My Old 4ft Reef Attempt Upgrade

Small Update:

Manged to level the stand out the other night. Used some vinyl flooring underneath the leveling bolts so hopefully I wont crack any tiles.

Decided to postpone the sump filling until Saturday just so that I can be 100% sure about the silicone.

Will go and order the new display front panel glass on Saturday from PG glass and will also go get the sand for my DSB.
The plan is to cycle the rocks I have which is placed in buckets filled with water and wavemakers in the garage. Will add these rocks to the the new sump with a piece of live rock from my temp. holding tank and then eventually moving everything over when the display is done.

This will allow me not to have that extra cycle period once the display tank is set up.
 
Progress:

Today I went and got the sand for the DSB. Added it to the tank at a height of 160mm.

IMG-20160717-WA0001.jpg


Added some pumps for flow, and basically flooded the entire room. Turns out the threaded connection to the bulkhead had a leak. Sorted that out. The another leak appeared on the remote refugium tank on the bulkhead. Tightened it up and was sorted as well. Never in the history of my tank builds have I struggled with leaks as much as today.

Anyway lets move on.

Added the perspex.

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The rock on the DSB is only temporary and will be removed once the Display is finished. I just did not want my sump to get dirty.
 
No scratches this time?
 
Update:

Inspected the glass this morning I received from PG glass. NO SCRATCHES!!!!!!!

Anyway time to proceed then. Started by cleaning the garage at 5H00 this morning and then I laid the bottom panel down.

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Next step was to mask the panel off.

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Adding the rear panel first so cleaned the edges and masked it as well.

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Put it in place on top of some spacers

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Next the sides.

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And finally

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Now that it was clamped in place it was time to start injecting.
Here is the finished product.

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No bubbles in seams. Im pretty happy with the results. Will wait a week for the silicone to dry.
I must add that the Den Braven silicone skins 5 times faster than normal bostic marine clear. It is super messy to work with but I am very happy with the way those seams look.

Also I will never buy glass from a cheap place again. Pay the extra money and get a good product, lesson learned the hard way.

Will get the bracing cut this week and add them next weekend.
 
Hi there. Good looking build so far. 2 questions.
1 when you say buy cheaper glass - where did you buy and why was it bad?
2 what was the process in how you put the panels together.
Regards
 
devesh.r said:
Looks great man, well done on your build.
Click to expand...

Thanks yes its been taking very long, but
BrandonLotz said:
Hi there. Good looking build so far. 2 questions.
1 when you say buy cheaper glass - where did you buy and why was it bad?
2 what was the process in how you put the panels together.
Regards
Click to expand...

1: Had a guy I know help me out. he had some contacts to get glass cheap. The second time around I got it from another small glass merchant company. Dont wana name the place. Third time I went to PG glass which is obviously well known.

2. As indicated in the pictures, I start by cleaning the glass. Then I use masking tape to mask out spots where the silicone will join the glass. Then I lay the bottom panel down. before I put the sides on I put spacers on the bottom panel so that the glass will sit about 1 - 2mm apart. Then I add the side panels and clamp them on place also with gaps between the glass. Then I inject the silicone into those gaps. After a few days when the silicone is dry I will remove the spacers and inject silicone into those gaps. After it dries I will add the bracing and do the final waterproof seal inside the tank. And then shes done.
 
Glass ok thanks. Riaan P suggested a company and they make amoured glass etc and quoted me r385 per sqm for 10mm and i know what pg charges. Ill be getting the standard tank glass.

I didnt realise that the silicone was injected. Does that not create weak spots where the spacers are sealed later.
But it looks a better option.
Thanks for the reply.
 
BrandonLotz said:
Glass ok thanks. Riaan P suggested a company and they make amoured glass etc and quoted me r385 per sqm for 10mm and i know what pg charges. Ill be getting the standard tank glass.

I didnt realise that the silicone was injected. Does that not create weak spots where the spacers are sealed later.
But it looks a better option.
Thanks for the reply.
Click to expand...

Thats a good price.

I guess it does create weak spots in the sense that water can penetrate through the joint where the old and the new silicone join. But remember the silicone between the glass panels are structural and thats what keeps the glass panels together. That is why I do the waterproof seal in the end which is a continuous bead of silicone along all the edges..

There will be a million people on the net telling U that this injection method is crap and it doesnt work and the tank will leak. But the fact is thinking about it from a architectural point of view, its about overlapping the joints.

Take a look at some Idol Marine tank build, U will see that they first build the outer shell of the tank and then let the silicone dry. After that they do the base of the tank. So if you think about it, there all ready dry silicone meets new wet silicone.
 
So from which side did you inject, inside out or outside in. With regards to the spacers, can you use those 90 deg glass clamps to do away with the spacers?
Regards
 
Question.

I have added old rock to my sump system with some semi wet sand from the beach. The rock was in NSW in buckets in my garage with only a wavemaker. No heater.

Then I added a piece of live rock from my running system.

Its now been running for a week and tested Ammonia Nitrite and Nitrate last night.

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 25

Does this mean that I didnt really have a cycle. Could the rocks that were in the garage have kept their bacteria without a heater?
 
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