4300 Gallon Plywood Build (3600+ Take 2)
- Thread starter nolapete
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sorry to sound stupid, but if i finish sealing my tank with liquid rubber, what are you going to seal the glass to it with, i can't find which page i should be back tracking on if you've posted it. cheers pete
mike huntley;4180618; said:
I set the cell cast acrylic in place and sealed it with Dow 795 before I started coating the tank. I bonded a hard rubber gasket to the acrylic with Dow 795 then overlapped the gasket with liquid rubber on to the acrylic. Liquid rubber bonds well to the hard rubber gasket and to the acrylic, but will NOT bond to silicone products. It seems to bond ok to Dow 795 which is a silicone-based product.
nolapete;4180653; said:
is the bond between the Dow 795 and liquid rubber proven under water/pressure? at the stage i'm at - basically a dry glassless tank with few coats of epoxy on - would you suggest glazing it now, then coating the internals with liquid rubber upto and over the glass, which would be sealed to the frame with, for arguments sake, Dow 795? cheers pete and love your build!
Everyone is welcome on July 10th. If you're in town before then and want to stop by, send me a PM for directions.
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Consulted with Jack and Ken and decided that 9.5 gallons was enough. My initial calculation of 300 sq. ft. was high. It's probably more like 270-280 sq. ft.
Removed the masking tape from the window and was impressed with how clean the edge is.
Installed the bulkheads in the 4 holes at the lower back wall. Installed the covers.
May need to tighten the nuts a bit more, but need some 3 inch fittings to screw on to have something to pull them tight.
All that's left to do for the test fill is to plumb the bulkheads.
Plan is to fill just below the window then a foot at a time after waiting an hour between each.
I'll only be able to fill to 6" below the overflow bulkhead holes since I don't have those bulkheads yet.
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Consulted with Jack and Ken and decided that 9.5 gallons was enough. My initial calculation of 300 sq. ft. was high. It's probably more like 270-280 sq. ft.
Removed the masking tape from the window and was impressed with how clean the edge is.
Installed the bulkheads in the 4 holes at the lower back wall. Installed the covers.
May need to tighten the nuts a bit more, but need some 3 inch fittings to screw on to have something to pull them tight.
All that's left to do for the test fill is to plumb the bulkheads.
Plan is to fill just below the window then a foot at a time after waiting an hour between each.
I'll only be able to fill to 6" below the overflow bulkhead holes since I don't have those bulkheads yet.
mike huntley;4180662; said:
I didn't bond liquid rubber to Dow 795. There's a hard rubber gasket bridging the two.
Dow 795 bonds well to most surfaces. It remains pliable whereas regular silicone does not.
BadOleRoss I believe used liquid rubber with glass and had some issues. I only have first hand working with acrylic at this point. I used it on glass on my 90 gallon expansion project, but haven't finished that to put a water test on it.
From what he said liquid rubber bonds great to epoxy and silicone bonds to the epoxy as well. You could glaze the window to the tank with silicone then epoxy over the glass a little for the liquid rubber to bond to. I think that's what he did.
There's mixed reviews with glass and liquid rubber. I recommend you talk to BadOleRoss.
Did I hear someone mention BadOleRoss? Yes, I had "issues" with getting a seal between glass and the LR. I managed to get a seal by bridging the 2 products with fiberglass resin. My viewing widow sits in a frame much like Pete's does on this build. I had to coat the frame with about a 2" strip fiberglass resin. Once that dried, I was able to silicone the glass to the resin and then apply the LR over the resin up to the bead of silicone that sealed the glass. As Pete said, silicone does not bond well to LR and LR painted over silicone will not even cure in my experience.
Pete, sorry for barrowing you thread....looking sharp. I ended up having to drill out the holes in my bulkhead screens for better flow, they really restricked it. Might want to consider that before they are 5' underwater. That is a crisp line!
Pete, sorry for barrowing you thread....looking sharp. I ended up having to drill out the holes in my bulkhead screens for better flow, they really restricked it. Might want to consider that before they are 5' underwater. That is a crisp line!
The screens are rated at 188gpm/11,280 gph, so with 4 of them it makes it double of what my flow rate will be. I'll also have the coast to coast overflow handling any excess water flow.
BadOleRoss;4180827; said:
I had to do the same thing! I just wasn't getting enough flow and I didn't want to throttle back my pump so I drilled a large hole in the end cap of the screen. It really increased the flow and is still small enough that no fish get sucked in.
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