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Maybe I need to rethink this whole glass tank idea...

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sfsuphysics

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... acrylic doesn't seem too bad after all.

Got my work cut out for me today, so just going to give a run down.

Well my overflow on my 110g glass tank leaked yesterday... something about silicone and acrylic not having shit for adhesion properties (I thought it'd hold fine, just not as a strength joint...) well since it's an external overflow last night I drained the tank below the overflow by a couple inches, threw the heaters into the tank, used my return pump to just cycle water through my sump/fuge with a heater thrown in there.

So this morning right before I gotta drop the lady off at BART I decide to try to remove the overflow (made of acrylic).... I did a dumbass move when I installed it and I basically fused an acrylic rim on the inside to the box on the outside (after it was on the tank)... so removing it would be problematic... well long story short I pulled dumbass move #2 and figured I could simply snap it off since it was a rather thin bond point... end result... crack popped on the back pane (see picture... below) a moment later of WTF moment, I noticed a little dribble... oooh boy so that ain't going to hold while I drop her off at BART... then the really bad happened... there was a loud pop and another crack formed near the box and this one went a little more than dribbling to the point of being a nice little stream... then I went into "oh shit mode" as I rushed to grab a can and a hose to drain the tank as fast as possible)... well g/f came down stairs and well I started thinking about other people for a second (I'm a sweety :D) and well I grabbed all power to the tank and yanked it from the wall (since if that thing blew.... )

Well ok it didn't blow, the tank is useless now except for 3 panes of "spare glass" if I need to make baffles :D.. I used my old beat to hell acrylic 100g tank to throw everything into, it's leak free and hold water so it's good enough for now. I put it on some two-bys with some plywood ontop that are laying on the floor because I don't have a stand for it, all rocks/fish moved over, heaters are in the tank, and flow is in the tank (two biggies) I need to see if I can get my skimmer going on it, might be problematic due to the height of the tank on the floor... but I got the two essentials heat and flow, I worry about light later.

So this isn't anywhere as bad as what Rich and Arnold went through, besides this is my softy tank that I just let grow wild and don't really care too much about. I think I'll need to fast-track fixing that 80g LeeMar tank I got, either way I'm going to need to offload some corals in the future. But yeah, long day ahead of me trying to get everything up and running to a "I can leave it be" level. However I DONT need a temporary tank now, since my tank that I got a temporary tank for is now a temporary temporary tank :D

I'm strangely not pissed right now, just a little bit loopy .. :D

I'll give more details/updates later when I get work done though, but I needed to take a break for a minute
 
DrD: Yeah I think I'm ok with it because I had a spare 100g tank sitting around, I mean most people probably wouldn't then as a result be a little more miffed if they had to throw down good money on a tank when they didn't want to. Hell this one being on the floor gives me a lagoon feel :D Although I do have a nice black pond liner... I could go that ... ok shh don't let the g/f hear me thinking about that. I think the live stock is doing ok, the fish moved without an issue, only casualties I could see is a serpent star who lost a leg when I removed him but he didn't want to go (I think he spontaneously dropped it as a defense mechanism?? because it wasn't torn off it just look like it fell off... ), and my large leather toadstool ripped at the base, there might be some bacterial/infection issues with that, or it might just heal back to the old stump... gonna have to keep an eye on that one because it's large to the point that if it dies it could toxify the tank quite a bit.

DrC: She just wanted to help, which I gladly accepted, if anything it helped because I didn't have to keep track of siphoning hoses, pumps pushing water, etc. I did all the heavy moving and damn it if rocks don't weigh a bunch more when you have a ton of soft corals holding onto as much water as possible. I managed to get her on to the BART station about 30 minutes later, it really went rather smoothly, simply move the rocks coral, at the same time she was moving water from one tank to the other, got it about the highest corals, and threw in some heaters and powerheads and off I went.

Phong: Yeah I know... I'm off on winter break, well after I grade the finals (which students might do VERY well this semester :D) so I have the time to work on it. I have been running the idea of simply slapping a piece of PVC sheet on the bottom and siliconing it off instead of trying to remove the glass pane, the glass is very thick and the crack doesn't change elevations, so that might work and it'll be quite a bit easier than removing the glass.

Ian: Yeah I'll be right ontop of that sir :D

The big problem is power, I realized after I put the tank down (well it was the only place the tank could fit) that the nearby power plugs were on the same circuit as my 180g, which is pushing double digit amps already. So I had to run an extension cord to another plug that's on a separate 20amp circuit, the unfortunate problem is the only long enough cord I have is meant for light stuff, I need an extension cord for my drill, the weedwhacker, etc, end result the plug is warm to the touch, so need to go get a heavy duty cord.

I think I got the skimmer bit figured out, I got an old 18g acrylic tank I can chop the top off, and reinforce, baffle, etc and toss my skimmer in that and be done with it. Lights, I think I'll just rest the 5 foot long light hood on the tank, it'll be up off the acrylic, and braces will be away from MH bulbs, Should work out, have to double check a few things before doing that though. I don't really want hang pendants or anything if I can avoid it though.
 
[quote author=sfsuphysics link=topic=5605.msg70211#msg70211 date=1229549718]

DrC: She just wanted to help, which I gladly accepted, if anything it helped because I didn't have to keep track of siphoning hoses, pumps pushing water, etc. I did all the heavy moving and damn it if rocks don't weigh a bunch more when you have a ton of soft corals holding onto as much water as possible. I managed to get her on to the BART station about 30 minutes later, it really went rather smoothly, simply move the rocks coral, at the same time she was moving water from one tank to the other, got it about the highest corals, and threw in some heaters and powerheads and off I went.

[/quote]

Wow - a keeper for sure!
 
[quote author=Elite link=topic=5605.msg70222#msg70222 date=1229554168]
That's what I've read but I also read that they use some kind of big "UV" oven to bake/cure the tank.
[/quote]

acrylic tanks yes, glass prior to silicone yes, but not post silicone ;)
 
[quote author=GreshamH link=topic=5605.msg70225#msg70225 date=1229554699]
[quote author=Elite link=topic=5605.msg70222#msg70222 date=1229554168]
That's what I've read but I also read that they use some kind of big "UV" oven to bake/cure the tank.
[/quote]

acrylic tanks yes, glass prior to silicone yes, but not post silicone ;)
[/quote]
Do you know what kind of glue they use Gresham?? I don't really think glue alone would be able to hold the glass (sides) and PVC (bottom) together.
 
Well James over at Envision Acrylics told me 795, and I think he's more of an expert than anyone on this board (unless Gen is a member in disguise :D), he did say it's a neutral cure which takes 1 to 2 weeks to fully cure. IIRC UV cures are more of a "fast" cure?

Here's the thread
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1128845
Kind of nice because he trumps Hahnmeister :D
 
UV cures = fast cures :D

I missed the UV part in Phong's post. large acrylic tanks sometimes are cured in giant kilns (glue heats up the joint so they bring the entire piece to near that temp then lower it over time). Glass as well is usually put into kilns to anneal. Neither utilize UV though, just a slow dropping of temperature.
 
[quote author=Elite link=topic=5605.msg70239#msg70239 date=1229557811]
A reason why you can't trust everything you read on RC LOL ...
[/quote]

Stick in most everything and I concur :)
 
Ok, I did enough work today... well I did all the work I could today. Being as my tank is practically on the floor, even with my patented™ :D external overflow, finding a tank to get what I want done (sump, refugium & skimmer compartment) just wasn't going to be feasible since I'm really restricted for height. Decided to do a "reverse sump" (or whatever the hell it's called) where basically my tank *IS* the sump, I pump from the tank up to the skimmer which overflows into the refugium compartment back down to the tank.

Upside: This way I have one less chamber I need to worry about. Plus if I ever do have a decent pod population, no worries about them getting scrambled going to my tank (I really hope this tank isn't going to be up that long that I care that much though :D)

Downside: Now I have a pump in the tank, and I have to make some sort of egg-crate cage around the input. Might be a little hard to see the tank, but there's so much caked on crap I don't care, I call it my tank on glaucoma.

Either way, need to wait for the weldon to cure.
 
Hey Mike what size skimmer are you running? I have a spare sump right now sitting in my storage. It's 24"x20"x16"tall.. I had a 45g tall with a bulkhead dumping straight into it before.. They were both sitting on the ground hahahaha.. The skimmer section is really only big enough to handle a er 5-2 barely.. ahhahaa.. I can't remember if I ever tried to cram a 6 series one in there or not. If it won't fit you can route out the top to try and squeeze out another couple of inches.. Let me know.. I can throw it in the back of the truck and you can pick it up the same place you got the tank.. :)
 
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