Monkeyboy's DIY 600 DT in wall build.

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pdxmonkeyboy

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The pins are critical and that is "how the pros do it".

You place thin wire in the joint. Like one wire every foot. I use 28 gauge wire. This allows a small space for the solvent to readily get drawn in via capilary action. Around 1/2" the capilary action doesnt work anymore.

The second important thing is you can pull on the wire and gauge how tight the joint is. Some of the wire will be loose, so you have to bang a little shim under the piece you are gluing to tighten it up.

There is almost always some shimming that has to be done.

Then lay the solvent into the joint. Count to 45.. or 90 if you are a total hack with power tools..and pull the pins out.

What you end up with is a tiny fillet of "liquid acrylic" which is probably 50/50 solvent and acrylic. This dries, and as the fillet dries, it prevents air from being sucked into the joint and creating bubbles.

Here is a picture of the fillet about 5 min after pulling the pins.

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You can also see that when you build an acrylic tank, the top piece is always inboard a little and is trimmed off later (so you have a place for the fillet to form).

Acrylic is not hard to build, you just need to be very precise. As material thickness increases, so does those need for precision.

Thanks for following. Going to flip the beast and weld the top on tomorrow
 
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Our house sold!! We are moving first week of March :)

Anyways.. looks like it is all coming together nicely. I do have a question though.. should I insulate the ceiling in the fish room? Since the tank is in this room as is all the water, I could save on energy cost by just making the room really insulated and kept at 78 degrees. Thoughts?

I am going to have a 6" 400CFM fan on a temperature and humidity control mounted in the room.
 
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So in the spirit of cant buy it, then just make it... I built my light rack this evening.
Made with unistrut which is kind of like erector set for aadults. It is heavy but extremely rigid which is good because it is 8 feet long.

Three hoods will hang from the top middle bar and four two bulb t5ho fixtures will attach to the lower bars along with a reefbrite xho blue strip on each side. The lower bars swivel so I can slightly angle the bottom lights towards the center of the tank.

The pulleys on top will enable me to raise and lower it with a small winch or perhaps a linear actuator. I spent about $150 all in

20200219_233511.jpg 20200219_233524.jpg
 
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yo yo yo. Moved in to the new house last week. Ugggghhhhh. Sooo much work I am still sore. The monster tank is in the garage but I have been traveling so much and doing lots of field work in order to be able to work from home if they make us (live in Washington) I have not had time to put all my stuff away let alone work on the monster tank.

I am excited though!!
 

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So in the spirit of cant buy it, then just make it... I built my light rack this evening.
Made with unistrut which is kind of like erector set for aadults. It is heavy but extremely rigid which is good because it is 8 feet long.

Three hoods will hang from the top middle bar and four two bulb t5ho fixtures will attach to the lower bars along with a reefbrite xho blue strip on each side. The lower bars swivel so I can slightly angle the bottom lights towards the center of the tank.

The pulleys on top will enable me to raise and lower it with a small winch or perhaps a linear actuator. I spent about $150 all in

20200219_233511.jpg 20200219_233524.jpg
Can't wait to see the project done! Nice work.
 
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You and me both!

I have been busy working on it. Last weekend I did the following:
1. Installed pier blocks and an additional joist under the tank location.
2. Installed two floor drains (there are two rooms essentially). I used a router to recess the drain into the floor so it is about 1/8 inch below the floor.
3. Installed vinyle roll flooring.
4. Started putting VRP on the walls of the mixing station/QT room.
5. Set up a temp tank in the garage and picked up what was left of my coral collection from a friend :(

Here are some pictures.. one is me in my "crawl space battle suit" lol
20200330_212237.jpg
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Another long day. Got home from work, put on the crappy clothes and got to work. Finished mounting the plastic paneling.. honestly the FRP stuff is light years better than this but this stuff is only going in the QT, testing and water mixing room. Installed the laminate countertop and utility sink. Also ate dinner at the new counter and then just HAD to install some shelves and unpack some of my testing and supplies that are in boxes everywhere.

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Just spotted this thread and it is amazing. I could never do this type of DIY. I do not have the patience for the precision needed.
Really nice set up. A bit late, but congrats on selling and buying the houses. Hope the work at home is treating you and any family well.
 
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Brave.. or stupid LOL. Honestly up to this point I have successfully done everything before, just not to the scale if this tank. I have wondered about doing a water test on the tank but I keep telling myself.. the seams are perfect, i used high quality solvent (not weld on) and the design is solid so.. should be good to go.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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