I was thinking about building pillars for mine and reinforcing with great stuff covered in epoxy and sand.

Sanjay used Thorite and I've gotta say it looks pretty sweet. He has a thread on reefcentral about how he did his rock work but I don't have the link.

Here's the youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psoP8...om=PL&index=22

Ah, found the thread for you. It explains the use of Thorite ect.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...&pagenumber=66

Got to page 69 for the full tank pics.

... Having a complete beehive of a time trying to locate Thorite. The product name of Thorite seems to refer to 2 or 3 different but similar products. The best I'm able to do so far is locate three buckets of "Thorite 400" in Edmonton. It turns out that the product name itself from BASF is discontinued and replaced with a new product line "Emaco" but it is unclear to me whether it is just the name itself that has changed or whether the composition as well has changed, rendering the "I know it's safe to use based on blind faith" aspect completely null and voided. Reading up at RC has been completely futile as there's only casual passing references to various differnet products ranging from "it's completely safe" to "I can't find this stuff where can I find it" (to which there are responses like "use THIS stuff instead, it's sort of safe" or "Just use acrylic rods, I'm so helpful I rule!!"). Anyhow I am now trying to check whether Emaco GP is any easier to locate, or perhaps Emaco S110. Apparently these are the closest things to what Thorite USED to be, but it's still unclear to me whether "GP" and "S110" refer to the same product. To confuse matters, the same product may have different names whether inside or outside the U.S.

Soooo ... this is starting to feel like a complete wildgoose chase and/or fiasco and I'm about ready to say "This isn't worth it." But I'll spend a few more hours on this and see where it takes me, if I get anywhere I'll post some findings since it seemed there were a couple others who were interested in finding Thorite.

Have you seem Khaosinc's thread on RC?(if you havnt I highly recommend reading it...by far one of the most entertaining threads Ive ever read) http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...readid=1650383 He used spray foam to bond his structures together....I never really looked into it, as far as how many others have used it, is it reef safe etc...might be worth checking out.

:eek: Wow... That's a sweet build!

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My brother in Calgary has used spray foam twice in his 90 gallon tank. He claims that it dries inert but still manages to break down over time. If you apply it too quickly or thickly, it will likely warp once the water is in the tank. It is also not immune to breakage, scrapage, gouging etc. Which looks a bit unsightly. He always used the "Mono" type foams that come in a can. There may be other types of foam out there that will stand up better in an aquarium.

In my experience as an insulator for a while, I should tell you though that no foam dries completely inert. At least, not when used as it was intended. They ALL off gas over time, and some more than others. There are open cell foams and closed cell foams, sugar based, and poly based. I for one, wouldn't trust any of them in my tank.

Just my 2 cents about the foam thing....back to you Tony!:wink:

Wow shouldn't have clicked that RC link. There went an hour of time I needed for some work!

As for this whole thorite thing...all you need to do is check out the bonsai inspired thread on RC to know that rods are a great alternative.

Thanks, but .. I'm not really interested in drilling rocks and nor really interested in foam. Sorry, just one of those things. I have a vision, and if it takes me longer to stay to that vision so be it. It's not like I have any shame left with the timing on this, so what's a little longer.

That link is crazy. I skipped forward a few pages and see pictures of his open heart surgery and I was all .. Ok I missed something there. For a minute there too I thought all the little electrical things next to his bed were part of his sump room or something. :lol:

Well, seeing lastlight and Parker update their threads I thought I'd give this thread a little resurrection to make it a gang of 3. Christy's not gonna believe what she missed on whilst sipping Juan's margarita's.

Last night I installed an electrical outlet box on one of my walls! Well, it's just the box part, no wires yet. But it's *totally* bolted onto the aluminum C-channel the outside basement walls are framed up with. And I didn't quite put the vapour barrier back.

I know, it sounds like, not a lot. But the prep work that had to go into it was insane. For one, the spot where I'm starting is adjacent to where I had my old 75g standing and the aluminum studs were seriously rusty (aluminum rusts? who knew!) So I had to rebuild part of that wall. I came out of that experience with a newly found profound hatred of metal studs for walls.

And Ok, I lied. I have done more than this since June. But it's hardly measurable stuff. Like, I put 4 circuits into the tank room. This was a logistical nightmare that went beyond the usual amount of work for such a task because the wall where the outlets are, is framed crooked but it's a load bearing wall AND it's finished on the other side AND it's a stairwell so knocking it down and starting over wasn't an option, but trying to fix it as I go along is laborious. AND I only work on things on this project after 11pm at night, so it tends to go slow. Oh and AND I might kind of had to do it over a few times because I wasn't happy with the results. It also included decommissioning the old 2 circuits that ran the 75g and 110g tanks (which are still running) because they were never inspected and only meant as temporary anyhow. I think I spent 40 hours in total getting the circuits done up in 2-3 hour chunks at a time.

I also had an opportunity to pick up a golden dwarf eel, who now resides in my 110g cube. At first I wasn't concerned about him getting out. Then I decided that too often have I tempted fate in the past and gotten burned that it was just too risky to leave the tank open-top indefinitely, and even though the tank's days are numbered, it's still long enough that a curious eel who wants to get out, has enough time to try. So I built a canopy for that tank using pine 1x8's and a piano hinge and about 20 screws. My DIY skillz are the shizzle marblez! Eat your heart out Mr. Professional Cabinet Builder Fishytime, you're gonna cry with a jealous rage when you see this work of art. You may also decide that my creative use of tuck tape to hold the canopy down onto the tank is something you wish to incorporate into your own designs. It's ok, I didn't apply for a patent so no need to pay me royalties as yet.

Pictures to follow. Sometime soon. When I find my home computer and a camera to use and stuff like that.