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Guest
Guest
Hey all its been awhile since I've been on the site due to a nightmare move again. Anyway just wanted to do this aquarium diary for anyone thats interested. I cant remember if theres a special forum for aquarium logs, but I figured this would be the best spot for it because it is going to be a reef tank. Finally setting this thing up. It been a long time coming to say the least. Hope everyone enjoys the blood sweat and tears.
Well I figured the best thing to start out with would be the filter. Hey its the building block of the aquarium right? The problem I ran into is that the bowfront stand for my aquarium isn't all that spacious to put a sump into. Any way the fix for that was unfortunantly to make one. A sheet and half of plex later and I got all the pieces to make my sump, hopefully. Sheets of .25" are going for $80 now. Ouch... Took a measure of 39"x10". Yes an odd size. I started making my cuts with an angle grinder and a masonry blade. (At this point I will say save yourself the nightmare and invest in a table saw, even a circular saw set up against a straight edge will cut better than what I used). It was a good thing I made my rough cuts 1" larger than I needed because I used every inch with the router to make the pieces true and square.
It makes a mess to so be sure to have an industrial vac on hand. It seems like the router puts a static charge on the plastic chips and they stick to everything, including yourself. Little scratchy by the end of the day. But yes I think a router is the best thing to finish cut this stuff with, besides a jointer, because it leaves the edge square and ready to glue. Another one of those cool tools that makes this easier is a router table. I needed to go buy one halfway through this project. (When buying a router table make sure you get one with a good square, if its loose and doesn't give you an exact 90 degree cut you might as well start over).
Well got the pieces ready to glue and should do that hear in the next couple of days. Hopefully one hurdle closer to my reef tank.
Well I figured the best thing to start out with would be the filter. Hey its the building block of the aquarium right? The problem I ran into is that the bowfront stand for my aquarium isn't all that spacious to put a sump into. Any way the fix for that was unfortunantly to make one. A sheet and half of plex later and I got all the pieces to make my sump, hopefully. Sheets of .25" are going for $80 now. Ouch... Took a measure of 39"x10". Yes an odd size. I started making my cuts with an angle grinder and a masonry blade. (At this point I will say save yourself the nightmare and invest in a table saw, even a circular saw set up against a straight edge will cut better than what I used). It was a good thing I made my rough cuts 1" larger than I needed because I used every inch with the router to make the pieces true and square.
It makes a mess to so be sure to have an industrial vac on hand. It seems like the router puts a static charge on the plastic chips and they stick to everything, including yourself. Little scratchy by the end of the day. But yes I think a router is the best thing to finish cut this stuff with, besides a jointer, because it leaves the edge square and ready to glue. Another one of those cool tools that makes this easier is a router table. I needed to go buy one halfway through this project. (When buying a router table make sure you get one with a good square, if its loose and doesn't give you an exact 90 degree cut you might as well start over).
Well got the pieces ready to glue and should do that hear in the next couple of days. Hopefully one hurdle closer to my reef tank.