Friday 6/22
The first thing I did was to fill up my sump tank, it's a used tank and I wanted to make sure there were no leaks before I went any further. Not a drop!
I ordered my glass for the sump and the overflow from a glass shop, it's pretty cheap and I could get the thick stuff (1/4") for everything. It took them about an hour to make it and the measurements were perfect. Thanks Jack Ricks Glass! Little did I know what was lurking beneath the paper covering on my acrylic.... Keep reading to find out!
Next, I cut my acrylic pieces to size using an acrylic knife and a steel yardstick. You have to go very slow at first to keep the line straight, and just keep cutting until a light flexing will snap the piece with a clean cut. One piece has a busted edge, I think the post office was playing frisbee with it, but that was a scrap piece anyway, I put it under whatever piece I was cutting to keep from sliding the acrylic knife off the end and gouging the floor! I also kept the floor vac handy to clean up my mess as I went along...
Next, I used the circular saw to cut some notches in the top of the acrylic, the notches were pretty small, so I spaced them pretty closely, hopefully they will provide enough flowthrough... I built a jig to set everything in and test fitted the glass pieces inside the acrylic. I set them up like this so that the glass would allow strong bonding with the tank glass, and the acrylic would give me the color I desired and allow me to cut notches at the top. I think the way they are layed in also gives a bit more structural stability to the whole thing...
The acrylic sticks up 1" higher than the glass for notching. Still haven't peeled the backing off, what's going to happen!?!
Next I built a second jig so the pieces could rest evenly together. I peeled one side of the paper off so I could bond the acrylic to the glass, looks like black acrylic to me! I used marine epoxy (saltwater proof) to stick the acrylic to the glass and siliconed the corners where the glass comes together. I used a couple C-clamps to hold the sides up until everything set.
Now let me give you a piece of advice. Before you go this far, peel a little of the paper off to make sure you got the right color, and make sure you peel both sides off. I peeled the outside off once everything was dry and uh-oh, I can see through it. It's not black, it's very dark tinted translucent black! Now I'm mad, I ordered black acrylic, let's contact the supplier and let them have it, better review the order first... Wow, I ordered TRANSLUCENT black acrylic, oh well, I'll just have to use my thinking cap to make it work. I went ahead and siliconed the overflow into the tank. I used masking tape on the tank, but didn't think to use it on the overflow, the edges don't look too bad though, gives it character... I reconfigured one of my jigs and attached it to the center brace to hold the overflow in place while everything set up.
The next morning, I tested things out. It holds water!! HOORAY!! It's a good feeling when something I built seems to work right. Makes all the pain and frustration worth while... I think with paint all the way across the back and some well placed lighting (or shading) the acrylic will look black after all.
Next, I began installing the baffles in the sump. I was already frustrated about the acrylic color and things just got disastrous at this point. I taped off the edges of each baffle and started putting silicone in. I installed three and started to silicone the other two, I ran out of silicone about half-way through the first of the two and in my frustration resorted to scooping globs of silicone out of a busted tube with my fingers, this made a huge mess of everything! In my frenzy, I forgot about the masking tape on the other baffles and when I began peeling it off, the silicone on the tape stayed behind leaving messy little globs attached to everything. I decided to call it quits for the day at this point and cut my losses. After setting up, the baffles seem to be well secured and I think I'll leave it the way it is (this one has a WHOLE LOT of character). It looks like a silicone bomb went off in the tank, but I'll tidy things up with a razor blade later on. Still have one more baffle to do.
I have other household projects going on at the same time, I also refinished two end tables today (forgot to take before pictures, but they look much better!)
And I'm about to rebuild the Kitty Tree, I built this a few years ago and its gotten good use from Kitty and Zak! I'm going to recarpet it and resize it to fit the window.
I think after all this frustration, I'll take it easy for a day, probably paint the back of the tank and silicone the other baffle. I may even go to the beach and relax a little (Haven't done that since we moved down here!). I've got all of my supplies for running the plumbing, but I think that will have to wait a day or two.
