Well, after thinking I had a leak when my salinity levels were swinging (ended up being the storage temperature of my refractometer), I actually wound up with a leaky aquarium. At first, it was a very slow leak; then, my wife called me this past Thursday to say, "John, the aquarium if 1/4th of the way empty and the floor is soaked." Bummer. After some research, I determined that the big leak came from my sump. One of the seams busted. At the end of the day, I had an aquarium with a slow leak and a sump with a big leak.
Thankfully, I had already started building a new aquarium. It is 48 x 18 x 16H and about 60 gallons. It has a single center overflow with two 1.5" drains.
Here is the before shot:
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I already had a 1/4" thick sheet of black acrylic that I have been hoarding for sometime now. I made a trip to Calsak Plastics in Lawrenceville to pickup a sheet of 1/4" clear acrylic.
I debated upon what the necessary thickness of the acrylic should be. I read several rules of thumbs on various websites, but ultimately, I decided that 1/4" would be fine because of the many fish store displays that I saw using 1/4" material. I've been shopping at some of these stores for years now, and I have never noticed a significant problem.
While still nervous about the material I'll be using and my still wet carpet, I took extra precautions:
1) I "caulked" all of the inside seams with a mixture of Weldon 4 and shavings of acrylic. I suspect this is how they make the Weldon 16 version. I could add more solvent to get a thinner mixture, and I played with it until it was just about right (about the consistency of elmers glue. One I had the mixture ready and all of the acrylic had melted, I used a syringe to apply the mixtures to all of the seams.
2) I went a step further and did a lamination on the outside seams on both ends of the tank. This probably wasn't necessary, but I did it anyway. It almost looks like a picture frame because I used half inch strips of 1/8" acrylic that I also had on hand.
Here I am welding the first two pieces together:
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By the time I had the first 5 sides welded and curing for 24 hours, I received the phone call from my wife about the leak. In a state of emergency, I came up with this:
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It is two 27 gallon "heavy duty" totes from Home Depot @ $10 a piece. I threw together that little stand which is made from scrap wood that I had in my workshop.
Here is the finished product. I think it came out pretty nice. I definitely have room for improvement. I made one boo-boo with the router when cutting the access port for the overflow. I started my cut on the wrong reference line. Such is life, I patch it with some spare acrylic and everything is fine, but not as pretty as I had hoped.
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Lastly, here is the water testing. It's been full of water for about 20 hours now.
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Now, I have a question:
I'm preparing to put everything back together now, but I am concerned about my sand. I didn't transfer my sand to the temporary holding tank. It has been sitting in a little water in the old aquarium fallow for a few days. Should I avoid using the old sand? I'm scared that it has become toxic with decaying microscopic life. However, isn't this how "live" sand is transported? It just a bag full of sand with a little water. Your opinions are valued. I'm prepared to go bare bottom for now.
Thankfully, I had already started building a new aquarium. It is 48 x 18 x 16H and about 60 gallons. It has a single center overflow with two 1.5" drains.
Here is the before shot:
I already had a 1/4" thick sheet of black acrylic that I have been hoarding for sometime now. I made a trip to Calsak Plastics in Lawrenceville to pickup a sheet of 1/4" clear acrylic.
I debated upon what the necessary thickness of the acrylic should be. I read several rules of thumbs on various websites, but ultimately, I decided that 1/4" would be fine because of the many fish store displays that I saw using 1/4" material. I've been shopping at some of these stores for years now, and I have never noticed a significant problem.
While still nervous about the material I'll be using and my still wet carpet, I took extra precautions:
1) I "caulked" all of the inside seams with a mixture of Weldon 4 and shavings of acrylic. I suspect this is how they make the Weldon 16 version. I could add more solvent to get a thinner mixture, and I played with it until it was just about right (about the consistency of elmers glue. One I had the mixture ready and all of the acrylic had melted, I used a syringe to apply the mixtures to all of the seams.
2) I went a step further and did a lamination on the outside seams on both ends of the tank. This probably wasn't necessary, but I did it anyway. It almost looks like a picture frame because I used half inch strips of 1/8" acrylic that I also had on hand.
Here I am welding the first two pieces together:
By the time I had the first 5 sides welded and curing for 24 hours, I received the phone call from my wife about the leak. In a state of emergency, I came up with this:
It is two 27 gallon "heavy duty" totes from Home Depot @ $10 a piece. I threw together that little stand which is made from scrap wood that I had in my workshop.
Here is the finished product. I think it came out pretty nice. I definitely have room for improvement. I made one boo-boo with the router when cutting the access port for the overflow. I started my cut on the wrong reference line. Such is life, I patch it with some spare acrylic and everything is fine, but not as pretty as I had hoped.
Lastly, here is the water testing. It's been full of water for about 20 hours now.
Now, I have a question:
I'm preparing to put everything back together now, but I am concerned about my sand. I didn't transfer my sand to the temporary holding tank. It has been sitting in a little water in the old aquarium fallow for a few days. Should I avoid using the old sand? I'm scared that it has become toxic with decaying microscopic life. However, isn't this how "live" sand is transported? It just a bag full of sand with a little water. Your opinions are valued. I'm prepared to go bare bottom for now.
