My Old 4ft Reef Attempt Upgrade

Ok time for some pics.

After thi silicone was injected into the main tank I waited 2 days and trimmed the excess silicone off. I cleaned the entire tank with some spirits.

Here I masked out the first 2 baffles which will be in contact with the bottom panel.

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In the back of the pic you can see the the baffles being masked. I went with 4mm glass baffles, no need for thick glass as it wont need to withstand alot of pressure.

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In this pic you can see all the baffles siliconed in place which make contact with the bottom glass. I also used the injection method on the baffles. This is not indicated in the pictures here but I also used tooth pics for spacers. After the silicone dried I removed the toothpics and injected those gaps with silicone as you can see a few blobs in some spots. I will trim and clean this silicone off in about 2 days if I get time and seal the entire tank.

After the above mentioned I will silicone the the baffles in which does not make contact with the bottom glass.
 
Update.

So I went through some issues. Sump baffles were installed and I was ready to seal it, Went and bought those caulk finishing tools from builders and it just didn't work as well as I hoped, specially in the corners.

So I ended up removing the inner seams and cleaned all the glass again.

Yesterday re-masked the sump again. Went to Builders and found this nut which I thought would work great to do the inner seams.

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Overall It came out pretty nice. Next time I will make the beads a bit bigger.

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Something I didnt post was I started building the remote DSB tank last week already, and this is where another issue took place.

I bought the glass for the remote DSB and took it straight for drilling. That night I masked it and started building also using the injection method, Then I realized they cut the glass to the wrong size. Now I have cut glass before with great success so I took it upon myself to attempt to cut these panels shorter.

Failure, complete failure.

Anyway went and bought new glass, got it drilled and started building the tank today.

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All panels are in place now. didnt have time to take photos. I injected dabs of silicone here and there just so that all panels can secure. I found when all silicone is wet when injected and I start to remove the masking tape, the panels shift and slide due to the force to remove the tape from the glass.

Tomorrow when it secured abit I will inject the rest of the tank.

Updates to follow.
 
Update:

Last night I sealed the remote refugium tank.
I also ordered the black perspex which will seperate the sump tank from the remote refugium tank so that light does not get through to the sump.

Also bought eye bolts for the light rack to mount the LED units, Will install all this tonight and try to finish the sump as well.

Will post pics tonight.
 
Would beach sand work for a DSB or are the grain size to big to eliminate oxygen. The other option is aragonite but that would work out a fortune unless I mix the two.

What are your guys thoughts on this?
 
No reason why it shouldn't

The grain size is very similar to thr sugar fine aragonite you will have to use
 
Finally got some time today to finish the sump tanks.

Here is the Remote DSB / Refugium Tank with skinny overflow.

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You can see the bulkhead in place. cant be removed now anymore. Will trim off the excess silicone tomorrow before I move the tanks onto the stand.

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close up of the overflow box. You can also see some glass pieces on the sides and bottom of the tank. These will provide a slot for an egg crate dividing wall which will keep the macro algae from growing up and into the overflow box. Will post pics of this tomorrow.

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......

Also finished the sump.

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The chamber on the left will be for RO water. Decided to add a brace on that baffle due to it flexing to much on that height.

Went and bought the PVC fittings this morning for the sump, and now I am broke.

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Will plumb everything tomorrow.
 
459b said:
Very neat build! Think you need an award for most patient and persistent reefer.
I like the idea for scaping.
Click to expand...

Thanks, haha yes it may seem like that but secretly im losing my mind over the fact that its taking so long. Now that Im looking at the scape design I thing it may require some more caves for my sailfin. Ill fiddle abit more with it and repost. Any input would be helpful. Just remember its a concept and the rock work is not going to be flat like in the picture.

I will be doing my own DIY cement rock so should be able to get the rocks close to the size and shape of each individual piece of rock in the picture.
 
How long should I wait before I can fill the sump. I did the seams previously which I skrewed up so I stripped them out a week later and the silicone was still wet, The seams were about 10mm thick though and I think the cold weather might play a role. I finished the silicone work on the 9th. Today is the 13th.
 
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