Ok, so I'm re-visiting the idea of eurobracing this tank. I cleaned off the piece I removed and it's totally polished.

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0f8e5320.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps877584d8.jpg

So I'm thinking this tank is a good candidate for glass euro bracing. I've looked a fair bit on line and I can't find any kind of calculator for figuring out how wide the bracing should be. My gut's telling me 3" or so.
Then while I'm searching for this, I run into the different ways to do euro bracing. Run the front and back strips inside the tank and the 2 sides and 2 centre braces on top. Or run the front and back on top of the tank, the 2 ends in-between the front and back and the centre braces on top of the front and back braces.
Argh, why can't anything be simple, lol.
So, for those of you who have 210's or similar 72" X24" tanks, what size is your bracing and where do they sit on your tanks? Pics are welcome too.

I went 4" on mine as a 180 so with yours just for safety I'd say 4.5 should be strong enough .5 will be the overlap on the glass leaving you with 4"

I will round up pics in the am

Here is the best pic I have ... Keep in mind I messed up ordering my front panel and it was 1/2" to high so I attached the front brace differently than the back brace. So if you had 4.5 brace it would look similar to the front vrs the back.

http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/105_6617.jpg

Wow, so far for 6 pieces of 12mm glas to euro brace my 210 and 4 pieces to build an overflow box is going to cost me almost $1000.
Does that seem right to anyone?

Definitely not. Whoever is giving you those prices is on crack. I built a whole tank with overflow box, with the back glass CNC'd for the overflow notch, and beveled/polished edges for less than $250. Granted it was 3/8" instead of 1/2"... But $1000 is stupid.

pm'd with a much better price then that lol :P

Lol, ya. When I saw the quote I nearly fell over. First of all they would only sell me tempered. Not sure if that was accurate or not. So I got them to quote both tempered and float. I didn't know exactly what sizes I needed but for rough pricing I got them to quote the following sizes:
All pieces were 12mm glass
2 - 72" X 3"
4 - 24" X 3"
1 - 22 1/2" X 16"
2 - 16" X 8"
1 - 22 1/2" X 8 1/2"
2 - 12" X 4" (for patching the internal overflows)
For untempered that was $781.44 before tax
Tempered was $921.35 before tax.

All pieces had polished edges.

Hey Lockrookie, was there somewhere you got your euro brace measurements from? I'd just like a bit of confirmation on sizing and placement of the glass pieces before I order anything.
Or if anyone else has a 210 can speak to this too that'd be awesome!

I got my measurements from reading other ppls builds and collecting data also if you talk to deny or Dave I am sure they will confirm that 4.5 should be enough max 5" basically as you silicone the euro onto the edge of the glass it creates a angle iron effect lets put it this way with my 180 there is no flex

youll need a 4" brace , 12mm and it needs to have 1/16th to 3/16" of an inch for spacing no more no less;)

the front and back of the tank will have a full span and the side will between both.

make sure to clamp the braces as they dry so they dont sag

hth


cheers

denny

Thanks guys! I've been trying to not bug Denny too much as I know he's been extremely busy I felt guilty picking his brain but because living in another province wanted to avoid as much shipping as possible so he wouldn't really see any monetary returns from helping me :redface:

But so far my I've only got my local quote down to $460, so Denny might still be the cheapest. Still waiting on a Victoria quote though.

Hopefully I'll get this sorted out and ordered this week.

Try Niki Glass in Van. With shipping it still might be cheaper.

Well, found a place in Vic that'll get me my glass for just shy of $300. Gonna pick it up on Friday.
So no use in letting fear and common sense stop me from carrying on, Started my trim removal tonight:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psf19ced2b.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps456135e8.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8d94cd19.jpg

Still have a lot of silicone to clean up, that'll probably take the next few days to get her nice and clean. I have a couple tubes of GE SCS1200 for setting the eurobrace on.

Went in to Vic yesterday to get my glass. Not bad, all the glass I needed, a corner protector I got to cover a small chip and to protect the one exposed corner of the tank, 2 tubes of SCS 1200, all for $250. Not bad I didn't think.

So guess what I'm doing on and off today? :D

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps13c7b1e0.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9bc80764.jpg

Started siliconing my overflow box first. Made up a couple plywood squares to help hold everything. All prep done and ready:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psaa5efa82.jpg

Left side on:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps187dfe85.jpg

Right side:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4ad342eb.jpg

And the corner seam:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psa40934b4.jpg

Not too shabby. I'm fairly pleased. I'll wait until it all sets up and I'll put the bottom on after.

Now the 72" pieces for the euro brace :help:

Those plywood squares are simple genius! I am new to this, so I am not sure if they are common or not, but I would have never thought them up.

The build is looking great.... I am looking forward to seeing the rest! Thanks for sharing.

looking really good. well done

Haha, thanks. But in all honesty, it took me an hour of looking around my shop and basement wracking my brains how I was going to keep this stuff square. I had one small square and I was thinking, if only I had 3 more, lol. Then it hit me to make my own. It did take me a couple tries to get my saw perfectly square though. I was too lazy to set up my good one from my work trailer so I was using my old DeWalt compound.



Thanks, man. I've got the eurobrace done as well now but have no photo's yet. I'm trying to get a hold of a couple guys now to haul this thing out to my shop so I can stand it on end and silicone the overflow box onto the left side. Then I'll set it up in the garage and fill 'er up and hopefully she won't blow :D
But if she does, there a lot less explaining to do if it goes out there than if it's in my living room.

Bribed some buds with some Corona's tonight to come over and help move the beast out to the garage. Beers came out AFTER the move :)
Got the overflow all siliconed in. Gonna try and get it on the stand in the garage on Fri and get some water in it to see if it'll hold.

Water is entering the tank.. almost half full :eek:

Got the tank filled! And no water on the floor. That's a good thing :D I put in 2 WP40's and got a bit of a wave going. Took a little clip of it running, I'll see if I can get it posted

Whats the canreef saying? If there's no pictures it didn't happen.

Lol, ya, ya, ya. I was out in the garage when I posted that. As soon as dropbox gets the clip uploaded I'll post it. Give me 5 min :D I'm happy!

We want pictures or it didn't happen!!!

Ok, finished uploading. First a couple pics:

Out in the garage, all levelled out:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psb5f9656c.jpg

starting the fill:

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6b0290bf.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6e54890d.jpg

And a short little clip. Sorry about the cheezy play by play, but I tried doing one without and it didn't seem right either

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4d36cfd6.jpg

That's a pretty good wave those pumps are making. Everything looks great Dom!

Looks great!

Thanks guys and gals! I appreciate the encouraging remarks. I was pretty stressed about filling this thing.

So I went into the garage this morning and....





everything is still dry! Woohoo!. But when I left last night I tried manually kind of syncing the 2 pumps to get a bigger wave in there. It was ok but barely bigger than was in the clip. I guess it just took some time with the pumps working together and get that volume of water moving because this morning the waves were smacking the underside of the eurobrace a bit. But it's all still looking really good. I'm going to leave it run like that for a few days or so then drain it down, cut my drains in the overflow and move it into the house where I can start my partial foam rock walls, cabinetry, and plumbing down to the basement.

Hey Dom.. Are your pumps making the same noise that mine are? We have all been sleeping with fans to dull the noise out. It is that loud.. Also what settings do you have them on for the waves.. I don't know if it is just the shape of my tank, but I'm not getting any waves at all..

And Yayy for no busted out tank in the garage..:biggrin:

....but it is still only in the garage..I was all excited for nothin. :wink:

Ya, they are. But I've talked a few people about that and they are supposed to quieten down after a week or two. Thankfully mine are in the garage :D
I've been playing around with them a bit and I get really good waves on W1 and the wave duration knob turned to about setting 4-6. You might have to play with yours. But be careful! These little pumps are strong. Won't take much to cause a tsunami in your tank, lol. Keep the strength setting at S3.




Haha, It's coming, it's coming. I'll be bringing it in the house this weekend. But I still have a bunch of work to do on it before it gets salty. I want to build a foam rock wall to cover about 75% of the left side where the overflow is and create a 1/2 pillar kind of thing about 2/3 of the way down the back. I'll also be painting the back glass, drilling the drains, plumbing to the sump. Still haven't decided if it's cheaper to drive over to J&L and grab my sand and some dry rock for the rock wall or have them ship everything over.

Well, the tank is still full of water, even with all the waves :D
Got the back of the tank painted last night and this morning. Man it takes a lot of paint to cover 6' of tank, lol. I'm still waiting on a 1 3/4" hole bit for my 1" bulkhead so until that gets drilled the tank is staying where it is. Hopefully see it this week. Heading out on a 3 day backpacking trip to Della Falls next weekend so not much will happen now on it until Aug :(
Picking up the wife on Wed from Van (she went and visited family and friends in Canmore) so I get to pick up all my sand and dryrock from J&L for my rock wall. Slowly seeing progress.

Dom, glad to hear your water test is going well! don't keep us waiting too long with the updates! While you're in Van be sure to say hi to my buddy, Rich at R and L! He always have new reef treats! :biggrin:

Well I did tell him I'm headed over but he said he has to work and all that, yada, yada, yada. Hmmmm, now that I think of it, maybe when he's not home is the best time to pop in there, lol.

A bit of progress. Got the tank water test finished, just emptied it on Friday. With all the evap the level went down about 6" and the wave in there was quite large. There's no doubt in my mind now as to the strength of the new eurobrace. Drained it out, cleaned it up a bit and got the back and 1 side painted and drilled my overflow holes.
I also went into Van a couple weeks ago and got my sand and a box of Marco rock to build my side rock wall and hopefully a half pillar that will go up against the glass on the back to kind of split the back of the tank in 1/3 - 2/3. I'll be cutting the rock with my 12" DeWalt wet saw so it'll all be nice and flat against the glass. I'm debating wether I should build it on eggcrate like I've seen people do or silicone it directly to the back wall....
Any thoughts?

Well, got some furniture moved, stand painted and in it's final resting place. Still looking for a few guys to help me move the beast one last time...

Here's a pic of the new location and the 77...

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...pse5447e87.jpg

The bird is finally in the henhouse :D

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psade08924.jpg

Well, finally got to breaking out the wet saw last night. I want to create a bit of a rock wall on the left side so you can't see into the overflow box on the left side. But I'd like it to take as little room as possible. So I cut some Marco rock in half and I'll be mounting them somehow to the side panel. Right now I'm thinking I'll be siliconing them right to the glass. The only draw back is trying to remove them if need be in the future. But it seems like everything I've seen with builds that are using eggcrate to build their walls, they silicone that to the rock wall anyway, so no real difference.

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9efa2434.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psc8d2d2a1.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...pse7bbb6f1.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps4127caf4.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps021bda71.jpg

http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psdd0aa514.jpg

I've probably got a couple pieces too many for the 24" X 29" wall I want to do, but I was debating creating a similar style rock pillar on the right 1/3 of the tank against the back wall with a couple protruding shelves. But I want to see how this turns out before I cut the remaining pieces I have.

I also have some pre-finished birch plywood on the way to build some of my cabinet components. I've decided not to put doors on the bottom cabinet inside the stand (where you see the 2 squares). Because the stand is fairly deep, I'm worried things will get shoved in there, never to be seen again, or the space wasted. So I'll be building 2 boxes out of this pre-finished plywood, then slipping them into those 2 squares. Then using Blum cabinet hardware, I'll be making 2 deep drawers per box and have drawers there instead of doors. That way we can make use of the entire storage capacity there for whatever.
The space on the left of the stand is still going to have a full height cabinet to hide the overflow, WP & MP controllers, LED controller and tools for the tank. And a 16" high canopy is going to be sitting on top of the tank to mount my LED rails and prevent light spillage and hopefully contain any wrasses that go in there.