Tank Journal Archive

[Priscacara]

Two of my fav fish :)

 

[Ian G]

I just ordered this detailing vinyl for the back of my tank. It was way cheaper from Singapore than I could get here. Pics of everything to come as soon as my new camera cable arrives.

The two types of macro algae that came on on the live rock are growing quite well. Once it's big enough I'm going to trim some and see if I can get it growing on small rocks as it is really nice looking. I'll have to do some research into what it actually is as well, don't want it going asexual on me & polluting the tank.

 

[Ian G]

A quick update. My camera cable finally arrived today.

As previously mentioned, I had a shipload of old live rock around the place (base rock now) and believe it or not I'm still finding tubs of rock around the place so it's time to get seriously organised.

This is a 165 litre Sun Sun tank I'm using for seeding my rock with a couple of pieces I bought in. BTW I threw away the hood. DO NOT BUY A SUN SUN TANK! Some of the the internal wiring on some models is not even sheathed, it's just bare wire and horribly dangerous.

I'm really happy with the progress of the seed tank. Amphipods (no copepods yet), bristle worms (good to have), lots of different coloured fan worms, a few critters that look like miniature clams or pipis, two species of really nice green macro algae that I'll try to identify when it gets a bit bigger, oh and I found this critter the other day. I'm not sure what type of urchin yet but I'm leaning toward a rock borer.

I've got some red Dragon Tongue algae on the way that I'll try to propagate too.

The glass drilling jig that Chimaera has donated as a shared Reefuge resource arrived yesterday so I'll start drilling the display tank tomorrow.

My test drills have proven it to be far easier than I anticipated and the jig will make it so much easier. If anyone wants to drill their own, the jig is available & I have 32mm & 25mm diamond hole saws available for loan, just pay for postage to you and back.

If you want to read about how the loan of the jig works click here. I'll be posting photos here of the jig and drilling process.

And this is the DT with internal weir being removed.

I've braced it up like this:

And now it's sitting ready for drilling:

NOTE: The tank was previously painted at the back with black enamel paint. You can see where salt creep has destroyed the paint while its been sitting with NO water in the tank. That's why I'll be applying vinyl this time.

 

[Priscacara]

Going great guns! Love the little urchin too, very cool to see hitchhikers.

 

[chimaera]

Exciting stuff - drilling is about to begin!!

 

[Priscacara]

Good luck!

 

[Ian G]

One of the macro algae that came in on the live rock has grown big enough to identify. Looking at Matt Richards/ Aquacultured Coral site, I believe it to be what Matt has identified as Halimeda sp. The following info and picture are from his site. I will try to cultivate this macro & make it available.

For those that have never dealt with Matt, I have and will deal with him again. Great service. It's worth reading through his website to see what he's doing, why & how.

Halimeda sp. A calcareous algae useful for nutrient export and as a decorative display. Safe for use in a display tank, easily controlled.
Grown and photographed under 120 watt LED (his - pictured, not mine). Grown on a DIY frag plug with its holdfast intact. The holdfast is vital, unlike Caulerpa this macro alga will not grow from cuttings taken from the top. The holdfast must be intact.

 

[Priscacara]

Seen a few tank pics with that but didn't know the name of it, it looks good and helps with the nitrates etc. so a nice one to keep!

 

[Ian G]

Finally managed 30 minutes to myself to get some tank prep done, I've been flat out renovating an old caravan as my teen son's new bedroom and escape hatch.

My teen (14yo) son & wife couldn't lift the tank outside due to its weight so I've tilted it face down on the stand and will just have to do the work on it, in my lounge room. My test drilling proved a bit messy but I'll make a drill guard from an old 4lt icecream container to catch the splash - I hope.

Tonight I scraped off the salt damaged paint from the back of the tank, being semi plastic, it came away in nice easy sheets and the whole job took less than 10 minutes. Here's the tank ready for marking out and drilling tomorrow. At least that's the plan.

 

[MagicJ]

Good luck with the drilling tomorrow :)

 

[chimaera]

Good luck with the drilling tomorrow :)

What he said! Take some pics too.

 

[GhostRPH]

Slow & Steady and plenty of water to lube the drill bits you should be fine, having said that, Good Luck too!!

 

[chimaera]

One of the macro algae that came in on the live rock has grown big enough to identify. Looking at Matt Richards/ Aquacultured Coral site, I believe it to be what Matt has identified as Halimeda sp. The following info and picture are from his site. I will try to cultivate this macro & make it available.

For those that have never dealt with Matt, I have and will deal with him again. Great service. It's worth reading through his website to see what he's doing, why & how.

Halimeda sp. A calcareous algae useful for nutrient export and as a decorative display. Safe for use in a display tank, easily controlled.
Grown and photographed under 120 watt LED (his - pictured, not mine). Grown on a DIY frag plug with its holdfast intact. The holdfast is vital, unlike Caulerpa this macro alga will not grow from cuttings taken from the top. The holdfast must be intact.

Yeah this is a nice algae, but as it says the holdfast is key, so can't just clip a bit off. If you can cultivate, depending on how far away that is I'd take a piece from you =0)

 

[Ian G]

Damn hitchhiker urchin ate it, the only macro it touched. But I'll get some from Matt & try growing it again.

 

[VaultBoy]

I have that algae popping up in a couple of spots and have been watching to see if it started to get infectious.... Glad its a good one! Looks good too.

I like the shape of you tank and cant wait to see it progress. Good luck with the drilling.

 

[Ian G]

Drilling A Glass Tank Using The Shared Reefuge Drill Jig.​

(This process will not work on perspex tanks!)​

Small health hiccup but here we go. I’m going with a bean animal overflow. The important thing to understand with bean animal (or Herbie) overflows is that the full siphon MUST be slightly lower than the other two outlets, 6mm or 1/4 inch is about right. This is often misunderstood and may cause problems if missed. You can achieve this by drilling one hole lower than the other two, or modifying the length of pipe into the weir.

Because I personally find cutting PVC straight difficult, I'm drilling one hole lower. Of course if you have a table saw, cutting PVC on a straight edge will be relatively easy. I'm also going to fit the bulkheads (correctly called & sold as water tank outlets) and then build my weir around it. This should give me easier access when fitting them and avoids damaging the weir.

When planning to drill your tank, keep in mind this simple fact. The closer to the edge you make a hole, the more you weaken the glass in that area. My local glazier tells me that 25mm is the absolute closest I dare drill near the edge. Of course this is from the edge of the hole, not the centre. Same applies for all drilling so you don't want the hole edges any closer than 25mm either.

I did my practice drills trying various options, here's my opinion.

• Trying to get the hole started is not easy without a guide, the bit slips around everywhere so I'm really looking forward to using the jig (thanks Chimaera) to make that easier. Too much pressure or excessive grabbing by the bit, results in messy holes & sometimes cracks. I suggest a drill with a torque setting, my cheap cordless GMC drill on the lowest torque worked well.
• Don't press too hard but mild pressure is needed and DO NOT use a hammer drill! Even with the hammer setting off, most hammer drills don't run smoothly enough for glass drilling.
• Keep a constant dribble of water on the drilling area. Many people recommend building a circle of playdough and filling that with water. For mine, that water heated up too quickly & poses a risk.

The Process As I'm Doing It

1. Firstly I marked out the tank with where I want the holes. I used permanent marker which comes off glass easily with metho. Be very careful to mark your holes with all attachments still on the bulkhead - that way you can see how much room you need to allow around the hole, for the washers and nuts to sit flush. Also make sure you will have enough room to get spanners around those nuts! WARNING-See my warning at the end of this DIY section before marking or drilling holes !!!
2. The three holes near each other are the outflow, the main siphon uses a 32mm bulkhead, the open channel & emergency are 25mm. The two more distant holes are the two 25mm returns, one would probably do but I love circulation, the more the better & later on I'll add a water flow alternator so that the two returns act as non-programmable wave makers.
   
   
   
3. You can see the red jig above. It is really quite simple to use. Firstly I loosened the two black knobs & extended the jig out to its maximum. I then placed the jig roughly where it was needed. Below..
   
   Then placed the bulkhead pipe in the correct place:
   
   Next I moved the jig so that the lever end, which is fixed, was up against the bulkhead. Making sure that the lever operated suction cup was sitting on flat glass, then slid the (right) moveable section up against the bulkhead and screwed down the two black knobs to hold it in place. Then pressed the lever (left) down to activate the powerful suction cup. The jig is now in place:
   
   The next photo shows the jig in place, bulkhead removed and ready to drill. It doesn't look like its lined up correctly in the photo but that's just the camera angle. From directly above, all lines up.
   
4. Below are my diamond encrusted glass hole saws which I got off ebay. Beware because there are some super cheap ones on there but they're not diamond encrusted & just won't work on glass. These two (to suit 25mm & 32mm) cost me about $50 Australian and work well in test drills.
   
5. This is my extremely high tech splash guard, especially made for this project. Well okay, the kids finished the ice cream off so I could use it.
   
   The drill bit fitted into the jig. Note: The diamond encrusted cutting surface is larger than the cylinder of the bit itself, so I had to place the bit in position, tighten the jig, then tighten the chuck on the bit. I then slid my splash guard over the drill as a whole. Once in the jig the drill bit cannot be pulled out, if you try the jig will be damaged by the diamonds.
   
   
6. After about 5 minutes drilling at about 60 rpm (slowly) I'm about a third the way through the glass. At this point I've discovered 4 things. 1.You need to moisten the jig suction cup. 2.You may need someone to hold the end of the jig with no suction, when you first start. 3. Going slow there is nowhere near the expected mess & I "may dispense with the splash guard. WARNING: When it drills right through, the glass disk from the hole will fall onto the glass below & may damage it. Tape the disk in place or do what I've done a put a towel folded over 4 times where the disk will fall.
   
   The original mark for the hole didn't allow for the 6mm height difference needed for the full siphon so it's been moved down. The white stuff you see is ground glass mixed with water, if you rub it between your fingers it's very abrasive and you definitely don't want this stuff in your house or on your clothes. If this got in your washing machine pump, it would chew it out.
   
   Above you can see how I'm doing it in my lounge, I have a towel around the work area to catch water & my son is pouring water onto the drill bit every 15 seconds from a small watering can. Don't skimp on the water/coolant or you'll crack the tank & wreck the bit! If I was doing this outside, I would clamp a garden hose in place to direct a slow flow of water over the work area & allow it to just run off.
7. First hole through nice & cleanly, took about 11 minutes. Best to go slower as it's about to break through. The bulkhead is a nice snug fit in the hole. I'll put up exact bulkhead & hole saw dimensions when I'm finished. I've also discovered that if you have a reasonably steady hand, you can do away with the jig once you're 30% through. I wouldn't do this if working outside as you're better off with the jig. I'm removing it at that point so my splash guard fits better. I decided to keep using the splash protection as as I drill more, it's getting a lot messier.
   
   My son showing the hole and the resulting disk.
8. While drilling the 2nd hole, one of the bearings that work as the guide, came loose. I've hand tightened it a few times but it keeps working loose. I'll keep going, tightening it as I need to, but I'll go out later in the week and get some loctite and fix it properly, in fact I'll do all the bearings. Note this is not the loctite you buy at Bunnings, this is engineering grade for use with bearing applications. Normal loctite might sieze the bearings. I'm a machine setter & fitter by trade so I won't stuff the jig.;)
9. Three holes done for the wier (below) , two return holes to go. The missus has been watching a movie so I'm doing it in ad breaks, it gets easier as you get experience. I'm getting faster & the holes cleaner BUT I still suggest going as slow as you can. You can see how much mess is being made. All that white stuff is a slurry of glass & water.
   
   The red mug in the photo is full of water & I'm dipping the bits in it occasionally to help keep things cool.
10. Here's a short video to give you an idea of drill speed. This is drilling my 5th hole so more confidence on my part.
11. All five holes done without incident. Here's the disks that were drilled or more precisely, ground out.
    
    Tomorrow I'll wash the surface down a few times, dry it, then wash it down twice with metho, allowing the that to just evaporate. Then it will be ready to apply the signwriters' vinyl to the back. Once that's done I'll use a new razor knife to cut out where the holes are drilled & trim the edges. Let that cure for a few hours then I'll fit the bulkheads using a thin film of silicon on each side for safety. I may as well continue what I've started & document it all as I go. It may be useful to someone?
12. These are the correct sizes for HANSEN water tank outlets. I purchased mine from Murray Goulburn Trading (Vic). The measurements of the diamond encrusted hole saws are: 41.89mm (sold as 42mm) is used for the 32mm bulkhead. 34.95mm (sold as 35mm) is used for the 25mm bulkhead. Note: Most Australian tank outlets (bulkheads) are similar in size BUT always buy your bulkheads (tank outlets) first, then get your hole saw to suit.
13. If you try to fit the threaded end of your bulkhead into the hole saw it won't quite fit. That's normal because the diamond cutting surface is slightly larger than the bore of the saw.
14. Also worth remembering is that only aquarists refer to these fittings as bulkheads, god only knows why. They are actually called water tank outlets, manufactured and sold by that name. If you ask for bulkheads you'll just get blank stares generally.

WARNING​

I got away with this by the skin of my teeth but please learn from my mistake. When deciding where to put your holes, do it with not only all your bulkhead bits on, but if you are installing more than one valve (tap) put that in place too! If you are only using one ball valve you can probably disregard this.

You can see in the pictures below, that once I started to mock up my plumbing there almost wasn't enough room for the taps to turn without hitting each other when closed.

I got way with it mainly because one outlet is 32mm while the other is 25mm so they are offset a bit, in other words one pipe sits further out than the others.

Now normally these taps will be open with the full siphon partially closed BUT if you are fitting taps/valves to the other lines and then can't close them, you've just wasted a lot of money and effort on them. So double check your spacing allowing for all plumbing.

Please like this if you found it useful, so I know I'm not waiting my time.:)​

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Note: Any areas shown in this colour are links that can be clicked on for more detailed info.​

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[macca_75]

Small tip for cutting PVC straight - put a rubber band on the PVC first where you want to cut to act as a visual guide. Easy to adjust until you're happy then cut.

Good tips about drilling glass.

 

[VaultBoy]

Use a sheet of paper instead of the rubber band. If the sheet of paper has a straight edge, wrap it around the pipe and line up the edges of the paper. Guaranteed straight edge!

 

[Priscacara]

Great how to post, I haven't ever seen how those things work so was a good read. Looking forward to seeing it through to the end.

 

[VaultBoy]

you may have said already but what size bulkheads are you using? 25Mm bulkhead needs almost 40mm hole IIRC...