the tank that’s not Eheim green. Stainless, black, or clear would be the desired choices. The plan for this tank is to make it a discus tank and I’d like for it to look as close to the era that it was made as possible. I hope I can find a light that will work in the original housing in the hood.
I’m also going to do a parallel thread on this forum on a vintage NEW 20-gallon Metaframe I’m setting up.
