Since I had nothing better to do on Christmas eve I decided to tackle the tank. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. However, I did find it a bit time intensive. Like painting, I found most of the grunt work up front. The cleaning, taping, etc.. Alright, on with the show!
So the first thing I did was collect all my tools and bits and bobbles that I'd need for the construction. Tape, vices, silicone, etc.. I then started to clean the glass with acetone and then another round of cleaning with water and vinegar. Next I taped off all my seams like so.
After doing some dry runs (ie, pretending to put the tank together), I came up with an approach that seemed to work best for me.
First I applied strips of nylon tape to the front and back panels, top and bottom in preparation for securing the panels once they were in place and the corner vices removed. More on this later.
With the tank held together with the corner vices as pictured above. I then un-viced one of the side panels and prepared it for siliconing. I laid that panel on the floor and applied a continuous bead of silicone at the bottom of that pan of glass ONLY.
I lifted that side panel into place and reapplied the corner vice to hold it into place (not the nylon tape!). I repeated this procedure for the other side panel.
I now had both side panels siliconed to the bottom glass only. Next I un-viced the front panel and applied a bead of silicon to the sides and bottom of that pane of glass.
I then lifted that pane up and instead of using the corner vices, this time I secure it with the nylon tape that was sticking to it.
As you can see, silicone oozes out but that's okay. I avoided rubbing it off because once the silicone dried, I could easily run a blade down it like so.
And here is the main tank all done up.
Next I tackled the euro-bracing and overflow box. There wasn't anything special to note about those pieces. Just apply silicone and hold into place with nylon tape. Lastly I ran my finger down the inside corners to push down all the silicone that oozed out. Were silicone did not ooze into the tank corners I applied a little bit and pushed that down.
So here she is, waiting for silicone to cure.
