The FrankenReefer 450

[That Crusso Kid]

Interesting! Does it go on relatively thin, like a paint? Or is it thick/lumpy enough that it could potentially interfere with tight joinery?

If the latter, I wonder if it can be thinned prior to application… it sounds like I have some research to do!

Goes on thin. They recommend not thinning it and, really, it doesn't need it. I thought of spraying it but didn't want to take a chance and ruin one of my sprayers. Maybe, if I had a cheaper sprayer, I would have given it a shot.

 

[Fish Fan]

I've never used the Pond Liner product, but I have seen where people use it to waterproof plywood tanks for fish and turtles. It seems to work well, but it can be prone to being chipped away or damaged (think turtle shells bashing into it), but for inside of a stand it's probably fine.

Honestly, I don't really use fancy finishes, I have always used typically polyurethanes, which work well for me. I've used Minwax Polycrylic water based clear coat on several stands and it's worked well for me around both fresh and saltwater.

Recently, I finished a stand with General Finishes Arm-R-Seal urethane, this worked very well I thought. I can't speak for long-term yet, but it's looking quite promising. This is a popular clear coat for things like table tops, it's said to be very resistant to stains from things like coffee and wine, and holds up to typical cleaners. It was very easy to apply, basically just wipe on.

https://generalfinishes.com/wood-finishes-retail/oil-based-topcoats/arm-r-seal-oil-based-topcoat

I hope this helps and good luck with your build!

 

[UncommonSense]

I stopped by the local hardwood supplier today, and picked up two 5’x5’ Sheets of 1/2” BB/BB grade Baltic birch, which conveniently came prefinished!

I also got some fun ideas for future builds, with some of the more exotic hardwoods… though, i’d prefer to really do my research before substituting lumber types for a stand’s upper frame, or milling to my own custom dimensions…

In any case, I threw another two hours at fine-tuning stand bottom frame leveling and surface mirroring this evening, with some incredible results to show for it!

(Dead-level over the 60” span, .05 degree of forward slope consistently across the 20” span)

No wiggles, vibration, or wobbling/teetering to be found. No shims used whatsoever to take up 1.5-1.75” of uneven slope over 60”… it was a labor-intensive pain in the back, with probably 30-40+ test fits and adjustments… but, a solid foundation is just that, and I’ll thank myself later when I don’t need to drain/slide out my sump to pull the skimmer body, or get on a step stool to work in the tank!

 

[That Crusso Kid]

I stopped by the local hardwood supplier today, and picked up two 5’x5’ Sheets of 1/2” BB/BB grade Baltic birch, which conveniently came prefinished!

I also got some fun ideas for future builds, with some of the more exotic hardwoods… though, i’d prefer to really do my research before substituting lumber types for a stand’s upper frame, or milling to my own custom dimensions…

In any case, I threw another two hours at fine-tuning stand bottom frame leveling and surface mirroring this evening, with some incredible results to show for it!

(Dead-level over the 60” span, .05 degree of forward slope consistently across the 20” span)

No wiggles, vibration, or wobbling/teetering to be found. No shims used whatsoever to take up 1.5-1.75” of uneven slope over 60”… it was a labor-intensive pain in the back, with probably 30-40+ test fits and adjustments… but, a solid foundation is just that, and I’ll thank myself later when I don’t need to drain/slide out my sump to pull the skimmer body, or get on a step stool to work in the tank!

Well done, young gun!

That left side is going to be a tight squeeze.

 

[UncommonSense]

That left side is going to be a tight squeeze.

Oh it's more or less a lost pane for viewing, I was half-tempted to actually plug the factory bulkhead holes and re-drill to a peninsula style overflow of my own design/dimensions…

That left side corner will likely house a funny triangular electronics cabinet, and an ATO container that I’ll build to fit, probably out of glass…

— I did pick the largest possible tank dimension that would reasonably squeeze in the space, after all!

 

[That Crusso Kid]

Oh it's more or less a lost pane for viewing, I was half-tempted to actually plug the factory bulkhead holes and re-drill to a peninsula style overflow of my own design/dimensions…

That left side corner will likely house a funny triangular electronics cabinet, and an ATO container that I’ll build to fit, probably out of glass…

— I did pick the largest possible tank dimension that would reasonably squeeze in the space, after all!

I do like the electronics cabinet idea.

 

[UncommonSense]

I do like the electronics cabinet idea.

The sump already has a 1” sch.80 bulkhead hole drilled in that side wall way down low for an external pump inlet, too…

And, I happen to have one of these laying around:

I’ve been really tempted by the idea of having the volute inside the left 6” pocket of the stand, with the motor protruding out via a firewall style bulkhead plate into the adjacent electronics cabinet… the heat reduction would be nice… but, submersible pumps are just so much simpler and less prone to leaking… I’ll put a pin in that until the electrical’s all relocated, and I have a better idea of what can go where!

 

[That Crusso Kid]

The sump already has a 1” sch.80 bulkhead hole drilled in that side wall way down low for an external pump inlet, too…

And, I happen to have one of these laying around:

I’ve been really tempted by the idea of have the volute inside the left 6” pocket of the stand, with the motor protruding out via a firewall style bulkhead plate into the adjacent electronics cabinet… the heat reduction would be nice… but, submersible pumps are just so much simpler and less prone to leaking… I’ll put a pin in that until the electrical’s all relocated, and I have a better idea of what can go where!

It is hard to beat a submersible DC pump.

 

[UncommonSense]

Well, yesterday officially marked 8 weeks of curing on the bulkhead doubler’s silicone… I was busy, so I didn’t get around to getting my witness lamination cut in half until this afternoon! (55 days of silicone curing)

As you can see, the curing silicone shrunk enough to separate, and/or started trapping gas near the center of the lamination… not what I’d describe as pretty, but definitely not a deal breaker!

Once cut, I was disappointed to be greeted by a familiar vinegar odor, uncured silicone… so, I started probing the core of the lamination to figure out exactly how much of the silicone was still viscous…

It looks like the witness lamination cured right around 1-1/4” - 1-3/8” in from all sides on a 3-1/4” wide silicone swath… so, I’ve got 2-1/2”-2-3/4” distance covered… excellent info for the future, which I’ll refine my measurements on… so far, it looks like I’m getting a mere .5mm/day of cure speed!

This said, I’ve got maybe a 1/2”-3/4” width of uncured silicone in the core of the doubler plate, which I think I can see from how it’s also bubbling at the furthest point from any one edge:

It’s certainly ugly, but is so far from any one edge that I’m not at all concerned about it affecting performance… regardless, I think this lamination could use another 3-5 weeks of curing if I assume .5mm per-day of cure speed…

Thankfully, the overflow box can still go in, as I’ve confirmed that this particular tube of silicone has cured at least 1.25” in from any one point of air exposure… the overflow will only contact the silicone in question at the back pane, with the remainder of the overflow box sitting on top of the doubler!


— this isn’t what I’d describe as an ideal outcome, but it’s somewhat expected when pushing the limits of RTV silicone this far, and won’t affect anything but cosmetics in the long-run… at least I can continue on adding glass to the tank as it finishes it’s immense ~3month doubler cure!

(It also makes me think about different approaches to the front to rear top bracing, which will reduce the silicone slab to <2.5”x2.5” [6in2, over 1ton of shear strength]…)



Edit: I almost forgot, electrical has been moved as planned, 2x 2-gang boxes w/GFCIs on a 20A circuit, plus a GFCI outlet on a separate 20A circuit, all wired in 12g… hopefully, I’ll find some time tomorrow after work to finish waterproofing junction boxes, and re-cladding the wall!

 

[UncommonSense]

I took a break from this project for a week or so after discovering that silicone still hadn’t fully cured out, so I was in no rush to get the tank out of the garage… But, I decided to jump back into it this afternoon, given that I do still have more relatively large swaths of silicone to apply…

I begun by vacuuming up dust, and alcohol wiping the full tank interior, before moving my attention to the three panes of doubled up 6mm smoked black glass, silicone laminated via the strips and chimneys method over two months ago now… all three overflow box panes got their lamination chimneys blasted free of dust via air compressor, all faces razor scraped, then industrial grade acetone and 99.9% anhydrous alcohol wiped thoroughly…

The tank’s back glass and the overflow doubler plate were masked, and scrubbed thoroughly with acetone then alcohol… the bulkhead holes were also masked off…

I laid out my three laminated overflow glass panes, set a 20 min timer, and used an electric caulking gun to quickly inject a sizable bead into the air gap between laminated panes on three sides of each, leaving the top of each untouched… the silicone beads were made large enough to both reach the existing cured silicone strips, and leave an excess on the nine targeted edges of the three total laminated panes…

I then placed the skinny left and right side overflow box panes into location, using the masking to align them, and a modified square to keep them squared to the tank’s back wall… from here, the wide front overflow box pane was placed, before the stepped seams were slowly, but surely pressed together… (total working time on the timer to reach this point was 8mins, no tooling or masking tape peeling performed yet)

Final result (prior to cleaning up any silicone smears/etc, 19 mins total working time):

As you can see, the top edge of each laminated pane still has an air gap… this is by design, to allow the silicone at the bottom overflow box seams to be exposed to atmospheric air via the chimneys between panes… this will be capped off with another pass of silicone in a few weeks when the weir teeth are reinstalled!

(Also note the beveled edge on the interior pane of each lamination, guaranteeing a silent laminar sheet of water spills down the walls of the overflow box!)