my 104.72G Shallow Lagoon

[kien]

Originally Posted by JDigital

I actually leave town tomorrow morning at 9, and not back till the 29th.

d'oh! Well, have a great trip :-) I'm hoping the tank will be done by the 31st. After that I'm off to Mexico for a week and then back to work and if the tank isn't done by then, then it will be a new entrant into the slowest build contest..

[banditpowdercoat]

WHOOO!!!! Nice speakers dude

Ohh, and the tank is gona be Epic too

[Delphinus]

What maniac suggested you build your own tank man? Don't listen to him.

Oops, I mean.. subscribed ..

[kien]

This guy at work gave me the idea. Said it would be easy as pie. He also tried to convince me that I should build the whole lighting system from scratch.. I'm starting to think that maybe he's a little loopy..

[lastlight]

clean them with acetone, tape around your seams, clean the to-be siliconed areas once more quick and toss it together.

Wear an old shirt. Somehow I ruined 4 shirts building 2 tanks. The math doesn't add up! Next time I just want to build some jigs to hold things together better since i had panes sliding around on me and made what should have been pretty easy and very clean into a nightmare.

I'm actually pretty stoked to try again. Basement tanks are the BOMB. Murphy has a little less power down there in the dungeon =)

[kien]

So I picked up some supplies today and decided to monkey around with the tank/glass.

I think these little do-dads are my new favourite gadgets.



They are made of plastic and rubber so are gentle on the glass. Also, spring loaded for one handed operation. Very handy when you're trying to brace two 1/2" panes of glass.

Also picked up some nylon tape. Will come in handy once it is time to silicone.



I started to visualize my attack vector, mounted the panes of glass and braced them with those corner grippies.







It actually wasn't that bad at all. I will have to make sure that the floor is perfectly even when I'm ready to commit. Probably a sheet of plywood or something. Carpet is not level. Or I will have to haul all that glass upstairs and work on the dining room table.

[Funky_Fish14]

Sounds like a fun project Kien!

I hate to be the downer... but those clips aren't going to work for putting that tank together. Because you have to silicon between the edges when you are putting it together, you wont be able to do with the clips on and I dont think its a good idea to put those on after you place siliconed pieces into place. Since they are just at the top corners they will pull the top corners in and at the same time rock the bottom outward, which will make the joints uneven, which obviously is bad. Also it infact might be easier to work on a surface while you are standing than on the ground. The first and last tank I built on the floor was much more inconvenient to do than working up on a 'bench'. - Toss down a piece of plywood on a table, then cover the wood with newspaper. Build the tank on the newspaper, and it doesn't matter if the silicon sticks to the newspaper.

Best of luck with the build!

Cheers,

Chris

P.S. - nice thread title

[kien]

Originally Posted by Funky_Fish14

Sounds like a fun project Kien!

I hate to be the downer... but those clips aren't going to work for putting that tank together. Because you have to silicon between the edges when you are putting it together, you wont be able to do with the clips on and I don't think its a good idea to put those on after you place siliconed pieces into place. Since they are just at the top corners they will pull the top corners in and at the same time rock the bottom outward, which will make the joints uneven, which obviously is bad. Also it in fact might be easier to work on a surface while you are standing than on the ground. The first and last tank I built on the floor was much more inconvenient to do than working up on a 'bench'. - Toss down a piece of plywood on a table, then cover the wood with newspaper. Build the tank on the newspaper, and it doesn't matter if the silicon sticks to the newspaper.

Best of luck with the build!

Cheers,

Chris

P.S. - nice thread title

You pretty much listed everything that I ran into while dry fitting the tank and notes that I had to take. Those clips will interfere with the silliconing and do need to be removed prior to the actual application. I had planned to do that and replace the corner grip with an application of nylon tape on the outsides. And yes the bottoms tended to extend out a few millimeters every time I applied the clips. This was solved with an application of the nylon tap on the outside corners. What the clips are good for is a helping hand to hold the walls up while working. Kind of of like having someone hold those corners for you while you work. Tonight I'm going to see how well the nylon tape holds and if I'm not confident I will get those corner braces that sit on the outside corners. I saw those at Rona but I didn't really like them because they have vices that you have to twist to secure each side of the corner.

When I worked on a sump it was on my dining room table and I hated that. I'm not a tall person so putting things up higher is actually more inconvenient for me. I found it much more comfortable working with the tank on the floor because I could easily maneuver around, inside and over it. Other than that, I did end up doing exactly as you said, threw down a sheet of plywood and then newspapers over that so that the silicon can bleed out the bottom just fine.

wheeeeeeeee!

[Funky_Fish14]

Ah ok, well, whatever works! Haha.

Just the nylon tape should do 'er. It will actually hold it very well, and you dont want to squeeze the seams too tight, so the tape is your best bet! This is from personal experience building tanks at a shop.

Cheers,

Chris

[kien]

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.