240g Acrylic tank build thread (PIC HEAVY)

Nice, I have a 75Gallon Glass tank that looks that bad... I have a polishing job and a half to get that thing looking even half decent, Hope it will come out half as clear as that did!
 

Steve_C

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Well this kind of seems like a step back...but I decided to wet sand the whole tank down now. The buffing with Novus made it look really good, but I'm a very OCD type person and there were still some minor scratches here and there after buffing. I would say most people would probably never even notice them once water was in it, but if I didn't take care of it now while I had the chance then I know for sure I would be kicking myself in the rear late for not doing it while I could.

So last night I started wet sanding it. Probably be wet sanding for the next week as I get time, then go back over it again with the Novus buffing to clear it back up. More work now but it will be worth the effort later.

 
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Steve_C

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Well even though I buffed it all out last week and was "happy" with it, there were still a few small spots that were bugging me. So I decided to go ahead and wet sand the entire tank down with 1000/2000 grit and then rebuff it all out again. Just finished it up and couldn't be happier with the results because I know if I didn't do it now I would always regret not doing it when I had the chance.

Now that I have that done I can continue with working on the stand facing and then start on the huge 3D background work for it.


 
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Steve_C

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Doing some shimming and test filling today. Gotta love unlevel cement basement floors:mad: On my old 265g 7ft tank I shimmed with solid pieces of wood, but on this tank I decided to use composite shims. One end is taking about 1/2" worth so I'm spacing them about every 6" or so. Does that seem about right for spacing them?
 

Steve_C

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Went ahead and spaced the shims every 6". May be overkill but figure better safe than sorry. Tank is 100% filled now so leak test in progress (fingers crossed :) If all goes well then I'll drain it down in a few days and start working on the 3D background for it.
 

Steve_C

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Well came home today after dropping off some stuff at the local fish club auction and started right onto working on the background for the 240g build. I can say for sure that this background project will in fact be the death of me! lol. I'm doing it a bit different than any of the others I have done before. Making the rocks stick out anywhere from 1-2" all the way out to some full 6" thick rocks to really give it some nice 3d feel to the background. Adding some caves which I plan to back-light with blue cold cathode lights the way I did one of my tanks a few years ago. Also plan to do a full stalactite probably over to the left side. Having to carve the really thick 6" foam sections is much more time consuming than than any of the other background I have done before. I have a solid 10hrs of work into just what you see here today. And that's maybe what 15% done? uhg. I'm thinking I'll have around 100 hours into this one by the time it's all carved painted and sealed. Should be worth it though when done :)



 
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JK47

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Went ahead and spaced the shims every 6". May be overkill but figure better safe than sorry. Tank is 100% filled now so leak test in progress (fingers crossed :) If all goes well then I'll drain it down in a few days and start working on the 3D background for it.
I do shims under each vertical support. Overkill always works too. Nice start on the BG.
 
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