Good call
zukiGS500,
OK, so good news bad news.
Err, I should say bad news, good news, oopsie news.
My builder flaked on me after I called him out for sealing the tank wrong. So, I got left with the job to do myself. FUN FUN FUN.
I have met this challenge head on though, and with the help of my buddy, we soldered the sump together with Weld-On 4. It being our first time ever doing anything like this, we decided to go the double insurance route, and only used the weld-on to ensure it is held together securely, while using extra thick "don't care about how it looks" silicone to ensure a double layer of water proof protection where the we wouldn't get the weld-on perfect.
Today was the litmus test. We started filling it up.
Chamber 1, awesome
Chamber 2, a small leak into chamber 3.
Chamber 3, a small leak into chamber 4.
We were so tired and frustrated from having to do it ourselves that upon looking the only leaking parts of the sump are on the seams we forgot to apply the double layer of protection (the silicone). Strangely enough, the leaks are pretty small, almost negligible. The sump itself is holding 60ish gallons of water!
My question however is, how long do I wait after I drain the sump before I apply the silicone to the unsiliconed edges?
I want to seal it completely, even though these leaks in the sump are so negligable it won't matter in how it performs. I want to practice and get it right for when we do the tank though. I don't care about perfect looking perfectly siliconed seams. I care about perfect water proofing of the structures.
FYI --- he was going to do a CRAP job on the bracing for the top of the tank, so I decided to go all out, and I ordered an 8 foot "view port" with two windows cut out on the top, so the top of the tank is going have an equally strong, equally sized piece of acrylic as on the bottom.
