AndyL's 5.5

AndyL · #1 10-16-2008, 01:09 PM

Laminating glass = basically sandwiching another pane of glass over an existing pane. Basically gluing another layer of glass over the original.

Though my question becomes what happens if I break a piece - glass as thin as these tanks are made of; is special order... The 10's are 3mm easy peasy - but 2mm is not easy to come by.

sphelps · #2 10-16-2008, 03:11 PM

I'd say remove the one side and extend the tank for your overflow needs, or drill the tank and make some kind of internal or external overflow. If the tank breaks from the surge you're obviously using too much surge, there's no way corals will like that much water movement, not to mention the sand and rock structure.

You're making this more complicated than it needs to be, you're using a sump so you don't need an AIO, all you need is an overflow and there are plenty of ways to do that within the rules.

AndyL · #3 10-16-2008, 03:46 PM

I'm going to dissagree on too much surge, I've got a pretty good idea how much surge I'm needing (based on testing & referencing other tanks). It's not so much the glass I'm worried about, it's the limited section of silicone adhesion... If the 2.5g blew a seam with a 1g surge, I have little faith in those same dimensional seams holding on a 5.5 even with a minimal surge. Thus the reason for the reinforcing.

There are many ways I could approach building this, however as far as the tank, I'm going to run with what I know to work (I'm testing/tuning enough other theories with this tank). Overall design was done like this for two reasons, the full width overflow is sized to handle the surge of water (calculated flow) baffle system is to keep the water level at a minimum height, herbie overflow is used for noise control - may actually add a third bulkhead (base + surge + emergency). To me this is simplest/easiest/quietest way...

sphelps · #4 10-16-2008, 04:24 PM

If you're worried about the seams reinforce them by siliconing some plastic, wood or aluminum corner covers on them.

A Herbie will not be quiet with a surge, especially 1 gallon on such a small tank. A Herbie works on the bases of steady state flow.

I'm just going to come out with this, seriously a surge on a 5.5?? What possible benefit could you get from that? Noise and air bubbles, sounds kind of silly to me when you could use a maxijet on a timer and get the same random flow without the complications. Call me crazy but I usually try and avoid things that are unnecessary and cause problems and complications, but maybe that's just me.

AndyL · #5 10-16-2008, 11:00 PM

I'm well aware of how a herbie works; been using them on quite a number of sytems since '04.

Seriously, you don't see it? Powerheads = heat this will be a problem in 5.5's; using wavemaker type timing devices are generally less than reliable and of all the ones I've seen (short of the tunze wave boxes; and that eco(name escapes me) neither appropriate for a nano) they don't manage to produce proper wave action.

Here's one of the tanks which gave me the idea years and years ago to try this out... The video links don't work anymore, but the pictures are still there...

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/inde...dpost&p=770299

Der_Iron_Chef · #6 10-16-2008, 11:48 PM

AndyL....I give you props for thinking outside the box (or the stock AGA, in this case). I would love to see a surge device on a 5.5G, and I hope you can still make it work! Could you reinforce the seams with small strips of glass siliconed at the corners? I know that's probably not the clean look you're going for. You sound pretty handy, though.

Anyway, I hope you keep the idea, if only for my own selfish curiosity

AndyL · #7 10-17-2008, 12:11 AM

Meh, let's see what JDigital says about laminating the glass Since I'd be keeping all the original glass in its original location, just adding glass over top - that might work. If I can go that way, I will... My interest in this contest was as an incentive to get off my arse and try the CSD & put the theory into a test on the UDSB/CR concept...

I don't think reinforcing the corners will be adequate; I might be able to test it out on another 2.5 - see if it lasts (First 2.5 blew after ~40hrs), but I have my doubts about it... Have to see if I can come up with some kind of corner bead material that would work for such a purpose.

AndyL · #8 10-17-2008, 03:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AndyL

Here's one of the tanks which gave me the idea years and years ago to try this out... The video links don't work anymore, but the pictures are still there...

Found a video - doesn't show the nice surge action this tank had though... Get a bit of the feel of it here and there though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLPob7yUKO0

AndyL · #9 10-20-2008, 03:26 AM

No real update... Having some technical issues...

Testing out some plumbing; checking out the overall plumbing & testing parts together to see how things will work... Popped a seam on the tank in the process of all the testing.

Looks like my pump estimate is a little low (Head loss estimate on a sand filled 4" pipe was apparently 50% off), not even enough to drive the CSD as I had previously tuned it (may keep it and run a borneman instead?); or possibly re-tune the CSD to work in this configuration - which is another monster, There's so many little adjustments to make to get this working right... The Borneman is sounding better every minute.