pdxmonkeyboy

looks great!!

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yeah.. 4x8 sheets. 

no excess glue.. well that is THE trick. I'm still refining my technique on that. I will always use pins now to hold the pieces apart while gluing.  that is clutch for sure.  On one of my tanks I was just pouring the glue in, got a great bubble free joint... and the acrylic was wavy on the very edge.  A couple pointers..

1. Try to get a dead flat working surface. I bought a sheet of 3/4 mdf for this.  

2. make a simple 90 degree jig out of mdf. cut an angle on the bottom face so that any excess glue won't stick to it. 

3. When your placing the pins, if they don't all have the same resistance THEN SHIM THE BOTTOM PIECE so they do.  card stock is typically more than adequate. 

4. use the small needle applicator from tapp plastics. you have to squeeze it for the solvent to come out.  the larger needle it just flows out. 

5. move slowly and evenly and fill the gap with solvent, you will see it flow in, if it starts to flow more on one edge...i.e. it isn't a flat even line when you are applying it.. don't panic, just keep moving. 

6. after you pull the pins out if you have a completely bubble free joint then don't clamp it or clamp it very very lightly. 

I have found then when I made a mess of the inside corners it was where variations in thickness caused a larger gap.  I could tell because the pins where very loose in that spot.  I ignored it thinking it would be fine but what happens is you start applying solvent and you don't see the joint change color like it should.  Or you are moving along at the same pace and then suddenly solvent doesn't seem to be flowing like it did.  what is happening is that there is not surface tension because the gap is too large and your pouring tons of solvent all over the inside of the tank. 

Why it is so frustrating is that once you notice it, unless you can quickly shim it, your kind of hosed.  In hindsight, I think having even tension on the needles indicates an even joint. 

make sense?  

where in NE are you? by my amazing powers of deduction I am thinking off Alberta street... I'm at 15th and fremont..

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so painful. on the plus side I was ordering the new sheets from Matt at professional plastics and half jokingly said "throw in the massive discount for selling me that garbage cipta that doesn't glue" and he said "yeah, didn't know it was that bad and gave me about 20% off.

Home stretch on the frag tank now. Just have to run some power to the wall and get the RO system working.

Tadah... it's an empty tank filled with sterile salt water!!

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Welcome to portland. please for the love of all things holy and sacred don't drive like your drunk on cough syrup. right on red always. LEFT ON RED if turning on to a one way! ( sorry, traffic in inner NE PDX has me looking at skyline drive houses.

what part of town are you moving to?

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hey.. if you can fit a down turned set of elbows in there it really helps keeping the noise down. drill a small hole in the top of one. that way it can drain and if something clogs the siphon line the water will rise, block the air hole in the second drain and it will cause a full siphon and drain in an instant.

like this...

ohh, it's a cat thread now? LEDs throw off less heat, but they are still warm...

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in regards to building with acrylic, it's not hard per se, but it is very very very unforgiving. table saw blade not parallel to the fence? Blade not EXACTLY perpendicular to the table? your hosed! oh, did you accidently let piece slip away from the router fence on the VERY last piece?.. cool! now you can run them all through again so they are exactly the same width.

I thought about giving a talk but then thought people wouldn't have the tools necessary. You need a table saw, router in a router table, and a nice router bit. ohh, and a sander and a stack of sand paper.. and I mean a stack!!

The main joints of the frag tank I just built for badxjillan has beautiful joints.. I mean perfect. then I sanded the corners with 220, then 400, then 600, then 1500 and then polished with heavy and light scratch polish. I was soo pumped.. I was like he is going to be blown away! then while gluing the last piece (the back euro brace), it slipped while I was clamping it. so of course then it becomes..[language filter] [language filter] [language filter].. lifting it off, creating a ton of bubbles, trying to re-saturate the joint without having massive pools of solvent everywhere, repositioning, structurally more than adequate but one slip up turned show piece into garage made piece :(

I could certainly give a demo with some thicker scrap I have. Building sumps and other neat things is pretty [language filter] easy really. stepping it up to DT perfection, that a whole different ballgame.

I get ALL my acrylic from professional plastics in Tualatin. GREAT prices and the have or can get anything you want. That said.. wherever you buy your acrylic get a known name brand that you heard about on the forums. My favorite is acrylite gp. plexiglass, polycast and lucite are also recommended.

Do NOT, and I mean DO NOT build a water containing vessel from marga cipta. It's dirt cheap and everyone around here carries it but while it's great for Windows, you will need to move heaven and earth to get it to melt and join properly. I built my second 120 gallon tank with this. $185 for a full sheet of 1/2"? sign me up! I thought there was something wrong with my solvent! I even bought the "slower" solvent. struggled and struggled. After getting it together the seams looked suspect. It held water on the yard for 2 weeks and I set it up in the house about 7? months ago for an all male cichlid tank. Then last week I notice the door on my stand wasn't closing perfectly... huh? it's a little warped. I look up and see little drips coming out for the seam about 4" from the bottom of the tank!!. OMFG!! All I could think about was the whole thing blowing out. I took the day off, bought two sheets of acrylite and went to work. I just finished it and transfered all the fish into the new tank on Saturday. It was THE biggest pain I have ever dealt with in this hobby. At least it wasn't a salt water tank.
here is the new tank.. 48x24x24.

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well, spent the better part of the day building a stand, painting it, putting dividers in my sump, running a pex stub line for my RO and hanging the lights. ugggh.
here are a couple pics.

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I'm new to the forum so thought I would post up a build thread so people can chime in and let me know if I'm doing something totally backwards.

I'm ultimately angling towards a 240 reef tank but don't want it full of sticks for the first 4 years so I figured I would build a good sized frag tank and see what I can do with it (and decide if I have the patience for a marine aquarium.

The tank is built.. 2x4x14" deep frag out of euro braced 1/2" acrylic. The stand is just simple 2x4 as its going in my basement.

I have a 40 gallon breeder that I cut dividers for yesterday. I'll have filter sock section,skimmer, bubble shield, return pump, bubble shield, and then a full depth fuge on the end. I'm planning to pump water into the fuge from a T on my return line.

Lights.. 8 light t5ho. jabao wave makers, jabao pump, curve 5 skimmer.

Still have to tap my water line, install RO system, and put all the pieces together.

Probably not all that exciting to most,but exciting for me

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that RDE is spectacular!!!

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ok, I'll try tap talk. random picture..

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hey now, let's keep it family friendly and keep back end magic discussions private.

I just tried it and it worked fine.  

just a suggestion that I am sure EVERYONE would love... have the ability to upload pictures directly to the server without using some other photo service and then posting links. 

If you make it easier for people to post photos then they will and it makes threads much more interesting. 

Data hosting is DIRT cheap these days, if you needed tech help I could point you to the right people.  Just seems odd, you have paying members, sponsors,.. but no photo uploads?  wait, is it 2001 still?

just a thought

I tried but the checkout is... well, it's as janky as having to download pictures to a host site to post them here. 

It kept not letting me put my payment info in, then when I backed out, it would not let me add another family membership to the cart and there was no other way to get to the cart!!!   maybe it's an android issue?  

I'll try again. 

can I get added to the list please.  thank you 

hydro stores for the win.  Bloom has THE cheapest tank swaps in the city. 

well, i am on the tail end of finishing a custom 2x4 frag tank for a member here and I am making one last run to the acrylic store on Monday. 

Once I sweep up the mountains of acrylic shavings and spots of Polish all over the walls I am done. Motorcycle racing season starts in April and I have to reorganize the shop and move the motorcycles in. 

Bottom line is this.. I'm looking for high quality zoa colonies, sps frags or colonies, or nice clams. I'm just starting my foray into reefing and have set up a deeper frag/grow out tank. 

I can make almost anything (within reason). frag tanks, sumps, acclimation boxes.. whatever.  I ask that you pay for the acrylic (if I am making you something large) and labor and other expenses are on me (glue, sand paper, polish, bulkheads).  

I do QUALITY work, bubble free seams and all edges rounded over and polished. Well, DT are polished, maybe sumps not so much. I'm not trying to scam anyone and if I ever built something that I didn't like then I certainly wouldn't give it to someone elSE. 

Anyways, if your interested then drop me a PM. 

Cheers 

Brian

what apex system are you guys using ?  the WiFi? 

very good info folks!!

Hey there, 

I think perhaps that I am missing something in regards to reef controllers, their cost, and what they can actually do.  My goal isn't to bash on people that have controllers or start some flame thread, I'm trying to find out some information on controllers as maybe they are more useful than I think and I am just not seeing it. 

A little background on me; I own and operate a large commercial "green house" so I have quite a bit of experience in terms of monitoring air and water quality parameters and setting up systems to text,call and email me when something isn't working.  For example, I have a system that wirelessly monitors air temp, humidity, water temp, water levels, nutrient ppm and ph in 6 different self contained rooms.  It is a cloud based system that monitors and alerts me if things are out of whack and alerts me anytime anyplace.  This costs me $35/month.

Many of the entry level controllers are in the $200 dollar range and all they do is turn lights on and off or control temperature, or maybe control a wavemaker (which already comes with a controller).  These systems cost another $150-200 in order to connect them to a system to alert you.   Step up to something with wireless alerts like the apex and your out $600-$800.  I saw the neptune for $240.  But then you need to purchase a ph probe for $60. 

Here is the deal.. couldn't you buy a milwaukie ph controller for $80, a digital timer for your lights $15, and a DIY digital temperature controller for $25 and get all the same real time read outs but no alerts for 15% less cost?  Has anyone found that the convenience and cost of a all in one controller isn't worth the risk of a failure?  I mean, if your controller ever went bad..your pumps, heaters, reactors..everything would crash..no?

Lastly, has anyone ever used the robo tank controller?  It is a DIY kind of deal with LOTS and LOTS of options.. its basically like an open source code in terms of being able to control anything based on set parameters.  Also about $500 with probes and what not.. but slick touch screen interface and easy controls.  https://www.robo-tank.ca/en/Robo-Tank-DIY-Kits/Robo-Tank-DIY-Aquarium-Controller-Kit-Worldwide-Limited-Sale-p158c59.html

Any thoughts?  What are people using here in the northwest?  

Thank you!!

Through my limited experience and lots and lots of research. A large grip of cash will be necessary to be successful with SPS

I also have a power tool problem.. lots of battery operated tools and not enough batteries. 

are they still available? 

8 hours ago, Higher Thinking said:

There is a new alkalinity controller on the market that can control a doser or reactor. It costs a cool G to get your hands on it though. I don't think there are a lot of owners yet, so reviews are sparse. There are a few threads on the bigger forums a month or so ago so I imagine there's even more now. Might be worth checking out if your pile is deep enough.

do you remember what the controller is called? 

hey Albert, don't know if your still looking but there is a guy in Vancouver with extra that posted in the classifieds