Dan's Jelly "Pseudokreisel"

[Duker]

This is going to be bad ass! Love it, ill help u guys collect the jellies....yippee let's go diving!!
Hey I think Joel still has a 1/2 hp refurbished chiller at progrow. Good deal too if I recall.

[Youngster Dan]

Originally Posted by Duker

This is going to be bad ass! Love it, ill help u guys collect the jellies....yippee let's go diving!!
Hey I think Joel still has a 1/2 hp refurbished chiller at progrow. Good deal too if I recall.

You know I am in!

Do you know how much he wants for that chiller? You may have solved my problem.

[monocus]

just go slowly, moving the heat gun at a medium pace.it will take time.you can also heat the acrylic in a moderately heated oven first

[sphelps]

I'd use an oven for the bending, a heat gun on that size of sheet will likely give less than steller results.

170°C should work well for cast material but don't use a gas oven. For best results build a wood mold with the right curvature and place the sheet on top of it in the pre-heated oven. The sheet will form around it by itself.

[paddyob]

Originally Posted by Youngster Dan

Hi Everyone!

Well, it's my girlfriends birthday coming up and she loves jellyfish. I don't mean that in a "I love pizza it's great" kind of way either - she seriously loves jellyfish.:

You must seriously love her. Lol


Following.

[ScubaSteve]

Jealous. I've been wanting to do this for years.

Go with thick acrylic for the front viewing plane to avoid condensation problems.

With the overflow, make the top of the screen below the top edge of the tank. That way when (and not if) that screen ever gets plugged, the water can over flow past the screen and into the back, rather than onto the floor.

Where is the inlet coming from back into the tank?

Check out this guy's plantonkreisel design: http://www.biolbull.org/content/204/1/68.full.very nice in that the inlet creates a laminar flow over the outlet screen which prevents jellies from getting stuck on the screen.

[nerdz]

Hi

in case you haven't seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FZVG...e_gdata_player

[Youngster Dan]

Originally Posted by paddyob

You must seriously love her. Lol


Following.

Yeah, she is alright

It helps when you get to do a sweet aquarium for a birthday gift and not something lame.

Originally Posted by ScubaSteve

Jealous. I've been wanting to do this for years.

Go with thick acrylic for the front viewing plane to avoid condensation problems.

With the overflow, make the top of the screen below the top edge of the tank. That way when (and not if) that screen ever gets plugged, the water can over flow past the screen and into the back, rather than onto the floor.

Where is the inlet coming from back into the tank?

Check out this guy's plantonkreisel design: http://www.biolbull.org/content/204/1/68.full.very nice in that the inlet creates a laminar flow over the outlet screen which prevents jellies from getting stuck on the screen.

Thanks for the link! I'm hoping 1/2" is enough for the condensation, but maybe for that panel I should go thicker?

Originally Posted by nerdz

Hi

in case you haven't seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FZVG...e_gdata_player

Thanks!

[Youngster Dan]

Originally Posted by monocus

just go slowly, moving the heat gun at a medium pace.it will take time.you can also heat the acrylic in a moderately heated oven first

Cool, I tried on a small piece of scrap acrylic and was pretty impressed with how easy it was to bend.

Originally Posted by sphelps

I'd use an oven for the bending, a heat gun on that size of sheet will likely give less than steller results.

170°C should work well for cast material but don't use a gas oven. For best results build a wood mold with the right curvature and place the sheet on top of it in the pre-heated oven. The sheet will form around it by itself.

I have a piece of large 24" PVC that I was going to use to bend the acrylic around as a mold. I don't know if I could fit it in an oven, but I do think that method is definitely better than the heat gun.

[Youngster Dan]

So I went into my local plastics shop to get my acrylic and was in for a bit of a shocker. I was quoted something close to 600-700 bucks for the 1/2" acrylic. I knew it was going to be expensive, maybe getting close to 400 range but was not prepared to hear that.

So, the main box is now going to be 1/2 glass! I feel like this may get condensation problems during warm days, but frig acrylic aint cheap!

I have my order in for the glass, and will use acrylic for the fake front and the overflow (and of course for the curvy bit as well).