AJ`s Build Thread

How about pics so I can see specifically what you mean...

--AJ

 

There...fixed it for ya. Thanks for the pic.

 

A quick update...there's some changes going on with the rock work...making more horizontal surfaces, but keeping the core pillar design. I got rods in much of it and it's worked well. Got a 13" masonry bit from Menards and cut the rock like butter. They are not solid enough to grab one rock and have it support the weight of all connected rocks (at least I wouldn't try that), but they're certainly not going anywhere...which is obviously the point. Using some epoxy and rubble to fill in a few areas and cover some areas where the rod is visible. Ordered the epoxy today so I should be able to finish later this week. Also ordered some aragonite oolite and silicone for the sump, got the glass from the glass shop and the new trim from Pet's Playhouse. Should have the sump finished within a week...hopefully the stand too. The lumber is in the garage...just gotta assemble it. Also ordered some parts for my crap vacuum (basically a Magnum 350 filter modified to allow me to clean all the crap up that settles on the bottom of the tank). Also ordered some parts for the skimmer to put it in tip-top shape. Should have the skimmer running soon. Everything is really coming together. I believe that the tank is cycled...just watching it for a few more days to verify. I have a few corals in there now and everything seems to be doing fine. Should have more pics later this week.

--AJ

 

I'll post pics tonight. It's fully built and I think it would have worked OK had it not been for a bad O-ring on the Mag 350.

--AJ

 

"Tempered" means that something has been treated with a heating process to make it stronger. You typically hear about it with both glass and metals. Bottoms panels of aquariums are almost always tempered, that's why you see people drilling the sides of tanks but almost never the bottoms. The next question usually is "so how did the get the holes in the bottom of my reef ready tank?", and the answer to that is that they drilled the holes, then tempered the glass. In an aquarium, you can typically tell based on the size of the tank in relation to the thickness of the glass. 75 gallon and larger tanks should be 3/8 or 1/2" thick..even thicker for really big tanks. My 75 was made out of 1/4" glass. Now, that can mean one of two things. Since I bought it from someone that keeps reptiles, I knew that it was either a terrarium tank or tempered glass. Since I was putting baffles in it, I felt OK about using a terrarium tank and I was just hoping that the glass was not tempered...but alas, it was. When you break tempered glass, it's like breaking a bubble...the entire thing shatters at the same time into small, usually square-ish pieces (as seen in the pic). Anyway, it was no fun to have it break on me when I was drilling it...scared the crap outta me! Anyway, a member if www.iowa-aquaria.com (a freshwater club) gave me a piece of glass large enough to get a new end cut and I picked the new end up from the glass shop just the other day. So I'm going to attempt drilling a tank again and hopefully I'll have more success than the last time. It's a great looking sump..it turned out really good...if I can just get a new end on it.

I hope this information was helpful.

--AJ

 

It should be 3/8" glass...and I'm sure you'll be fine. The thicker the glass, the better as thicker glass is easier to drill.

--AJ

 

Yeah...I do need to update this...I'll see if I can get some in the next few days. LOTS of algae right now. I don't have carbon/gfo hooked up yet and no macro growing and no CUC. I need to get that resolve quickly. Should have some tangs in there by weekend.

--AJ