Shop addition/Office Build

[mikechell 0]

The Wife thinks I have a problem. She came in and saw me dreamily gazing at the pictures ... then realized they weren't pictures of beautiful women.

Of course, now she's sitting here dreaming of a tank like ... well, any one of yours, Steve.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Best/newest addition to the office......51" Plasma flatscreen Tv baby Between the 265g tank and the 51" Tv...no work will get done this year lol

[Piker20 0]

I've worked it out, that house isn't really yours is it Steve? You just live in the basement!

[Steeldrifter 0]

I spend at least 50% of my time down there so that's somewhat true lol

[Steeldrifter 0]

here's a few pics from the FUN night tonight.....

Starting to fill the tank up.....
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Getting there (yippie!)...
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Aftermath and carnage...
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And here's what the complete disheartening feeling of watching almost exactly a year's worth of hard work, sweat and money literally go right down the drain looks like...



I had leak tested it a few months ago but for some reason right as it was 98% full tonight it started leaking from the lower RF corner

But hey on the good side, thing's couldn't possibly get any worse!

[Steeldrifter 0]

Well I told myself I was not going to go back down and mess with it tonight, but my personality is the type that there's just no way I can rest or sleep knowing I have a problem like not knowing if I am gonna be able to save the background waiting for me in the morning. So I went back down and spent the last couple hours working on it till about 3am.

Needed to use something sharp and flexible to get behind the background without doing much damage to it so pretty much used these. Most the damage was to my hands, but that's okay as long as the background is safe lol



And after 2+hrs of lifting heavy rocks, scooping sand, cutting, prying, sawing and cutting my hands to pieces........BAZINGA!

Empty tank again. And all five pieces of the background are safe and undamaged in the other room now. There is obviously a TON of scraping silicone to be done now. And once all the silicone from the background is scraped off then I will have to remove all the silicone from the seals in the tank, then decide if I am going to tackle sealing it myself or hire someone. Even though it was two steps back earlier tonight, at least now it's a step forward with being able to save the background and get all the stuff out of the tank without damage.

Silicone scraping party at Steve's tomorrow your all invited ....it's BYORB (bring your own razor blade)

[Piker20 0]

Steve that totally sucks. If I lived 1000miles closer and you had some bourbon id be there in a flash, razor and wipes to hand.

[Steeldrifter 0]

Well spent about 6+ hours scraping silicone today and about 1/3 the way there already. I wish I could do more tonight but my arms/shoulders are killing me right now. It's bad enough having to reach down into the tank scraping to begin with, but factor in that I have had a messed up rotator cuff in my shoulder for the past 5 yrs and that makes it really bad.

A good start at least though. Forward progress none the less.

[mikechell 0]

Wow, Steve.

I can honestly say, the first segment ... having the tank leak at the last possible moment, brought tears to my eyes. Then I thought ... well, not the LAST possible moment. At least you didn't have to stress the fish twice by putting them in, then taking them out again.

 

I sure hope you get it sealed up correctly and everything dries out okay.

 

As good as you are at almost everything you post about ... I still think I'd let a pro do the tank rebuild.

[Steeldrifter 0]

FINALLY...just finished resealing the tank. I'm "mostly" happy with the reseal job so far, looks wise I would say passable but not perfect. Since this is my very first reseal though and its so dang big I guess it's not expected to be perfect. There's a few spots where there's some excess silicone that my finger pushed out too far because I did not use any tape. Since every seal in the tank will be covered by the 3D background though none of those spots worry me because they will not be seen anyway.

Far as structural integrity of the reseal job (the important part) I am pretty confident it all went very well. I pushed the new silicone deep into the corners and laid some nice long beads without any spots that look suspect, so I believe it should be a pretty sound job hopefully. We'll find out in about 7-8 days I guess.

Couple pics....

[mikechell 0]

I'll be crossing fingers and toes waiting. Are you going to fill it outside, so if it leaks you don't have a basement full of water again?

[Steeldrifter 0]

Not an option Mike. At 7ft x 2ft x 31" tall with 1/2" glass the tank along weighs over 450lbs+ empty. It took four guys to barely get it downstairs, I don't think getting back upstairs would even be doable lol

[Steeldrifter 0]

Well it is now 100% full and has been for the past 30 mins now and still all dry/no leaks. I also put a 730gph submersible pump into the tank to blow the water around against all the seams. Just as kind of a "real world" test like it will have when the filters are running. I don't want to speak too soon and jinx myself, but I am close to thinking my first reseal job might be a success.

I will say this though. Nothing is as nerve wracking as leak testing a tank that holds 2120lbs of water. Every little noise sent chills down my spine. The furnace room is right behind the tank area and when the heat clicked on .....well lets just say I almost leak tested my drawers!

[Piker20 0]

Lol. You know you're going to be waking up every 2 hours to check on that tonight. Won't cross my fingers cause it'll be just fine

[mikechell 0]

 

 

Sitting here with chattering teeth, waiting to hear good news.