Definately lots of strength there :D

I think it would still be strong enough. Its a great idea, I wish I would have thought of that before I filled my tank. I definitely get less light penetration through that glass.

Just out of curiosity why not just do 2 - 4" cross braces
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/pic...&pictureid=896

Ideally the tank would be just eurobraced without any crossbracing at all, but this was a used tank that I picked up for dirt cheap and just modifying it to fit my needs in the easiest way possible. For me to rip out the exisiting brace and re-brace it would be a lot of work and time consuming and that nice black trim would probably be all broken by now (I'm still debating wether to keep the trim yet) This took me less than an hour total and I think I achieved decent results. I think it was just a matter of me taking the easiest route possible while achieving results that I would be satisfied with long term. It ends up being 2.5" too, so that's better than 4" I guess.

So yesterday afternoon, my kids helped me cut the glass for the overflow. I was quite pleased with the results. First, we semi cleaned up the glass to be cut (it was full of silicone and fish water residue). I got this 3/8" glass for trade for some other clean 1/4" glass that I had sitting around in the garage, so I'm not complaining. Here are pictures.

This one shows my 2 outside walls of the overflow and the divider. The kid's books was just used to prop the glass up will breaking it along the score line.
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238251906

This picture is to show that I got pretty close to 90 degree cut. I was surprised that the newly cut edges were not sharp. I could run my hand up and down the fresh edge quite comfortably. Sorry for the fuzzy picture (cell phone camera)
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238252008

And here my son being a goofball. He was helping me with the breaking of the glass. This picture shows the fresh cut :)

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238252126

Hopefully today or tomorrow I can drill the drain holes and assemble the box. I have to get a wire brush or something to clean the excess silicone of the edges though. I'm not too much of a fan of this. At least we have a bit of progress.

Excellent job on cutting the glass. Your son sure is a little cutie.

Thank you...it's been a few years since I've cut glass. It's easire with a helper now :). Hes really excited to help me build the overflow box today. Looking forward to it. Just gotta go put my little daughter for a nap first.

More progress today: I build the overflow box. First I had to drill my 2 holes for the 1 1/2" drains in the overflow box. Here are both my kids helping me.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238276306

The worst part is cleaning silicone off dirty glass. I got the glass from someone who had ripped apart a fish tank so I had to use tons of razor blades and wire brushes to clean up the edges. Here is the mess created!

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238276419

Finally all the glass cleaned up.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238276511

Here is the glass prepped with masking tape to get less smears in the silicone. I am using clear silicone. I know that the overflow box is not seen, but I still want it to look nice.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238276653

I cleaned all the edges with vinegar and newspaper (a trick from the guy who used to build tanks for Inter American or Bow Valley Aquariums). Here is the overflow box built. I just have to let the silicone cure and then razor off the edges. All the edges lined up flush and there are no air bubbles in the visable seams so I think that's the most important part.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238276919

Thanks for looking!

Looking good, surprising at how clean your cuts are, usually old glass doesn't cut so well, especially thicker stuff. Well Done! Is the extra chamber going to be for your external wavebox?

Thanks for the comments. Yes, the extra chamber is the external wavebox. it's 4 1/2" x 5" x 14".....hopefully it'll work. the actual wavebox dimensions are 4 1/2" x 4 /12" x 12". I think it'll work cause it's just displacing water at a set frequency.

Thats some thick glass for an overflow. Is there a specific reason you went so thick?

Looks good though, Those siliconed joints will be fine. It's amazing how well silicone bonds to glass. I like how you taped the joints for a smooth silicone edge. Most people me included, would just apply and spread with finger to Fillet the joints, on an overflow LOL

It's only 3/8" glass. It's external with bulkheads and anytime there's a bulkhead there's extra stress on the glass. There's also not that much room from the edge of the hole to the edge of the glass so I didn't want to risk it. I didn't trust 1/4" glass. Believe it or not, the internal overflow box that I ripped out of the tank was 1/2". That's pretty think, it was probably for it to have a nice surface for the egg crate to sit on though. I don't ever want to have to tear this tank apart because of something I miscalculated. I'm trying to do it right the first time y'know? Thanks for the comments.

Oh, thats not that bad. It look's like 1/2" in the pics. 3/8 is not as bad. ya, I woulda gambled with 1/4" If I was buyin the glass. But then. I gamble alot on thing. But NEVER at a casino, go figure HAHAHA

Funny thing is that I have a ton of 1/4" glass. But I traded for the 3/8" so it cost me nothing :)

Here's a picture after taking all the masking tape off. That's an 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper inside just to give a reference of size.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238293770

wow look at you go! nice job on all the glass cutting.

Wow looks great! Can't wait to see more.

Really makes me wish I wasn't done the silicone on my project. Great work!

What does cleaning with newsprint do? Wouldn't have guessed that was a "trick". Neat.

I have a 40g you made a couple years ago, 24x24x12 and the overflow is made out of 1/8" ! :lol: But it's internal though, I was pretty unsure of it at first but it seems to hold up.

Nice progress so far, everything look is looking good. :)

Well I am just checking in on the thread dez.

I do have the constant desier to set up a tank but just a lack of time. My Nitro powered
helicopters keep me busy:)

I do enjoy watching your thread progress so keep up the good work.

Jonathan

Hey Tony....I'm glad it's holding out. With internal overflows there isn't any pressure, it's equalized as long as the overflow box is fairly full (that's my theory at least)...I'm just glad it hasn't exploded and there's no lawsuit against me :)

WOw great thread there Dez, long time no see on the boards great to have you back again... so what type of tank is it going to be again SPS or mixed

Tony, I think newsprint doesn't leave any cloth residue if you're using a rag. My parents always asked me to clean the windows with windex and newspaper, that way it didn't leave streaks. Try it sometime!

Hey Mike,

I'm thinking sps tank, but my wife wants more of a mixed. I'm still doing my research on mixed. Either way, I'm going to be really careful of what I put it cause there'll be no upgrading in this house :).

There is now a little bit more progress on the tank. I ran into some "minor" problems though, I'll explain in a bit. I started building the stand today.

Here is the rough plan of what I was going to build:
http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238732278

However, as I started to build the bottom frame, screwing the last long length my robertson #2 drill bit slipped out of the screw and hit my thumb. I thought it was just a cut, then I looked at it, and it had gone through the nail and out the other side. Here's what it looked like (sorry for the fuzzy cell phone camera picture):

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238732665

I wanted to just bandage it up and continue, but my wife is much wiser than I so she made me go to the medi-centre. Doctor took an x-ray and found a bit of bone damage. I had to have a tetnis shot. Here is an xray shot, you can see a tiny bit of chip on the upper right:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238732865

Since there was bone damage, I had to get some antibiotics. They look like Halloween candy. 4 times a day on an empty stomach....argh.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238732976

Well....after all that, at least there is a bit of progress on the stand. Here's what I have so far.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238733029

The good news is that I got all the lumber for my stand for free. I asked one of the builders that I work with if I could look look through their framing garbage pile :) Hopefully there will be a bit more progress in the next few days while my thumb heals. Thanks for looking.

God I love this hobby!

this is one hardcore build so far! i've never seen a build accompanied by x-rays before!

LOL no kidding. Ouchies Dez, hope your thumb heals quick. Enjoy the Hallowe'en candies.

There is now a little bit more progress on this build. I never realized how important the opposable thumb was until today. I basically put on an oversized mitten to keep my bandaged thumb clean and made another attempt to build my tank stand. My children were very helpful in handing me individual screws and glue. Here is the start:

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238818835

Here's a shot with the verticals and top frame glued and screwed in. It gives you an idea of the size.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238819358

I was quite pleased with the measurements. I got the stand completely flush with the wall and everything is perfectly level.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238818934

The stand was a lot more sturdy than I thought. I almost didn't need those 45 degree top braces. Eventually the stand will be screwed in to the wall. I will paint the stand later with some sort of marine paint and will screw on a sheet of plywood accross the stand and cover the top of the wall as well.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1238819019

Thanks for looking. Hopefully my thumb heals fast and I can get more progress on this build. I'm held up on bulkheads now....J & L is out of stock and I'm trying to track down a used oceans motions, I might have to break down and buy one new. I also need a pump to run the closed loop, I'm thinking of a Sequence Dart. I have yet to plan my fish room in the basement. I have to plan it out and figure out what I want to do with the sump, frag tank etc......

Dez like always you do a great job man.... well done so far

Thanks Mike,

I just realized, my tank is the same size as yours. You're running a 5 x 2 x 2 right? It'll be a while before I get water in :)

Cheers

ya i love the size of mine too, and i really like that i put a over flow box in my tank to give me more room for the fish, i get the whole 5 feet of tank to place rock and corals

Hi,

I was just catching up on this... the brace will be alright! If it were metal, different story, but the glass will be fine... the piece will take the stress, and the extra silicone joints stay the same...

Finally some progress to this tank build. I've been busy the last few weeks with work, family etc. My brother came up this weekend and I convinced him to be my "variable jig" for building my stand for my sump room in the basement. After about an hour here's what we came up with. Everything is screwed and glued.

The sump is going on the floor, in the middle rack is my existing frag tank - 48 x 18 x 14tall, and at the top either a standard 75 gallon tank, or 54 gallon tank as my reservoir/water change tank.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1242679506

Earlier today I got up the motivation to drill my tank for the closed loop. As usual my 3 year old son was helping me spray with water to keep it cool while I drilled. Here's what we ended up with. The 2 holes in the corner really close together are going to be patched (they were the holes for the existing "reef ready" tank when I bought the tank. I ripped out that internal overflow). The biggest hole is for my 2" intake of the closed loop. I'm getting antsy now because I'm getting closer and closer to plumbing. I have to order an Oceans Motions 4 way cause I can't seem to find one used.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1242679777

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1242679813

A little more progress today. Got some primer and I primed the supporting structure of the tank. My wife was great and painted the entire wall that the tank is going against with "mold, mildew and moisture" resistant paint. She also painted the inside ledge. It doesn't even look like she repainted cause we tinted the paint the same colour as the rest of the walls. Maybe tonight after the kids are in bed I'll paint the stand with the same paint.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...g?t=1242871039

thought they were your helpers?

looking good Dez!

Ha ha....with paint, it's a different story. I'd rather the paint stay off of them, I wouldn't want them to become mildew, mold and water resistant would I? :)

Wow looks amazing! I hope my stand looks as good as yours when I'm done. I also hope my siliconing job looks something like yours when it's done :lol: