The FrankenReefer 450

[UncommonSense]

Well, measurements are in on that sump center brace:

— it straightened .010” overnight while full:

And straightened another .007” when emptied:

Definitely not what I expected, and rather counterintuitive…

I’ll think on this rather important decision a bit longer, consider further bracing options, and likely water test/measure again… but, so far, it really doesn’t seem like this top center brace is doing much heavy lifting here!

 

[UncommonSense]

I carved out a bit of free time this evening to continue working on that strip of euro glass:

This round of cutting went much quicker and easier, with the piece only weighing roughly 20lbs!

The cut finish is excellent, despite being grooved in three passes, then flipped over to perform my full-depth parting cut… — only a single teeny chip as my blade exited the very end of the pane!

I’ve already proceeded to bevel all four long edges of the remaining 5.5” wide strip via wet saw, with plans to split them into a second 2.5” and a 3” wide euro bar later!

I then hand-sanded a minute arris on the long cut edges of this 58”x2.5”x.575” euro bar to 400 grit, and am ready to lap the cut face to 325grit prior to installation!



Next up, rear euro bars will be cut, as will four center brace style bars, laying in under the front/rear euro at 0”, 19”, 38” and 58” (on edge, and on center)…

the tops of these underlaid center brace bars will get a second layer of .575” thick glass to flush out the entire top framing at one height, despite two layers of glass being used in top bracing for additional silicone contact patch!

Once all the top perimeter bracing is installed, I’ll be able to pull precise measurements to cut my right pentagon rods to length for vertical seam reinforcement!

After that? I guess just laminated, stepped seam overflow box reassembly, then the “build” as most people know it can begin!

 

[UncommonSense]

I’m definitely getting the technique down for cutting these long strips of thick glass, and now have three, 2x 2.5” wide, 1x spare at 3” wide…

(.012” over spec on a 58” long cut… not bad!)

I ended up cutting these euro bars a half inch wider than initially intended, for a few reasons:

— just looking a set of calipers opened to 2” on the glass gave me a gut feeling that it was too thin for comfort…

— the largest rock I have is 12.5”x12.”x14.5” (I finally bothered to actually frame it out and get a proper set of measurements, after having it sitting around for too many years)

(As seen on the left here; 47lbs dry, vs. 8lbs dry for the rock on the right… it just got tossed in a 10% bleach soak to remove years of dust and other crud from being stored outdoors!)

a 2” eurobrace left me 14.5” of tank opening… given that biggest rock is 12.5” at its narrowest, I was willing to sacrifice an extra inch of opening for an extra 25% euro thickness!


On to the sump:

— I remeasured the top center brace deflection empty and full again today, no detectable difference… I’ll let it sit overnight again and see how much that brace creeps back towards straight now that I’ve got some more precise measurements…

— visible in the above glass photo is a 5” tall adjustable bubble trap weir extension in 10mm acrylic, plus a top brace for the toothed refugium weir to prevent deflection, 1” wide, also 10mm.

— the 8” reef octopus skimmer’s external pump inlet is clocked relative to the skimmer’s drain plumbing in such a way that the included metric plumbing forced the assembly to be over 8.5” wide in total… I scavenged a slightly different plumbing arrangement from the R525XL’s drain plumbing to get the skimmer pump nicely oriented inside the allowable footprint.

— I decided to pause filling the sump at operating water height during this leak/load test to run a pump from return side to drain side, simulating operation, and helping me work out toothed weir silencing… upon doing so, I discovered an unusual phenomenon, which is completely new to me!

(You can definitely see that toothed weir deflection I plan to fix in the video, too…)

In any case, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a sump chamber physically vibrate at a resonant frequency due to water movement before! It’s likely something that would be nearly impossible to replicate intentionally, given that any appreciable flow adjustments made it smooth out completely…

 

[That Crusso Kid]

I’m definitely getting the technique down for cutting these long strips of thick glass, and now have three, 2x 2.5” wide, 1x spare at 3” wide…

(.012” over spec on a 58” long cut… not bad!)

I ended up cutting these euro bars a half inch wider than initially intended, for a few reasons:

— just looking a set of calipers opened to 2” on the glass gave me a gut feeling that it was too thin for comfort…

— the largest rock I have is 12.5”x12.”x14.5” (I finally bothered to actually frame it out and get a proper set of measurements, after having it sitting around for too many years)

(As seen on the left here; 47lbs dry, vs. 8lbs dry for the rock on the right… it just got tossed in a 10% bleach soak to remove years of dust and other crud from being stored outdoors!)

a 2” eurobrace left me 14.5” of tank opening… given that biggest rock is 12.5” at its narrowest, I was willing to sacrifice an extra inch of opening for an extra 25% euro thickness!


On to the sump:

— I remeasured the top center brace deflection empty and full again today, no detectable difference… I’ll let it sit overnight again and see how much that brace creeps back towards straight now that I’ve got some more precise measurements…

— visible in the above glass photo is a 5” tall adjustable bubble trap weir extension in 10mm acrylic, plus a top brace for the toothed refugium weir to prevent deflection, 1” wide, also 10mm.

— the 8” reef octopus skimmer’s external pump inlet is clocked relative to the skimmer’s drain plumbing in such a way that the included metric plumbing forced the assembly to be over 8.5” wide in total… I scavenged a slightly different plumbing arrangement from the R525XL’s drain plumbing to get the skimmer pump nicely oriented inside the allowable footprint.

— I decided to pause filling the sump at operating water height during this leak/load test to run a pump from return side to drain side, simulating operation, and helping me work out toothed weir silencing… upon doing so, I discovered an unusual phenomenon, which is completely new to me!

(You can definitely see that toothed weir deflection I plan to fix in the video, too…)

In any case, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a sump chamber physically vibrate at a resonant frequency due to water movement before! It’s likely something that would be nearly impossible to replicate intentionally, given that any appreciable flow adjustments made it smooth out completely…

That is very cool! I, too, have never seen something like that before.

 

[UncommonSense]

That is very cool! I, too, have never seen something like that before.

According to Google, it’s an accidental case of a “fluid-structure acoustic resonator”…

Roughly analogous to making a wine glass “sing” by rubbing a wetted finger around the rim… fascinating stuff, and something to keep in mind if we ever get a “vibrating sump” troubleshoot thread!

 

[That Crusso Kid]

According to Google, it’s an accidental case of a “fluid-structure acoustic resonator”…

Roughly analogous to making a wine glass “sing” by rubbing a wetted finger around the rim… fascinating stuff, and something to keep in mind if we ever get a “vibrating sump” troubleshoot thread!

It would be crazy if someone were to post about having this in the near future!

 

[UncommonSense]

Another successful evening of work on the FrankenReefer!

The sump sat filled to the brim again overnight to let plastic creep, and measured .012” total deflection of the center brace! — I think I’m in the green to cut it out and rely on the adjacent baffles for center support!

I then drained it again, and got to work on modifications:

— A 5”x17-7/16”x 3/8” thick weir extension was added, increasing weir height from 8” to 11.75”, maximizing water volume, and mitigating the noisy waterfall from the refuge’s toothed weir. It has deep 45 bevels on opposed edges, ensuring a smooth flow transition from a 1” baffle slot to a 5/8” baffle slot, then ensuring water sticks to the weir extension as a laminar sheet once spilling over… it’s retained via two 1/4”-20x3/4” nylon thumb screws, passed through the factory 8” weir, threaded into drilled/tapped holes in the weir extensions. Skimmer will sit on a 2-3” skimmer stand.

— The refuge chamber’s toothed weir was propped straight to mitigate the long-term bow it had developed, before I welded this 1”x17.25”x10mm thick “spine” on top via a syringe of solvent:

I then turned my attention to the tank itself, cutting the two 24” rear eurobrace halves, and fashioning a crude wood jig to hold the front 58” long euro bar in situ while it cures… (I don’t want to install the front euro bar with the tank laid on its side, as the bar’s weight vs. silicone contact surface will be liable to squish an excess of silicone out once I leave it to cure!)

(Yes, that little strip of plywood propping the center up is actually physically necessary! The glass bends perceptibly over a ~4ft span, even at this thickness!)

I’ll likely get the front eurobrace bar installed tomorrow, with the rears going in as soon as I can get the overflow box reinstalled!

On the note of the overflow box, I’m now 8 days away from a full 60 day cure on my laminated bulkhead doubler plate… at which point, I’ll be bisecting my witness lamination to (hopefully) confirm full silicone cure out!

This will mark the beginning of work on that area of the tank; reassembling the now laminated and stepped seam overflow box, stacking glass around its bottom seams, adding right pentagon profile vertical seam reinforcement rods to overflow box and tank corners, and finishing out the eight glass bars that compose the front-to-rear bracing…

It’s a lot of work, but most of it will actually go quite fast, aside from waiting on silicone to cure!

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Another successful evening of work on the FrankenReefer!

The sump sat filled to the brim again overnight to let plastic creep, and measured .012” total deflection of the center brace! — I think I’m in the green to cut it out and rely on the adjacent baffles for center support!

I then drained it again, and got to work on modifications:

— A 5”x17-7/16”x 3/8” thick weir extension was added, increasing weir height from 8” to 11.75”, maximizing water volume, and mitigating the noisy waterfall from the refuge’s toothed weir. It has deep 45 bevels on opposed edges, ensuring a smooth flow transition from a 1” baffle slot to a 5/8” baffle slot, then ensuring water sticks to the weir extension as a laminar sheet once spilling over… it’s retained via two 1/4”-20x3/4” nylon thumb screws, passed through the factory 8” weir, threaded into drilled/tapped holes in the weir extensions. Skimmer will sit on a 2-3” skimmer stand.

— The refuge chamber’s toothed weir was propped straight to mitigate the long-term bow it had developed, before I welded this 1”x17.25”x10mm thick “spine” on top via a syringe of solvent:

I then turned my attention to the tank itself, cutting the two 24” rear eurobrace halves, and fashioning a crude wood jig to hold the front 58” long euro bar in situ while it cures… (I don’t want to install the front euro bar with the tank laid on its side, as the bar’s weight vs. silicone contact surface will be liable to squish an excess of silicone out once I leave it to cure!)

(Yes, that little strip of plywood propping the center up is actually physically necessary! The glass bends perceptibly over a ~4ft span, even at this thickness!)

I’ll likely get the front eurobrace bar installed tomorrow, with the rears going in as soon as I can get the overflow box reinstalled!

On the note of the overflow box, I’m now 8 days away from a full 60 day cure on my laminated bulkhead doubler plate… at which point, I’ll be bisecting my witness lamination to (hopefully) confirm full silicone cure out!

This will mark the beginning of work on that area of the tank; reassembling the now laminated and stepped seam overflow box, stacking glass around its bottom seams, adding right pentagon profile vertical seam reinforcement rods to overflow box and tank corners, and finishing out the eight glass bars that compose the front-to-rear bracing…

It’s a lot of work, but most of it will actually go quite fast, aside from waiting on silicone to cure!

So, what else have you been up to? LOL

Good work!

 

[UncommonSense]

So, what else have you been up to? LOL

Good work!

Thanks!

Haha this project is all free time on weekends and after work, when I have both the motivation, and remaining energy… thankfully, this week’s been light at work!

That said, I’m actively in the planning stages of the turtle pond upgrade, and will likely sneak that right frustum tank for my LFS in there while I’m at it…

in addition, I’m up way too late tonight, with way too many tabs pulled up comparing 6-8’ 240V precision commercial track and beam style stone/porcelain wet saws… trying to decide if the ol” “beast” is going to be made obsolete at some point for the long rip cuts (and possibly bevels) that are so hard on its bed/slides/operator…

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Thanks!

Haha this project is all free time on weekends and after work, when I have both the motivation, and remaining energy… thankfully, this week’s been light at work!

That said, I’m actively in the planning stages of the turtle pond upgrade, and will likely sneak that right frustum tank for my LFS in there while I’m at it…

in addition, I’m up way too late tonight, with way too many tabs pulled up comparing 6-8’ 240V precision commercial track and beam style stone/porcelain wet saws… trying to decide if the ol” “beast” is going to be made obsolete at some point for the long rip cuts (and possibly bevels) that are so hard on its bed/slides/operator…

Those saws sound expensive!

No need to tell me about being up too late. I am on the east coast and routinely up this late. However, this is my last post of tonight.

Rest easy, Jack.

 

[UncommonSense]

I’m a day behind on the FrankenReefer, after beating myself up working on a buddy’s place fixing another plumbing emergency yesterday…

But, the front Eurobrace is in!

It went in incredibly smoothly, using the little wood support system I made, and some acrylic shimming stock to align it left-to-right…

A silicone bead was laid on the edge of the euro bar, then it was placed on the wood props, and gently pressed into place! — excess silicone squish-out was masked for as-needed, and squished out beads will be cut off once cured!



Finally, some visible forward momentum… And, more to come next weekend, when I determine how well my laminated bulkhead hole doubler plate actually cured out over a large silicone swath!

 

[UncommonSense]

Overbuilt top bracing:

I farted around on the wet saw for a hour or so this evening, re-grinding the existing rear euro bars primarily to omit a tiny step in the edges (from minute pane shift during the multi-pass cutting process), and tiny chips in the edge bevels (from taking too big of a bite, too quickly)…

With that finished for now, I turned my attention to other parts of the updated 1:4 scale diagram I drew up last night:

This represents the center 40” of the ~59” long tank, as viewed from overhead:

— front and rear 2.5” wide, .575” thick eurobrace bars sit inside the tank rim, flush.

— rear eurobraces get a 45 miter where they terminate at the overflow box; cleaner looking, plus more space for wires and/or return plumbing to pass through neatly…

— 2.5” wide side euros and center brace bars will stack under front/rear euro bars, this provides exponentially more silicone bonding area than stacking one layer of euro/center brace glass butt-to-butt

— side euros and center brace bars will get a second layer of glass equal in thickness to front/rear euros siliconed on top of them, making the entire array of top bracing perfectly flush with the top lip of the factory glass, and over an inch of glass thickness in the most important areas…

— 2.5” leg length triangular gussets in .575” thick glass are also being added under the front/rear euro bars, primarily to flush everything out, and to ensure that each component of the bracing is locked into every other piece of glass around it from at least three different axis, and <500lbs in shear per-axis…

All in, I should end up with three 16”x13.5” openings in the top of the tank (or 16”x12.5” in the center opening, due to space consumed by the overflow box)!