375 gallon glass tank build
- Thread starter mdstark
- Start date
Thanks for the comments everyone.
Pharoah/Ramesh- Thanks for the advice. That certainly would be the more convenient way to go. And I agree that the chips probably won't cause any problems. I was seriously considering just leaving the hole as is, but decided that I would always worry about it once it was set up in my house. I also did a little research, and am confident that I can seal the larger hole without problems. So I went ahead and bought a 3.75" inch hole saw so that I can drill a slightly larger hole over the existing hole, and remove the chipped glass. I hope the hole saw arrives this week so that I can drill the hole and assemble the tank next weekend.
Headlessblade- Thanks for sharing the picture of your tank. It looks like you have a nice setup. I drilled the holes myself to save money.
Pharoah/Ramesh- Thanks for the advice. That certainly would be the more convenient way to go. And I agree that the chips probably won't cause any problems. I was seriously considering just leaving the hole as is, but decided that I would always worry about it once it was set up in my house. I also did a little research, and am confident that I can seal the larger hole without problems. So I went ahead and bought a 3.75" inch hole saw so that I can drill a slightly larger hole over the existing hole, and remove the chipped glass. I hope the hole saw arrives this week so that I can drill the hole and assemble the tank next weekend.
Headlessblade- Thanks for sharing the picture of your tank. It looks like you have a nice setup. I drilled the holes myself to save money.
keep the pics coming!That is going to be friken sweet man! I just got into large aquariums and this is just adding to my addiction.
Well, it looks like I lost all the posts from my update this weekend, so I'll try this again.
The 3 3/4" hole saw came in last week and I managed to drill a larger hole over the hole with chips. This time everything went smoothly and I ended up with a nice hole.
So now I was ready to begin assembly the tank. I decided to use GE RTV 108 silicone after doing a fair amount of research on the internet. This particular brand of silicone is supposedly stronger than the regular stuff you can buy at most hardware stores. I found a nice thread somewhere that really had a lot of information on different silicones, but can't remember where I read that. Anyways, I concluded that the RTV108 was a good one to use, so I went with it. I know at least one large tank manufacturer uses this stuff. I bought is online for about $10 a tube.
I will be using small spacers between the panels of glass to prevent all the silicone from being pushed out of the seams during assembly. I found these at Lowe's, and they are soft plastic adhesive tabs designed to be placed behind cabinet doors. They are 1/16" thick, so I will have at least that much silicone between my panels of glass.
I will also be using acetone to clean the glass prior to siliconing. I read that even the oil from your hands can weaken the bond between silicone and glass.
The 3 3/4" hole saw came in last week and I managed to drill a larger hole over the hole with chips. This time everything went smoothly and I ended up with a nice hole.
So now I was ready to begin assembly the tank. I decided to use GE RTV 108 silicone after doing a fair amount of research on the internet. This particular brand of silicone is supposedly stronger than the regular stuff you can buy at most hardware stores. I found a nice thread somewhere that really had a lot of information on different silicones, but can't remember where I read that. Anyways, I concluded that the RTV108 was a good one to use, so I went with it. I know at least one large tank manufacturer uses this stuff. I bought is online for about $10 a tube.
I will be using small spacers between the panels of glass to prevent all the silicone from being pushed out of the seams during assembly. I found these at Lowe's, and they are soft plastic adhesive tabs designed to be placed behind cabinet doors. They are 1/16" thick, so I will have at least that much silicone between my panels of glass.
I will also be using acetone to clean the glass prior to siliconing. I read that even the oil from your hands can weaken the bond between silicone and glass.
So the next step was to build the tank. I put masking tape along the edges of my glass panels in an attempt to give the tank nice straight silicone seams. I have used tape in the past, and one thing that is important to remember when doing this is that you have about 5 minutes to get the tape off after applying silicone. After that, the silocone skins over, and if you remove the tape at this point you can really screw up your seams.
The next step is where I ran into my first problem of the day. I was planning on eurobracing (or cleating) the bottom of the tank to provide a larger surface area for the side panels to bind to. Here is a picture showing the bottom bracing in place for the long sides. The problem I ran into is that my bottom panel is 89" x 35.5", when I thought it was 89" x 36". So the side bracing that I bought for the bottom is too long. My bracing is 1/2" thick, and glass this thick is difficult to cut. There is only one place in Indianapolis that can do it. I have decided to leave the bracing on the side panels off. The side panels will still have 4" of extra bracing in both corners from the ends of the long bracing pieces. Hopefully, the seam will still be plenty strong.
I don't have a lot of pictures of the actual tank build, as I was too busy trying to get it together to stop and take pictures. Here is a shot of the back panel and one of the side panels coming together. I used electrical tape and duct tape to hold the panels in place.
And then I ran into my next big problem. I bought 6 tubes of silicone, and it turns out that isn't enough. I ran out of silicone while laying the final bead for my last panel. I had about a 2 foot edge of glass still needing silicone. I knew I was running short, but remembered that I had a nearly full tube of GE II silicone from a tank reseal I did recently. I figured out that if I ran out of the RTV108, that I could just finish up with the GEII. Well, it turns out that the GE II silicone was completely dried out. I had already laid a large bead of silicone, and didn't have time to run to the store to by anymore before the silicone would begin to set up. So I ended up using my finger to try to spread the silicone from the bead I had already laid to the area still needing silicone. Well, that didn't work very well at all. I put the front panel on, and the seams look like crap. The silicone had already begun to cure by the time I got the front panel on. So now that plan is to remove the front panel and clean is up with a razor blade and try again. I have ordered 6 more tubes of silicone. I also am going to take off one of the side panels and redo it as well. It had a few too many bubbles in the seam for my liking. It probably would have been ok, but since I am already taking the front off, what's one more. I figured I would do it right the first time instead of running into problems later. I ended up leaving all 4 panels together, and will remove the front and side panel later. I didn't want to mess up my good seams by trying to take the front panel off at that time. So here is what I have sitting in my garage at the moment.
Here is a picture of one of the bad seams that I will be redoing.
And here is a picture of one of the good seams that I plan to keep. Notice that this side doesn't have the bottom bracing in place. I think my seams will be thick enough that I should be ok though. I built the tank with the bottom piece sitting inside the four side panels.
The next step is where I ran into my first problem of the day. I was planning on eurobracing (or cleating) the bottom of the tank to provide a larger surface area for the side panels to bind to. Here is a picture showing the bottom bracing in place for the long sides. The problem I ran into is that my bottom panel is 89" x 35.5", when I thought it was 89" x 36". So the side bracing that I bought for the bottom is too long. My bracing is 1/2" thick, and glass this thick is difficult to cut. There is only one place in Indianapolis that can do it. I have decided to leave the bracing on the side panels off. The side panels will still have 4" of extra bracing in both corners from the ends of the long bracing pieces. Hopefully, the seam will still be plenty strong.
I don't have a lot of pictures of the actual tank build, as I was too busy trying to get it together to stop and take pictures. Here is a shot of the back panel and one of the side panels coming together. I used electrical tape and duct tape to hold the panels in place.
And then I ran into my next big problem. I bought 6 tubes of silicone, and it turns out that isn't enough. I ran out of silicone while laying the final bead for my last panel. I had about a 2 foot edge of glass still needing silicone. I knew I was running short, but remembered that I had a nearly full tube of GE II silicone from a tank reseal I did recently. I figured out that if I ran out of the RTV108, that I could just finish up with the GEII. Well, it turns out that the GE II silicone was completely dried out. I had already laid a large bead of silicone, and didn't have time to run to the store to by anymore before the silicone would begin to set up. So I ended up using my finger to try to spread the silicone from the bead I had already laid to the area still needing silicone. Well, that didn't work very well at all. I put the front panel on, and the seams look like crap. The silicone had already begun to cure by the time I got the front panel on. So now that plan is to remove the front panel and clean is up with a razor blade and try again. I have ordered 6 more tubes of silicone. I also am going to take off one of the side panels and redo it as well. It had a few too many bubbles in the seam for my liking. It probably would have been ok, but since I am already taking the front off, what's one more. I figured I would do it right the first time instead of running into problems later. I ended up leaving all 4 panels together, and will remove the front and side panel later. I didn't want to mess up my good seams by trying to take the front panel off at that time. So here is what I have sitting in my garage at the moment.
Here is a picture of one of the bad seams that I will be redoing.
And here is a picture of one of the good seams that I plan to keep. Notice that this side doesn't have the bottom bracing in place. I think my seams will be thick enough that I should be ok though. I built the tank with the bottom piece sitting inside the four side panels.
Looks good so far. I posted something the other day, but I can't remember what I said. LOL
Oh yeah, don't sweat the euro bracing at the bottom. My tank had it and I'm not even sure if I am going to replace it. I had to bust up most of it to get the tank apart.
Oh yeah, don't sweat the euro bracing at the bottom. My tank had it and I'm not even sure if I am going to replace it. I had to bust up most of it to get the tank apart.
Hey if you need any help with the buld let me know. More that happy to help out and get some experience under my belt before doing something like this myself. I can just hitch a ride with Bobby.
Everything looks great so far.
