That’s sweet. I’m very serious about making a trip to Thailand with my wife in the future. Just means we will have to make our way over to Phuket for part of it. Can’t wait to go back.
New tank catastrophe :(
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OK, I love BBQ, but I hate flying commercial. I want to come by boat. Can I bring my Mrs?
Gotta fly Business everyone knows that! The seats are bigger, free nuts, and warm towels
Phooo....It's not the planes so much as the airports. I used to fly for business, but that ended before 911.
I wouldn't do it now, though private flights are OK.
I did go thru So Las Vegas & Grand Canyon to take the helicopter in. That wasn't too bad.
But don't ask me to go thru SFO or LAX nowadays.
I wouldn't do it now, though private flights are OK.
I did go thru So Las Vegas & Grand Canyon to take the helicopter in. That wasn't too bad.
But don't ask me to go thru SFO or LAX nowadays.
Well after playing around with things for hours here's pretty much the best we could get it and with the resources we had. Unsurprisingly we couldn't get it 100% level, but please let me know your frank opinion of whether or not the difference between corners is within the acceptable threshold of good safety.
So from front left corner to back right corner I'm looking at 2 mm (.07 in.) difference and from back left corner to front right corner it's 5 mm (.19 in.), with my main worry being the latter. Whenever we tried to fix it we ended up messing up other things more, so finally just settled on what we currently have in diagram above.
We figured the best way to accurately measure how level the corners were was by measuring from the actual glass bottom and inside the tank (esp. as we couldn't be 100% sure the plastic trim outside the tank at bottom and top were truly level).
So I'm hoping with the extra steel beam down the middle of the stand, plus 1" larger bracing at top/bottom/corners, these measurements should be ok, but plz do let me know if you think I'm wrong or being overly optimistic.
So from front left corner to back right corner I'm looking at 2 mm (.07 in.) difference and from back left corner to front right corner it's 5 mm (.19 in.), with my main worry being the latter. Whenever we tried to fix it we ended up messing up other things more, so finally just settled on what we currently have in diagram above.
We figured the best way to accurately measure how level the corners were was by measuring from the actual glass bottom and inside the tank (esp. as we couldn't be 100% sure the plastic trim outside the tank at bottom and top were truly level).
So I'm hoping with the extra steel beam down the middle of the stand, plus 1" larger bracing at top/bottom/corners, these measurements should be ok, but plz do let me know if you think I'm wrong or being overly optimistic.
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It looks pretty good, Barrett. Like you I would prefer 2mm to 5mm, but all in all it's a massive improvement from last time. Good luck amigo!
Thx for input Neil, I'm wondering if it's worth it to once again drain the tank and try to get that 5mm corner down to 2mm but I'm also under time pressure; it's 2am here and at 10am the guy from LFS is going to be coming by to help me move the Blue Base back to her "Purple Palace". First though I've got to get the canister and shower filters transferred over and set up, which I'm going to jump on now after just a couple more rips lol.
I'm no expert Barrett, I would honestly hate to say one way or the other. I know that doesn't help you, but that's all I got. Hopefully someone with a more technical background and expertise can chime in.
If in doubt, fix it further. Generally, the corners with the highest water level will be under the most pressure and the seals can eventually fail. Also, the twist factor looking at your diagonal differences can cause more than just leaking seals. I am totally not an expert though and I'd be really happy if I am in the wrong here as I know how stressful these things can be.
When one of my tanks leaked, I resealed it. Then I left it full for a while, on day 5 I heard a loud sound. I was sitting next to the tank. The bottom glass got halved in two. I was so glad I had no fish in there yet, was just about to..Though in my case, I finally figured out that the actual middle legs of the stand had twisted somehow underneath and caused the initial leak and the subsequent glass crack....
No way would a seal fail in his tank, unless it was done very piss poorly from the get go. Tanks can be unlevel front to back, side to side, no problem. I have seen tanks like that sit without failure for decades. I currently have 3 tanks sloped from one side to the other, for over a decade in the same location. They are out a good 1/4+", one almost 1/2". But torsional twist is always a potential disaster waiting to happen, which it appears is what caused the initial stress crack. Corner to corner X stress is never a good thing.
