Newbie advise needed... Diary of a new tank junkie

SmallFry · #37 01-20-2011, 04:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ensquire

Thanks Smallfry, what are the dimensions of your overflo box? Yours is glass ? Can lexan be used for external box? What adhesive is best ? Man I ask a lot of questions LOL
Ordered most of what I needed today because I could not find one thing here as far as plumging or bits etc. Probably take a week or so to get here. In the mean time I will tear tank down again and store the rock in a big bin with skimmer and powerheads. Paint and seal the stand, so there are things to do.
I wish this wasnt such a barren area for supplies and livestock.
I have been running the tank for about a month now and have a hair algae problem to deal with .

My overflow box is 36" long by 4" back to front by 6" deep. Mine is indeed glass, bonded with silicone. Because I couldn't get 10 mil glass for the bottom second time around without specially ordering it, the bottom is a laminate of two layers of 6 mil - an interesting process in itself.. My overflow slots are 1' 3" long each, and from the freshwater tests seem to skim off a nice thin surface layer (miraculously the basement floor in that part of the house is level in moth directions).

You could no doubt build an overflow box from Lexan, the problem, however, is that from what I've heard silicone doesn't stick to Lexan etc very well, and I don't off hand know of anything that sticks to both plastic or glass strongly enough to be safe. For an internal overflow box some people do use silicone, but the loads and consequences of failure are different so I wouldn't chance it externally...

I hear you on the supplies front, we're OK here for general stuff, but when you get to fishy stuff it gets a little limited without a couple of hour trip or you end up getting stuff online - or paying very much over the odds. The problem with online is you have the postage to pay; I just found out that the shipping on for a $30 heater is $15 plus! I'm sure there's a parallel universe somewhere in which that makes sense..