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Is it possible that a change in barometric pressure has allowed a minute air bubble to expand?
As weather here has worsened barometric pressure usually drops. No experience at all in this matter just trying to think outside the box. |
I have some bubbles like this on my Concept built tank. I have never been happy with them but she hasn't sprung a leak yet. :wink:
Very nice build by the way |
Thanks for the ideas guys!
I was just about ready to hurl myself off the roof when I had an idea!! What if I just put steel vertical braces around the seams of the tank?? The top and bottom horizontal seams are well braced, it's just the vertical ones that worry me. To hell with the whole clean look I was going for... On a 10 foot span it wouldn't really detract from the view panels too much and that way I know it's not going to explode & drown the cats. Thanks for the positive words Ram 3500! How long have you had the tank & what dimensions? I would love to just make piece with the bubbles but there are multiple ones per seam and some are over 2 inches long. All of them in the middle (vertically) of the seams though. |
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Unfortunately the bubbles / cracks happened in the structural portions... in the worst one (photo) I'd say about 50% of the 1/2" structural part is compromised, left to right.
I'm going to do the steel bracing idea, very happy with the thought of not having to strip these panels down again :) |
The steel brace will hold it for sure.....
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Thanks guys, makes me feel a bit better... I think I'm still going to go with the steel braces though, just don't trust this thing anymore.
Made some minor progress, we got the euro-bracing on! https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X...0-Ic42/43b.JPG A little hard to see, but I've got 4" of bracing running along the top perimeter and then three 6" braces running over the top, front to back. Once the books, clamps and tape comes off I'll take some proper photos. Didn't want to climb inside the tank before everything's had a couple weeks to dry. On a funny note, after putting the braces on I noticed the piece of MDF I used to stand on, inside the tank still. Lol, guess I'll have to chop it up to get it out. Somehow I always knew I'd forget it in there. MDF make good aquascaping? lol 5 More tubes of silicone on the way... This puts the count on 24 tubes and I'll probably need more before the overflow's done. This time I'm going with SCS 1200... half the price and free shipping with some true union valves and clear netting I found online. From the info I could find online it looks like it's pretty good at adhering steel to glass as it's a industrial glazing adhesive. Doesn't stick to plated steel though unfortunately so I'll have to do a lot of prep work on the steel angles once I find 'em. On the topic of silicone, when you google GE SCS 1200 silicone and open the official spec sheet, the logo on the top of the document says "Momentive". GE has been licensed and trading under Momentive since 2006, so it's either the same or close to the same stuff I've been using... just cheaper and more readily available! |
Thanks guys! Had a slow weekend with some family related travels but made some headway...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-P...00-Ic42/48.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...00-Ic42/51.JPG Still some scraping and cleaning up to do but most of the bracing's been cleaned up. I'm still hesitant to climb inside or un-clamp the base as the seam there is well over 1" in some places and the silicone takes 7-14 days to cross link and cure proper. Can't wait to get all that tape out of there! Meanwhile I've started unpacking some of my dry rock, you can see some under the stand. That one piece measures around 30" across: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...00-Ic42/47.JPG I also got my hands on some more Seaflor special grade sand, so I have five 40lbs bags in total which should get me a 1" sandbed. I hope :) At $50 a bag I've already started running out of beer money over here. |
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Great looking tank!! My buddy at Oceans by Design in Seattle, WA builds all his custom tanks using Momentive SCS1200. It's an adhesive silicone and not just silicone. |
Hey Guys, some updates!
I've got another shipment of plumbing supplies: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-X...40-Ic42/62.JPG They finally got the stainless angles cut, and I have the vertical braces on: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...40-Ic42/63.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...40-Ic42/65.JPG Some really awesome large Pukani pieces arrived, thanks Eli! : Check my foot for scale... https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-S...12-Ic42/67.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...40-Ic42/69.JPG Overflow box is glued and drying: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-a...12-Ic42/66.JPG I'm getting really anxious to see if this thing holds water... I woke up dreaming about triggerfish! I'm thinking of giving the braces a week to dry and then figuring out how to get the foam in under the tank. lol. Any ideas? I'm thinking of pushing the tank forward a bit so it overhangs, and then jacking the sucker up with the car jack & a 4x4 under the glass for support? |
A few comments on your seams
1. Silicone shrinks when it dries, so cracks and bubbles typically form with thick glass tanks due to the extra silicone in the seams. Some silicone brands shrink less than others and the effect is amplified if the edges are not machined flat and if spacers are used (more silicone = more shrinkage). Overall pretty normal and it's certainly not enough to cause a seam to fail. 2. To do large seams properly you should actually silicone panels together first and just let excess silicone be pushed out both sides. Once dry you cut out excess silicone inside and outside and let cure longer. Then you silicone your inside bead. Otherwise a good portion of that silicone in the seam will never cure. Its rare to see this done now a days, most builders won't bother but I've cut tanks apart finding uncured silicone in the seam before and I was also told this trick by people in the know. 3. Those steel "braces" are pointless unless you plan on welding them to cross bracing at top and bottom so all corners are connected. As it stands now they are just decorative trim covering your seams. |
@ sphelps, thanks for the insight!
I hear you on the shrinking issues with silicone. I'm actually using the new "stretchmarks" as a sign of curing in the lower 1" seams. They're all over all the seams now after 3 weeks. I'll paint the braces to fight corrosion. Although not perfect, the options are limited and these are a lot stronger than aluminum / plastic trim. Structurally speaking, the vertical braces help prevent bowing of the 1/2" glass and should help avoid any shearing. However, if it only serves to hide the visual imperfections in the seams, that's fine by me too :) I am still adding a 1.5" stainless trim on the top as well to support the side braces. All & all I'll sleep better with the braces on :) I hope... |
It's full of WATER!
...but first things first. It was a real mind bender figuring out how to get the foam in under the tank. With 10 foot in length and no real way to lift this thing up I spent a couple of sleepless nights devising my master plan. I was going to tip the tank up from the front, slip some foam in there and then do the other side. The forces working in on it would be way less, although I would be point loading the bottom edge a LOT. That being said I only needed to lift this thing by 1/2". As always there were some issues but we figured them out and, long story short, it worked like a charm! All you need is two heavy duty suction cups, two 4x4's and two cheap hydraulic car jacks. A couple of creaks and groans later and the front was up. Had to synchronise the two jacks but all in all it was pretty painless. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-J...20-Ic42/72.JPG With the foam underneath I put in a 2" floor drain into the crawlspace, just in case :) https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Z...20-Ic42/74.JPG To be honest, the stress of filling this thing right in the house was more then I was comfortable with... but there comes a time when you have to suck it up and just do it! After sticking a hose pipe in there and running it for a couple of hours it seems to have been worth it! No leaks! https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K...20-Ic42/75.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-o...20-Ic42/77.JPG I'm thinking of keeping the tap water in there for a week to see what happens. Really impressed with how it settled, didn't even hear the floor creak once! Fingers crossed... The seams are mostly covered by the steel angles so it's hard to see how they're holding up to the pressure. I'll try and get some photos up close though. So far so good!! |
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That is some sweet rock you have. It's going to look awesome when it's all done!
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Time for an update!
We've made some good progress...
Got the stand's main cladding done: (admittedly I'm not the best at carpentry, but I sure as sh$t have enough clamps now!) https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-s...12-Ic42/79.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-R...12-Ic42/82.JPG I also installed a dimmable 16 foot LED strip above the top euro-bracing, locked inside the steel frame... unexpectedly it lit up the clear silicone like a light-saber! It actually gets pretty bright and was thinking I could dim them for moonlights and fire them up at full strength in the daytime to eliminate some of the harder shadows that the Kessil pendants cast. Really a cool effect, hope the fish don't freak out. The area to the left of the stand was going to get a hinged wooden panel but the floating corner started growing on me... now we're thinking of putting a smoked acrylic panel on that end with the electronics behind it... it's really handy to be able to see the tank specs at a glance. Maybe a old phone or tablet linked to my Apex to display temperature charts and stuff. Now for the fun part, aquascaping! It's amazing how cold 1" of water can be in early winter: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-V...12-Ic42/84.JPG My facial expression changed rapidly after sitting down ;p https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-g...12-Ic42/85.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-9...40-Ic42/86.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-6...12-Ic42/87.JPG RO-DI unit's been working overtime the last 4 days and I'm happy to report we're halfway there! This is going to take some patience. I feel bad about all the waste water, but we've been having a rainstorm the last couple of days and there's now a creek running in front of my driveway so I guess there's enough water for the time being. I'll definitely plumb the rejected RO water into the garden by summer though. I'm getting the sneaking suspicion I will need some more LR although the cube tank's pretty well stocked... @ Beauroy : You bet man, you should swing by when she's full of water! |
Looking good :), will be staying tuned.
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where about in Sechelt did you move to?
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This is an awesome build so far! You have some cojones testing that for leaks in the house, yikes.
If you feel bad about the waste water when making RODI you could get a permeate pump, got mine here... http://www.thewaterguy.ca/catalog/vi...te-pump-73.htm I make about 70 gallons of RO to 30 gallons of waste. Then the waste gets used to either flush the toilet or water the plants in the summer, this time of year though I don't bother collecting the waste Keep us updated on the detailed progress, looking good :) |
Thanks Guys!
hmmm, cool idea Vancity! Thanks for the link. Beauroy, we're in West Sechelt... I'll PM you our address once she's full of Water! |
How's the tank doing,haven't seen picks for a while
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Hey Beauroy. Going really well thx! Things got a little crazy the last couple weeks with the family coming over for Christmas & all... updates to follow soon!
I've got some time off from now until newyears, you should swing by & have a look for yourself. |
concepts built my 400 on site and those same stretch marks appeared and i too was losing my mind. my tank held water so you should be ok!
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Hey Guys
Time for a long overdue update! I'll fast forward past the Christmas craziness with some photos. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-B...20-Ic42/95.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-c...0-Ic42/94b.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-F...0-Ic42/94c.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-l...0-Ic42/94d.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K...20-Ic42/97.JPG Long story short, livestock was moved from the 100G cube to the DT and doing really great! Fun to watch my Kole tang flopping / swimming from one end to the other... takes a while. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Q...0-Ic42/106.JPG The engineer gobies are also doing really well... they schooled for a couple days being used to their cramped 30" cube and then set off in different directions, destroying my aquascaping one mouthful at a time :) Seems like they've doubled in size in the last month. QT cube is still full of new arrivals, going on 4 weeks of Cupramine now. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-u...20-Ic42/99.JPG Regal tang had velvet and now everyone's gotta put up with the copper. Lesson learned, even with a larger QT it's not fair to combine this many new arrivals. Almost through the worst of it I hope, haven't seen any signs of it for almost a week although he's picked up a bit of HLLE from the Cupramine and stress no doubt. Feeding some Selcon and hopefully he'll pull through and have a stress free place to hang out soon enough. Back to the build, after a minor flood, my Apex dying, and two faulty pumps (vibrate the fillings out of your head at night trying to sleep) the sump had to be moved and re-plumbed into the crawl space, directly under the tank. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-K...0-Ic42/107.JPG I've also managed to get some more work done on the stand... putting in some shelving for the AV and books. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-f...0-Ic42/104.JPG https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-r...0-Ic42/105.JPG I gave up on trying to hoist the wooden soffit above the tank and am just using a 2x4 to temporarily suspend the Kessils above the tank. It's a temporary lighting solution anyway. Finally got the Reef Octo Regal 300 dialed and it's skimming happily for the time being. It's a bit of a nuisance being so far away from the sump, especially in winter but I'll setup a closed circuit TV system of sorts and display it in the stand on a tablet of something so I can keep an eye on things. |
OH WOW THIS IS AWESOME!
lol sorry, but your tank is really cool, couldn't contain it... |
Did you have to support the floor somehow?
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Thanks Animal-Chin! Yes, I have four 4x4 supports in the crawlspace, one under each corner of the tank. With the 2" steel stand and joists running perpendicular this thing is rock solid. Floor did not even creak when I test filled.
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Very cool . Nice to see it with fish & water . I'm impressed.
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Update please.
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... travelling in Europe for our Honeymoon. Will update when we get home. No doubt I'll have my work cut out for me when I get back, missed a couple water changes!
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Update time...
So after being away for a month the tank had some issues when I got back, as can be expected from skipping water-changes , overfeeding and a general lack of husbandry. The Sandsifting goby was also nowhere to be seen and hair algae had taken hold. I removed what I could by hand, turned off all the lighting and increased the flow by upgrading my Reeflo Dart Gold to a Hammerhead. At the 11 foot head I was running the Dart was almost losing 70% of it's flow so it was time to do something about it. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/_v...=w1351-h760-no The tank cleaned up nicely, and just in time for it's upcoming 1 year anniversary! Now all I need to do is start stocking corals... https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/jH...=w1351-h760-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/r-...=w1351-h760-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/6l...=w1072-h804-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/--...=w1351-h760-no Looking forward to getting rid of the remaining hair algae I put a couple Sandsifting gobies in QT along with a Scribbled Rabbitfish and a couple more turbo snails. That should do it right? Well, wanting immediate satisfaction I dropped the snails straight into the DT, after acclimating them and giving them rinse and some toothbrush action, just to be sure. Bad idea. Very, very bad idea. Mega mundo bad. 10 days later the Kole tang has some discolored patches... yup, it's flashing. Hmm, I wonder... what's that on the 12 inch Naso tang? Ooh, a lovely white spot on his caudal fin, maybe he ran into something. Hmm, another white spot above his eye? Looking closely, (now getting down on my knees and gripping the tank stand with white knuckles). As the light catches the Kole you can clearly see, she's covered in spots! I get up and stagger away from the tank in disbelief, feeling the urge to projectile vomit, run away... or both... at the same time. Twice. For the first time since starting this "adventure" in saltwater lunacy I was thinking of getting out. This tank has really taken a toll on my mental health and state of well being. The amount of time and money to set it up and then getting the rug pulled out from under me 1 day before the tank turns one year old. Then again, without it I'd be bored out of my mind :) And I love my fish. I did a lot of reading and decided to give it a day or two, I'm off to a overnight business thing the next morning anyway so can't act anyway. A day later I get back and the Anthias start flashing and the tangs start showing more raised spots. I guess it's probably not Velvet 'cause they're still alive. Time to act none the less... I can't even look at the tank without getting a pit in my stomach so "hoping for the best and feeding garlic infused fairy dust" ins't an option. A couple tanks back I had a 140G rimless that had a dormant strain of Velvet for about 6 months. Everyone was 100% healthy, until they weren't. I lost every fish other than my cleaner wrasse in three days as I watched them dissolve in front of my eyes. Gruesome stuff. This was not my vision for 2016's scary Halloween house decor so it was time to do something. No way to get a large enough QT anywhere (I'm a ferry ride away from the nearest serious pet store) so I decided to break the tank down and turn the display into a hospital tank. I'd have to remove the rocks to catch all those fish anyway. I've read good things about the absorption of Chloroquine and only a little bit will get into the glass itself but after leaving my LR and corals fallow for 3 months it should be okay. Run lots of carbon etc. The sand and corals came out... only (insert sarcasm here) took 3 hours prep work and 6 hours of hard and heart breaking labor, thanks to the help of my friend Dave who brought over a Mag12 pump and some buckets. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qy...=w1351-h760-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8z...=w1351-h760-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/u3...=w1351-h760-no The two largest rocks had to stay in the tank unfortunately... no matter how hard I shook those Anthias would not leave their "hotel" rock. I even pulled the one by it's tail but it only doubled up and burrowed deeper into the rock. I'm hoping with weekly 60g water-changes to replenish the medication absorption won't mess with the efficacy of the CP too much. We covered the front of the tank to keep UV out. Looks better than a bed-sheet or garbage bags :/ https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Uy...=w1430-h804-no I'll keep it up for 7 weeks and in the DT and then re-introduce the rocks and sand in Feb / March 2107. Balls. Moral of the story... quarantine e v e r y t h i n g. After 12 months of careful quarantine and stocking to make sure I don't make a hash of something that could turn into an overwhelming problem, I dropped my guard for two darn snails and royally screwed up. The cursed snails passed away before the tear down anyway. |
Any updates?
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Updates...
So putting a 100G blowup pool in an un-insulated crawlspace turned out to not be the best idea for the coldest winter since 2008! Just took too many pumps, lights and of course heaters to keep it going and the evaporation was enormous. Just too much surface area. Other than that it worked great... I set out to build a 40G frag tank for all of the remaining corals and some key live-rocks. I thought 1/2" glass would look cool, and it does! Total overkill on a 12" tall frag tank but it means I could try pull off some minimalist silicon techniques which turned out looking really cool. https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/1I...=w1449-h815-no https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IA...=w1449-h815-no The remaining rocks got bleached and assembled into rather elaborate and vertically unchallenged rockscaping. I'm still moving things around but have managed to create a couple of new and interesting areas with those and a new box of Marco rocks. As of last week all the rocks, surviving inverts and corals (loosely dropped in) and fish are back in the same tank... all reunited and doing great. It's a bit of a blow being set back to the new-tank-syndrome stage after being so close to the 1 year mark but think it's for the best. White rocks and all ;p I have the sneaking suspicion there might still be some parasites left in the tank but after observing all the fish for 4 weeks after the 7 weeks in Chloroquinne could not draw any conclusions strong enough to warrant putting my livestock through more treatments. The Kole tang got two spots, the day after I stopped treatment, on it's pectoral fin that didn't fall off or multiply in over a month and no one else as much as flinched / flashed / pooped funny or shook their heads at me. In the meantime I've been making some progress in the fish-room. Plumbed in a 55G barrel to serve as a water-change zone so I don't have to turn the pumps off or drain the sump during water-changes. I simply isolate the barrel with ball valves, drain it and refill with premixed water. Also, I'm working on a remote DSB today to try and battle nitrates and algae in the year to come. I've always had great success with a DSB but the flow in my sump was way too high to make it work... ended up with fine sugar-sized aragonite sand washed into the display tank last time I tried. Also, the Barracuda pump got some silicone carbide seals (U.S. Seal PS-1905), they REALLY work! If anyone out there is running a reeflo pump with a leaky seal this is a no-brainer and worth every cent. Every other factory seal kit I've used ended up leaking after a while on both this and the previous hammerhead gold pumps. Overall I'm in good spirits about the tank and looking forward to the year ahead to watch it grow back to where it was. After 18 months of starting this build I get to glue my frags into place, TODAY! |
I didn't see your update about the Ich!!! yeesh! I'm glad you made it out alive! Got any new pics?
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No pics yet but I just glued the last frag down and there's potential for some cool growth areas!
I'm a little worried about Chloroquinne leaching out of the rocks... the corals are taking a long time to acclimate. Might just be my imagination. |
Any more updates on this tank?
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk |
The tank itself is doing great! No issues at all... I've got some more full spektrum LED units hooked up that's making a real difference and plumbed in a 55g drum to the system that I can isolate, drain and refill super fast to make water changes a breeze.
Fish are super healthy, except for the one Sailfin tang that gets a little pale once every couple weeks but that might just be minir agression issues as she's growing largerthan the older Kole tang. Corals however have been a bit of a challenge. I'm assuming there was a little chloroquine leaching at play for a couple months. I had little to no algea growth for a while and my corals slowly shrank. Lost all my zoas, mushrooms and even GSP colonys. Spofties like leathers and Colts grew enormous though. I've been overfeeding the fish frozen food twice a day to keep any possible ich remnants at bay, which have led to some Cyano issues as well. All that to say things have taken a while to get back to normal after the tear down and Xmas chloroquine nukeing but we're finally back to square one. I hope! Some new red shroom colonies are doing well and I'm hoping the water quality will support some new corals and nems that I have in QT now. All that being said my lovely wife is 8 and a half months pregnant right now, so I'm dialling things back to an easy maintenance level for the next while. I'll post some photos on Monday though if all goes to plan! |
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