sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
This is a project that I've been sitting on for quite a while, finally gotten around to some critical steps.
As it happens when a particular member had a Lee Mar tank that cracked the bottom pane, well long story in his frantic post to figure out how to fix it someone mentioned they had one too they were ready to give away because they had no energy to fix it/get it fixed... so here I am in possession of a cracked Lee Mar tank
32" x 24" x 24", not the largest, but I figure it'll be a nice project tank where I can test out some ideas. I'm fairly certain glass isn't Starphire or anything, it has that typical green tinge on the edges if you look at an angle.
The crack itself goes along the whole bottom, and it's thick glass too!
Well initially I thought about how to get the glass out I thought I could simply saw through it with some metal wire.
That worked about all of a few inches before the metal snapped. So I "quickly" abandoned that idea.. I later decided to go with a very thin yet strong fishing line, and that worked great, except again in a few places it seems the glass was a little too close or something and it broke... finally I got fed up and beat on with a pointy object right in the center.. that caused the center to break straight through and best of all cracks formed along the entire bottom. (no pictures of that sorry
), then it became a matter of removing the very sharp shards of glass, I didn't cut myself ... much.
But here it is, sans bottom
Now I didn't just want to put a hunk of glass in there and call it a day. I decided on something exotic! I got the idea from seeing some of the A.G.E. tanks with the PVC bottoms. So I decided PVC it was! Why? More like why not!
A little research, and I decided on 1/2" on the bottom, but getting 1/2" is hard unless I want to buy a whole 4'x8' sheet, so I went the more expensive per square inch route... Tap Plastics! They didn't have 1/2" but they did have 1/4", and best of all they cut to my specifications without charging me for it!
Now how can 1/4" be just as good? Well it's not, so I decided to basically laminate the two sheets together, this helps me from routing out an edge for the tank to sit in too!
Now here's where I got smart, I moved all the stuff outside, since I know how great PVC primer & cement is to inhale! I opted for strict cement rather than the chemical that makes it work, tetrahydrafuran, because this wasn't a strength joint, and the fact the surface contact area is enormous so it should do the job. Plus I tested it on a corner and it took me a screwdriver to pry it apart.
The black line is basically the inside size of the tank, so I know roughly where to line up the other sheet.
Unsure if primer really is necessary, but what the hell.. I enjoyed do it if you know what I mean
The next part is where I didn't get smart, I couldn't use the the little applicator in the PVC cement over the surface because it'd begin to cure up before I got the whole thing covered, so I poured out the whole jar and used my hand to smear it over the entire surface (that last part was the stupid bit), lets just say open cuts you can feel where they are and it took me more time to remove all the cement from my hand than it took to put these two pieces together!
So now we were all laminated, I had to figure out a plan of attack, because the "silicone" I'm using, Dow 795, cost around $20 a tube, and I didn't want to have to do this again.
My plan was to tape off everything inside to have a nice clean line. But then I didn't want to rest the tank on it, because the weight of the tank most likely will squeeze out all the silicone, so I decided to do it inverted, but I had to get inside the tank to smooth the insides... well yeah it's up on saw horses, so I can crawl inside, and with a few whoops moments I got it on.. gooped up all the places where there's not enough, tried to smooth out as much as I can, and when it cures .. I'll take a razor blade and finish it up somewhat nice.
So, supposedly this stuff takes 1-2 weeks to fully cure, so I'm just going to let it sit as such and wait.
Things I need to do put the overflow back in. I opted not to go the external overflow route simply because I don't feel like cutting through glass this thick.
I need to build a stand for it. Shouldn't be tough, not sure if I want to put doors on it, or make it look pretty, or if I just want it to hold the tank.
Need to do a canopy.
And I WANT to redo the flooring in this room, however as far as time goes I need to do it a piece at a time, and I'm stuck as to what to do as far as that.
So it'll be a little while before I actually get water in this thing, but hell I wanted to start this up. As I mentioned this is a test bed for me to explore options for my "Ultimate tank" (which thanks to the Governor's cuts to education, might not happen for a LONG time)
As it happens when a particular member had a Lee Mar tank that cracked the bottom pane, well long story in his frantic post to figure out how to fix it someone mentioned they had one too they were ready to give away because they had no energy to fix it/get it fixed... so here I am in possession of a cracked Lee Mar tank
32" x 24" x 24", not the largest, but I figure it'll be a nice project tank where I can test out some ideas. I'm fairly certain glass isn't Starphire or anything, it has that typical green tinge on the edges if you look at an angle.
The crack itself goes along the whole bottom, and it's thick glass too!
Well initially I thought about how to get the glass out I thought I could simply saw through it with some metal wire.
That worked about all of a few inches before the metal snapped. So I "quickly" abandoned that idea.. I later decided to go with a very thin yet strong fishing line, and that worked great, except again in a few places it seems the glass was a little too close or something and it broke... finally I got fed up and beat on with a pointy object right in the center.. that caused the center to break straight through and best of all cracks formed along the entire bottom. (no pictures of that sorry
), then it became a matter of removing the very sharp shards of glass, I didn't cut myself ... much.But here it is, sans bottom
Now I didn't just want to put a hunk of glass in there and call it a day. I decided on something exotic! I got the idea from seeing some of the A.G.E. tanks with the PVC bottoms. So I decided PVC it was! Why? More like why not!
A little research, and I decided on 1/2" on the bottom, but getting 1/2" is hard unless I want to buy a whole 4'x8' sheet, so I went the more expensive per square inch route... Tap Plastics! They didn't have 1/2" but they did have 1/4", and best of all they cut to my specifications without charging me for it!
Now how can 1/4" be just as good? Well it's not, so I decided to basically laminate the two sheets together, this helps me from routing out an edge for the tank to sit in too!
Now here's where I got smart, I moved all the stuff outside, since I know how great PVC primer & cement is to inhale! I opted for strict cement rather than the chemical that makes it work, tetrahydrafuran, because this wasn't a strength joint, and the fact the surface contact area is enormous so it should do the job. Plus I tested it on a corner and it took me a screwdriver to pry it apart.
The black line is basically the inside size of the tank, so I know roughly where to line up the other sheet.
Unsure if primer really is necessary, but what the hell.. I enjoyed do it if you know what I mean
The next part is where I didn't get smart, I couldn't use the the little applicator in the PVC cement over the surface because it'd begin to cure up before I got the whole thing covered, so I poured out the whole jar and used my hand to smear it over the entire surface (that last part was the stupid bit), lets just say open cuts you can feel where they are and it took me more time to remove all the cement from my hand than it took to put these two pieces together!
So now we were all laminated, I had to figure out a plan of attack, because the "silicone" I'm using, Dow 795, cost around $20 a tube, and I didn't want to have to do this again.
My plan was to tape off everything inside to have a nice clean line. But then I didn't want to rest the tank on it, because the weight of the tank most likely will squeeze out all the silicone, so I decided to do it inverted, but I had to get inside the tank to smooth the insides... well yeah it's up on saw horses, so I can crawl inside, and with a few whoops moments I got it on.. gooped up all the places where there's not enough, tried to smooth out as much as I can, and when it cures .. I'll take a razor blade and finish it up somewhat nice.
So, supposedly this stuff takes 1-2 weeks to fully cure, so I'm just going to let it sit as such and wait.
Things I need to do put the overflow back in. I opted not to go the external overflow route simply because I don't feel like cutting through glass this thick.
I need to build a stand for it. Shouldn't be tough, not sure if I want to put doors on it, or make it look pretty, or if I just want it to hold the tank.
Need to do a canopy.
And I WANT to redo the flooring in this room, however as far as time goes I need to do it a piece at a time, and I'm stuck as to what to do as far as that.
So it'll be a little while before I actually get water in this thing, but hell I wanted to start this up. As I mentioned this is a test bed for me to explore options for my "Ultimate tank" (which thanks to the Governor's cuts to education, might not happen for a LONG time)
