Mo’s Reef 2

[Mo.]

pretty cool heater. I wonder if they sell those in the states.

Not sure-
I think this is UK made….

 

[Mo.]

Tiling started. This is the area under the tank- will be used for storage.

Concrete walls for the tank base.

Tiling done.

You can see the floor drain in the sump room. I will have a frag tank in this area and the RO/ water change tank here as well, similar to my last system. They're being made by Mick at MBM aquarium's.

The pipes go under the floor- 2 to the wall ahead and 2 to the wall behind the main sump on the right.

Sorry for the rubbish photo- just shows the area behind where the sump will be.

Wiring getting started. I have a separate DB for the Aquarium. The floor pipes can be seen here.

 

[Mo.]

This is the concrete wall. It has several layers of blockwork, then some concrete lintels and steel plates at the top to try and distribute the load and provide a level surface for the tank base.

 

[Mo.]

Galvanised Steel I beams. Similar spec to my previous tank. It's overkill, but I spaced them about 1ft apart.

 

[Mo.]

Placing the beams with rough spacing to start- they were pretty heavy.

We measured up to place them as evenly as possible.

Starting to level up. I wasn't going to take any risks with movement etc, so this bit was over and above requirements.

We put 2 8ftx4ft- 25mm sheets down and checked levelling. Easier said than done!

The boards were slightly larger than the base to match metric sizing!
1200x2400mm final size. These were cut down, ready for another 15mm ply layer from the tank manufacturer.
All level and ready for some glass!

 

[Mo.]

Glass!!!!

 

[lubeck]

Any updates on the tank Mo?

 

[Mo.]

Lower brace bars. Ultra clear low iron glass.

Double Euro braced. These are the bottom brace bars. Slightly wider than the upper ones.

Carefully does it....

The narrower bars are the base braces.

Ready for the main panels....

Ultraclear Low iron glass!!!

 

[Mo.]

Chipped?......No, all fine!

Nice blue edge to the ultraclear panel. This one is 2356 mm x 690mm.

Random shot of the tank base.

Side panel

Both side panels carefully placed.

Sticky pads to separate them.

Lovely Blue edges to the low iron glass.

 

[Mo.]

This is the back panel. The cutouts are for external weir boxes. Low iron glass again. 2400x690mm

Low iron glass!

You can see the floor drain here. The PVC pipes go under the floor.- 2 go to the top wall to feed the frag tank from the main sump and 2 to the left wall for RO/ water change.

The fourth panel is the front panel- low iron. 2400x690mm

One of the lower base panels.

Down it goes on a separate rack. The base will be double 12mm glass with a perimeter brace and straps over the base silicone seams as well. Solid!!

 

[lubeck]

Is the bottom piece of the tank one piece?

 

[Mo.]

Lovely blue edges to the low iron glass.

Base panels in place. The upper base panels were coated in white.

Another one.

Number 3

There are a total of 12 base panels.

Lots of structural silicone. We went for black silicone.

A nice polish for the first base panel.

and down it goes.....

 

[Mo.]

Is the bottom piece of the tank one piece?

No. You need some flex in a base panel. It is a double base with 6 panels in each layer. We could have done it with 4 panels each layer ie total 8, but we used 12 panels.

 

[Mo.]

2nd base panel going down

The next step was to get the back panel in whilst they had a chance. The real challenge is getting these pieces in without knocking glass on glass! Thats an expensive mistake!!

Once the back panel was positioned, Mick and Nick got more base panels down. This is a double floating 15mm base with 6 pieces to each base layer for a total of 12 pieces in the base. The base panels were coated for a white coloured base.

Time for a rest :shades:

 

[Mo.]

You can see the white bases with the spacers to separate the panes.

On goes the next panel...

with 12 base pieces in place, the front panel was positioned.

I mean the the side panel. Carefully does it. Glass on Glass is bad news.

You can see how carefully they are placing the panel- its an 8ftx 26' optiwhite panel.

 

[lubeck]

looks great!

 

[Mo.]

These special brackets were placed to keep the panes all square.

Extra carefully positioned to ensure all of the panels were squared together.. no wonky tank for me!

Readjusted until perfectly square!

Perfect!! Just the bases to glue and then the front panel.

Black structural silicone to glue all of the base panels.

 

[Mo.]

It's hard work without this specialist electric glue gun.

Nicely smoothed joints.

Lots of silicone forced into the gaps.

Spacers to keep a consistent gap. copious silicone forced down into the nooks and crannies to seal it all first time! It's much harder than it looks.
Leave it to the experts!!

 

[Mo.]

Lots of silicone to force it down into the gaps

Gradually smoothing the joint.

Making careful and clean joints is important, so lots of care at this stage.

Especially in the corners and junctions.

NIce!

 

[dstockwell]

WOW